Happy New Year 2015! Today I’ll be reviewing another audio product from Edifier and it’s the R1900TV 2.0 Multimedia Active Speaker. It’s one of the latest speakers to be released in 2014. The R1900TV design is similar to the R2000DB with a few exceptions. It does not have the Bluetooth capabilities and Optical Input Interface. However, it comes in a brown wood-grain finish for its enclosure. The SRP (Suggested Retail Price) is 519 MYR, 144 USD
The speaker is ideal for desktops and home environment. It delivers powerful audio for PC, gaming consoles and mini home theater applications. The R1900TV can be connected via RCA-RCA or RCA-AUX to multiple devices at the same time. This speaker is accompanied with a remote control with volume, mute/standby and input-selection buttons as well as two-preset equalizer (EQ). Before jumping into the details, below is an overview of R1900TV features and specifications.
Features
- Active bookshelf speaker system.
- Dual RCA inputs to multiple audio sources.
- Class D amplifier system with DSP and DRC technology.
- Wireless remote control.
- 5” (132mm) woofer and 1” (25mm) silk dome tweeter.
- Rear side panel controls Bass, Treble and Master Volume.
- 100% MDF wooden enclosure to minimize acoustic resonance.
- Universal 100V-240V power supply.
Specifications
- Total power output: RMS 24W x 2 (treble) + 36W x 2 (bass) with DRC ON.
- Signal to noise ratio: >= 85dBA.
- Frequency response: 55Hz – 20KHz (+/- 3 dB).
- Input sensitivity: Line1: 900 mV +/- 50 mV , Line2: 700 mV +/- 50 mV.
- Input Type: RCA.
- Bass driver: 5” (132mm).
- Treble driver: 25mm silk dome tweeter.
- Weight: Approximately 9.48kg.
- Dimension: 174 x 289 x 252 mm. (Width x Height x Depth).
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Packaging
The Edifier R1900TV box that I received has some labels on them which I’ll go through them below.
Packaging-1: The front of the box showcases the speaker and a remote control is placed vertically. On the top left corner displays 5 icons: RCA input, FDSP Tone Control, Wireless Remote Control, Wooden Enclosure and 100-240V Auto Switching Power.
Packaging-2: Opening up the package reveals some information about the speaker.
Packaging-3: Here is a closer examination of the box flaps. It lists the box contents and a guide on how to connect your music players to the speaker.
Packaging-4: The first layer of foam has 3 items: remote control, speaker connecting cable and the grill cloth cover for speaker.
Packaging-5: Removing the top foam reveals the speakers wrapped in plastic.
Packaging-6: Removing the thin plastic wrappers reveals the speaker.
Packaging-7: Extracting both speakers reveals the bottom protective foam and the remaining accessories (cables) and user manual guide.
Accessories
Accessory-1: The Edifier RC10A remote control has 8 buttons. Starting from top to bottom, left to right: it has Mute, Standby, Volume Down, Volume Up, Line 1 input, Line 2 input, Classic Equalizer and Dynamic Equalizer. The remote control is powered by Lithium Cell battery CR2025 3 Volts (similar to the one used in computer motherboard). It comes equipped with a super-thin plastic inserted between the contact point of the battery to prevent the remote control from consuming battery charge when not in use. I discovered that this remote control is able to control R2000DB speaker too.
Accessory-2: Edifier R1900TV provides 2 RCA cable types. Both cable measures 1.62 meters in length. The first is the RCA-to-AUX cable (RCA to 3.5mm audio jack) that can be used to connect to your audio devices such as computer, portable music player and smartphone to the speaker. The second is the RCA-to-RCA white-red cable measuring 1.62 meters to be used for TV/older-applications that does not support S/PDIF output.
Accessory-3: Edifier R1900TV uses 2-pin power plug (Compatible with socket plug type C, Not grounded, 2.5A 220-240V) which is commonly used in Europe, South America and Asia. Next is the Edifier Professional 5-pin XLR Cannon-type speaker cable measuring 2.8 meter in length. This cable is used to power up the left-speaker and to send audio signals. The length is sufficient to place speakers between a 70 inch TV/monitor.
