Today I’ll be reviewing another audio product and this time it’s a luxurious-looking 2.0 Multimedia active speaker from Edifier, the R2000DB. It’s one of the latest speakers released in 2014 to join among Edifier’s Bluetooth speakers which are the SPINNAKER, Prisma Encore and Luna Eclipse to name a few. The SRP (Suggested Retail Price) is 699 MYR, 195 USD which is priced between the R2700 (599 MYR, 165 USD) and R2800 Studio Speaker (799 MYR, 220 USD).

This speaker is ideal for desktops and home environment. It delivers powerful audio for PC, gaming consoles and mini home theater applications. The R2000DB can be connected via RCA-RCA or RCA-AUX, Optical and Bluetooth 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 R2000DB features and specifications.

Features

• Active bookshelf speaker with Bluetooth pairing capability for music playback
• 5 inch bass driver with Aluminum diaphragm and 1 inch tweeter driver
• Optical and dual RCA inputs for connectivity to multiple audio sources
• Class D amplifier system with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Dynamic Range Control (DRC)
• Wireless remote control with audio source selection, mute and volume adjustment
• Rear side panel controls bass, treble and master volume
• Side panels with high gloss piano finish
• 100% MDF wooden enclosure to minimize acoustic resonance
• Universal 100V-240V power supply

Specification

Total power output: 24Wx2 treble + 36Wx2 bass (DRC On)
Signal to noise ratio: ≥85dBA
Distortion: ≤0.5%
Chanel Separation: ≥45dB
Input sensitivity: LINE 1: 900±50 mV, LINE 2: 700±50 mV Optical:950±50 mFFs
Audio input: RCA, Optical, Bluetooth
Speaker unit: Tweeter: 25mm silk dome tweeter with Neodymium Magnets, Bass: 5 inch (132mm).
Dimension: Active speaker: 174 x 289 x 252 mm, Passive speaker: 174 x 289 x 238 mm.
Weight: Net 9.72Kg

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Packaging

This is a review unit. The original outcome may differ. The packaging I received was an open box with wrappers removed from the speakers and accessories tucked disorderly. The photos taken below have the items re-organized based on what I perceived of items are kept in its own compartment according to the shaped of the foam.

Packaging-1: Here is the box that comes with the speaker. It does not have any labels nor specifications. I believe it would come with some details-illustrations when its readily available locally.

Packaging-2: Opening up the box reveals the accessories and a pair of soft-thin cloth grills for the speakers.

Packaging-3: Removing the top protective foam exposes the speaker wrapped in plastic bag.

Packaging-4: Taking out the speaker uncovers a secondary protective foam acting as the base. The foam thickness measures approximately 3cm and it’s a hard-foam type.

Accessories

Note: The review unit does not come with a user manual except for the cables and remote control.

Accessory-1: The Edifier RC100 remote control has 10 buttons. Starting from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, it has Mute, Standby, Volume Down, Volume Up, Optical input, Bluetooth input, Line 1 input, Line 2 input, Classic equalizer and Dynamic equalizer. The remote control is powered by Lithium Cell battery CR2025 3 Volts. It comes equipped with a super-thin plastic which is inserted between the contact point and the battery to prevent the control from consuming battery charge when not in use.

Accessory-2: Next is the Edifier Professional 5-pin XLR Cannon-type speaker cable measuring 2.8 meter in length which is used to power up the left-speaker while providing the audio signal to it. The length is sufficient to place the speakers side-by-side of a 70 inch TV/monitor.

Accessory-3: RCA-to-RCA male white-red cable measuring 1.62 meters which can be connected speaker to TV or older applications that does not support S/PDIF output.

Accessory-4: RCA-to-AUX cable length is 1.62 meters. This is a common cable adapter with RCA to 3.5mm audio jack that can be used to connect your audio devices such as computer, portable music player and smart phone to the speaker.

Accessory-5: Optical cable length is 1.4 meter. It’s used to connect via S/PDIF input of the speaker to the computer output. S/PDIF, stands for Sony/Phillips Digital Interface, and is an interface to transmit digital audio.

Note: The speaker is powered via 2-pin power plug which uses 100-240V (50/60Hz 400mA).

Speaker Setup

The speaker is fairly large and does use up some space. 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.

Design-4: The top does not have piano-gloss 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 piano-gloss side cover and the black vinyl skin which risks dust trapping in between it.

Design-5: Here is a look at the piano-gloss speaker side. It has this mirror-reflecting appearance. Having a feel of the side panels doesn’t feel like plastic, more like a durable polished material.