Speaker Setup
The speaker is fairly large but it’s small enough to be placed. The speaker width is approximately one-third of a 27 inch monitor or half-size of a TKL keyboard (Ten-Keyless aka keyboard without numeric keypad.) I added pink foam at the bottom of the speakers to absorb some of the bass vibration.
Speaker Design
Design-1: Here is the front of the speaker. It comes equipped with acoustic speaker grill cloth which covers both tweeter and woofer.
Design-2: Removing the speaker grill cloth reveals the silk dome tweeter and woofer made with aluminum cone, along with the 4 metal pillars at the 4 corners that is used to hinged the speaker grill cloth. Edifier logo is found on both speaker and grill. It’s a 2 way Active Crossover speakers which means each pair of tweeter and woofer are individually amped.
Design-3: Here is the front-and-back of the cloth grill. The grill cloth is see-through-able and porous type, allowing sound to clearly pass while protecting the speaker components from foreign objects. The cloth is soft, imposing little resistance on the speaker driver, capable of absorbing vibration and less prone to rattling. I noticed they used brownish hot glue to hold the grill cloth to the plastic cover as you can see at the bottom.
Design-4: The top does not have wooden-grain finish cover like the side panels of the speaker but is covered with a black leather vinyl skin to exhibit a classy appearance. There is a small lining between the wooden-grain side cover and the black vinyl skin which risks dust trapping in between it.
Design-5: Here is a look at the wooden-grain speaker side. In close inspection, it seems that the side panel is applied with wooden vinyl wallpaper.
Design-6: Here is the inner side of the speaker. Noticed there aren’t any knobs or buttons for you to interact with.
Design-7: Taking a look at the bottom of the speaker, each speaker comes equipped with 4 anti-slip rubberized circular pads to provide grip on the desk.
Design-8: Looking at the speaker rear, the speaker on the left has the interface to connect both RCA-to-RCA and RCA-to-AUX (red and white input). The speaker uses bass reflex system with port measuring 5.5cm in diameter. This design allows enhances the reproduction of the lowest frequencies generated by the woofer, which is helpful for extending the bass performance.
Functionality
Functionality-1: The R1900TV main speaker has 3 knobs namely the volume/input, bass and treble. Both bass and treble can be increased or decreased up to 6 times. The volume can be increased up to 50 times with each increment increases volume by 2% (50 x 2% = 100%). The volume knob also acts as a button and by pressing it down multiple times allows you to switch between Line 1 and Line 2 inputs (Line 1 can be either RCA-to-RCA or RCA-to-AUX same applies with Line 2).
Functionality-2: The Line In 1 and Line In 2 can be used with the provided RCA-to-RCA cable and RCA-to-AUX (3.5mm audio jack) cable. When compared with the R2000DB speaker, it does not have the OPT (Optical Input) beside the Line 1 and Line 2.
Functionality-3: The L Speaker Out is the area where you plug in your 5-pin XLR cable to power up the secondary speaker. There is an on-off power switch. This speaker supports 100-240Volt 50/60Hz 400mA.
Functionality-4: Here are the 2 LED color modes (Red = Line 1, Green = Line 2). The LED light is sufficiently bright which allows you to see it through the cloth grill. These 2 modes can be switched via the remote control or by pressing down on the volume knob behind the main speaker. If you mute the speaker via the remote control, the LED will blink repeatedly every second in the mode it’s in.
First Impression
At first sight, it has the same design as the Edifier R2000DB Speaker that I reviewed recently. The only major differences I can see between these 2 speakers are the Edifier R1900TV lacks the Bluetooth capabilities and does not have the Optical Input. Although it’s missing these features, both speakers use the same technology and materials to produce the audio too, therefore the sound quality is similar, just that using the Optical calbe on R2000DB provides a cleaner audio sound. Most users would not be able to tell the difference between these speaker unless they pay very close attention.
Discoveries
Temperature
Running the speakers for few hours with random music made it quite hot in the right speaker interface. The heat is somewhat similar to the temperature of running a Western Digital 2TB Black Caviar non-stop at 45 degree Celsius. If you have an air-conditioner running, you will now know it’s running more often to keep your room at the temperature you have set.
Power Consumption
The Edifier R1900TV consumes 9W at idle or on mute (2W more than the Edifier R2000DB) using my digital power energy meter. Setting the speakers to standby mode uses 0W. The following tests below are done with the Dynamic Equalizer on and Speaker volume set at 50%:
Test-1: Testing with power consumption with treble to +6 and bass -6, barely affect the power consumption at all, maybe additional 0.1W or so when playing music at 50% speaker volume. Power consumption fluctuates around 9W-10W with mix of music genre.
Test-2: Testing with treble to +6 and bass +6, it easily increases the power consumption on most music especially music with bass boosted by 12W-28W. For K-Pop music with a mix of drum, techno and trance, it will fluctuate around 9W-15W whereas bass music is totally a different experience (low bass: 18W-20W, high bass: 43W-50W).
Test-3: Testing with solely bass audio from 100Hz to 0Hz, the bass driver still pushes air until 15Hz but the sound is inaudible, 60Hz made my glass panels on my cupboard rattling, 65Hz vibrates the wooden ceiling roof.
Remote Control Signal
The remote is able to send its signal approximately 250-300cm in distance from the speaker. If there is a obstruction in its path such as a curtain, it will not be able to control the speaker.
Speakers Magnetically Shielded
When receiving calls or SMS nearby the speakers, it will not make any weird blip-blip noise as heard from cheap speakers.
No hissing noise on Idle or Mute
When the Edifier R2000DB is idle or on mute, it does not produce any hissing sound which is good sign.
Classic versus Dynamic Mode
The speaker has 2 types of equalizer namely the Classic and Dynamic. By default, it’s on Dynamic but you can set it to Classic if you are looking to reduce the harshness of the boomy bass. Setting it on Classic mode does save some electricity in the long run as it caps the loudness of the bass.
Sound Quality
Previously, I have auditioned studio speakers such as the Edifier R2600, R2700 and the gigantic R2800 speaker in audio shops, and I could say that the R1900TV packs the much more bass than those, but same amount of bass as R2000DB even when the bass and treble are set at 0. The sound from the R1900TV speaker projects the sound in straight forward manner compared to the R2800 that gives a feeling where the sounds comes from all directions. This speaker also produces the same thick clear deep boom bass. No popping/crackling/distortion sound can be heard on high volume while delivering clear smooth treble. Rustling leaves from tree and moving twigs from a movie sounds realistic as what you will hear outside. Do note that playing sound from smartphone with the RCA-to-AUX cable sounds less powerful compared to the R2000DB Bluetooth digital signal.
Verdict
If you are looking for a speaker similar to R2000DB at a budget, you can consider the R1900TV. For user who does not use Bluetooth but plan to permanently connect this to their computer, media entertainment or TV, the RCA-to-RCA and RCA-to-AUX cable will be sufficient. The R1900TV looks elegant which can easily mixed in with your current wooden furniture which is a great bonus to add some visual aesthetics in your house or office. The size of this speaker is compact, making it easier to place in tight corner on your desk. This speaker does not come with a separate subwoofer like 2.1 speakers. Hence, you will not need to clear a spot under your desk to place one there, great especially for small rooms with very little amount of space to place things. In summary, this speaker is recommended for users who have large collections of music that are bass focused music.
Expectations
If there is a second revision of this speaker, an icon display of the volume would be helpful to indicate to user the current volume percentage and also a wooden cover on top to block dust from creeping into the gaps above.
Edifier R1900TV Speaker Mix Vocal Trance Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjd5Xt3BrVc]
Edifier R1900TV Speaker 2.0 Vocal Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve9WQhx2lwM]
Edifier R1900TV Speaker 2.0 Bass Test 100Hz to 0Hz
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKZ-3j7ycY]
Edifier R1900TV Speaker 2.0 K-Pop Music Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwV3iVav3OI]
Edifier R1900TV Speaker 2.0 Bass Music Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu_6-uZiJ_4]
Disclosure: The review sample was provided by Inter-Asia Edifier – if you’re looking for this speaker, you know where to find them.