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: Here is a look at the bottom of the speaker. It’s supported with 4 rubberized mini circle feet to provide grip on the desk.

Design-8: Here is a look at the speaker’s rear. Only the right-speaker has the interface to connect the optical, RCA-to-RCA and RCA-to-AUX cable. 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 R2000DB 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 optical, Bluetooth and line inputs.

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. The R2000DB also has an optical (OPT) interface to plug it to the S/PDIF output.

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 3 LED color modes (Blue = Bluetooth, Red = Optical, Green = Line 1 or 2) The LED light is sufficiently bright which allows you to see it through the cloth grill. These 3 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 Impressions

At first glance, it looks like an elegant simple masterpiece which can be placed anywhere without disturbing the color scheme of your furniture. Upon carrying the speakers to my desk, I realized that both speakers are relatively heavy with one another. Usually it is easy to distinguish 2.0 active speakers would have 1 being heavier than the other by a whole margin. I guess the weight lends itself to the material being used to create the trapezium speaker including the weight of the tweeter and large woofer. Scrutinizing the speaker, it is discovered that the R2000DB cabinet is made of high quality medium density fiberboard also known as MDF. MDF is made of from wood fibers glued under heat and pressure that helps lessen resonation. This material is dense and strong, making it ideal for absorbing reflecting sound waves and prevents rattling/vibration at higher bass levels. Moving the speakers around, I noticed the piano gloss side does not easily stained by fingerprints at all which is a plus side for less cleaning maintenance. Still, Edifier provides a wiping cloth to polish those mirror-reflective side panels. The necessary cables to connect speakers to your devices are conveniently provided, making it easy to just plug and play.

Discoveries

Temperature

Running the speakers with random music from my music collection for several hours, I noticed the back of the main speaker felt hot upon touching it; temperature is similar to a Western Digital 2TB Black Caviar running non-stop at 45 degree Celsius.

Power Consumption

The R2000DB consumes 7W at idle or on mute. Setting the speakers to standby mode via the remote control sets the power consumption to 0W.
When both Treble and Bass are set to -6 dB, it only consumes 7W~7.5W at 50% volume, 7.5W~8W at 60% volume (the volume at this level is unbearably loud in a small room)
Maxing out the Treble does not increase the power consumption much at all, relatively same as the above.
However, maxing out the Bass did made the power consumption easily shoots above 15~25W at 50% volume with loud rock music playing in the background.

Volume

Below are the volumes I have tested and my recommendation based on comfort listening (Dynamic Equalizer):
1) 40% volume = 60 cm away from the speaker (for PC usage)
2) 50% volume = 180cm away from the speaker (for watching movies further away from the monitor)
3) 60% volume = >300cm distance from the speaker (for watching movies from a TV-couch)
4) 70% volume = overwhelmingly loud to disturb your neighbors. Easily fills up the entire hall/room 20 x 70 meters.

Bluetooth Signal

When playing music via Bluetooth mode, it’s able to receive signal up to 500cm when it has line of sight (without any obstructions from the furniture), otherwise the distance is halved.

Remote Control Signal

The remote control 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.

Classic versus Dynamic Mode

Setting the speaker to dynamic mode brought forward both treble and bass up front. However, there are times where the dynamic sounds a little harsh for my listening. Playing on Classic mode prevents the bass from clouding the entire track with its variable boomy bass.

Speakers Magnetically Shielded

When I’m receiving a call or SMS close to both speakers, my old speakers would make some weird blip-blip noise whereas the Edifier R2000DB is not affected by this issue.

General Speaker Issues Undetected

When the Edifier R2000DB is idle or muted, it does not produce any hissing sound which is good sign.

RCA vs Bluetooth/Optical

Playing music from Bluetooth and Optical sounds much louder as if there is something amp-ing compared to using the RCA cable connected to the computer/smart-phone which seems not providing sufficient power for the speakers to boost the sound up.

Sound Quality

After getting accustomed with the sound projected by the speakers using several music genre ranging from techno, trance, instrumentals, choir and rock. It’s time to perform some auditioning. If I were to describe the sound emitting from R2000DB in 5 words, it would be “thick, clear, deep boom bass”. Performing an A/B test between R2000DB with and old speaker has made me realize a few important aspects. First is the thickness of the music! Listening to my old speakers sounded like music coming out of an empty tin can. It delivers the essential sound but does not have the oomph in it that the R2000DB delivers. Second aspect of sound testing was the deep rich bass. Playing the old speaker at the same wattage as the R2000DB had the treble and bass making popping/crackling noise, whereas the R2000DB easily delivers the necessary bass while emitting delicate crystal clear treble. Listening to music such as K-Pop BigBang Monster, the sound of the fire cracker rocketing up to the sky is very realistic like what you hear when your neighbors fires them during New Year events.

Movies/Videos

As an anime lover, I watch lots of good anime and one of them is the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Irregular Magic at High School) and it has a scene where 2 guys are taking some slack while the war is going on. Every small detail of the ongoing gun shots and explosion can be heard from afar which is very realistic. Listening from the other non-branded speaker, it sounded more like fire-cracker event. Gunshots sounded very realistic when the bullets pass through the air. Cheaper speakers will make it sound like its firing laser beams. Gun Gale Online is another anime show which I auditioned the sound effects of environment where strong breeze rustles the tree leaves and moving twigs in a battle scene between 2 players. The non-branded speaker made it sound like a helicopter taking off with sea wave crashing by the shore but the Edifier R2000DB made it sound real as it is as what you hear when you go outdoors.

Bass

I’m not really a boomy bass fan. However, R2000DB allows you to reduce the boomy-ness by switching equalizer from Dynamic to Classic. The bass packs huge punches without any signs struggling at super tight bass. Cranking the bass up to 6 and volume up to 50%, it only leads to louder music without any distortions nor woofer bottoming out. If the speakers to be placed on your desk, having bass at loud volumes would somehow might be an annoyance for some people as it vibrates the desk and that’s how strong it is! You can reduce the vibration by placing soft foam or decouple the speaker from the desk by anchoring it on the floor using some metal support pillars.

Final Thoughts

I have auditioned the R2600, R2700 and R2800 Edifier Speakers in some shops and I would say the R2000DB is somewhat a different beast as it packs much more bass compared to those studio speakers even when the bass is set at 0 with dynamic equalizer on. Based on my past experience on volume perception, the R2000DB 50% volume is roughly equivalent to R2700 50% volume or R2800 40% volume. The sound from R2000DB feels it’s directly projecting from the front similarly to R2700 whereas the R2800 provides an overall surround experience. First advantage I would like to point out is R2000DB size is relatively compact compared to other Edifier Bluetooth speakers and can easily be placed in tight areas and this is a definitely a bonus point in terms of convenience. Secondly, the connectivity interface is sufficiently spaced out and it is not close to the speaker feet, making it easier to connect them without having the wires touching the floor. Third is the ample amount of connectivity which you can connect your devices to the speaker and able to switch to different devices at a press from the remote control. No hassle of re-plugging cables just to avoid conflicting other connected devices. I realized that if the R2000DB speakers were to be set as Classic preset, it will return to the default preset which is the Dynamic Preset whenever its shutdown/standby mode. However, this preset does not change if its set on mute.

Verdict

If you are planning to purchase a mainstream Bluetooth speaker that truly delivers a rich, thick, deep bass without sacrificing elegant appearances, I would recommend to consider the R2000DB if its within your budget. It offers feature-packed remote control (mute, switch input modes, standby, classic/dynamic equalizer) which I really like as some remotes only have volume-mute controls, multiple RCA connectivity for you to utilize removing the hassle to unplug to reconnect to other devices, very stable square base that does not tumble easily and small-portable in size. However, if the minimalist high glossy black paint finish trapezium speaker design isn’t what you are looking for but something more eccentric, you can take a look at Edifier Luna Eclipse and Edifier Spinnaker.

Expectations

If there is a newer revision of this speaker in the future, I would like to see a display volume feature where modifying the volume would light up the L.E.D with percentage/number to indicate the current loudness of the speaker. Secondly, I wish the speaker top has a cover (probably the same piano-gloss same as the side) to prevent dust from getting stuck in the top lining-gap. Third would be having an equalizer adjustment from the speaker interface itself if the remote control is misplaced or out-of-battery.

Sound Test

Edifier R2000DB Classic vs Dynamic Presets

Note: The starting sound 0:00-0:52 is the Dynamic Preset, and the latter is the classic preset (basically caps the bass/boom at certain threshold). An analogy to put this is dynamic = variable bitrate, whereas classic is fixed-bitrate.
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxjAt7Nj3U]

Edifier R2000DB Speaker Vocal Sound Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv_j14FmqBE]

Edifier R2000DB Speaker Bass Sound Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KfPKlFv1oY]

Edifier R2000DB Speaker Other Sound Test
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDhKBaeDS0s]

Disclosure: The review sample was provided by Inter-Asia Edifier – if you’re looking for this speaker, you know where to find them.