I love these active speakers' stacked feature-set, but they lag a little in one key area
SOURCE:TechRadar|BY: James Grimshaw
The Edifier S880DB MKII active bookshelf speakers look great and shine at the top end but lack bass are up against cheaper, and better, alternatives.
The Edifier S880DB MKII speakers absolutely meet the brief when it comes to improving on their small-format predecessors. With better speaker design, better internal architecture and all-new connectivity options, these fancy-looking bookshelfs are a true upgrade with better sound to match. But an unfocused low end distracts from otherwise-stellar mid- and high-range performance.
Pros
Crammed with analog and digital inputs
Superb vocal-forward articulation
Extremely desk-friendly aesthetics
Cons
-
No AptX or AAC Bluetooth codec support
-
Slightly laggy remote
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No 5V power through USB-C port
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Edifier S880DB MKII: Two-minute review
As the best small-format active speakers go, the Edifier S880DB MKII are pretty swell. They go toe-to-toe with a great many other low-to-mid-range hi-fi pairs, thanks to a prodigious array of forward-thinking inputs both analog and digital. There’s also a subwoofer output to fully extend the practicality of these little (and surprisingly loud) actives, and a gesture-controlled remote puck to access a bunch of different functions, from input switching and volume control to handling various EQ sound profiles.
Excellent as the S880DB MKII are on paper, between their swish aesthetics and versatile, future-friendly control options, small frustrations abound with the remote control’s reaction time and bass-representation issues inherent to the small-bookshelf format.
These frustrations are just that: small. But they’re made all the larger when other active speaker models in Edifier’s roster, namely the excellent MR5 monitors, are simultaneously cheaper and better-performing.
Ultimately, though, the Edifier S880DB MKII do a lot of things right, and as many things well. I’m thusly inclined to score it kindly, in recognition of what it’s achieved over what it’s competing against. After all, it’s a MKII, and well and truly a well-upgraded successor in a competitive niche.
Edifier is a key figure in the budget audio space, with a pretty wide-ranging roster of audio bits and bobs that punch well above their figurative weight. I can prove it, too: I was happy enough to review Edifier’s new MR5 monitor speakers some months ago, and happened to think mighty well of their performance (and even mightier of this performance against their frankly astonishing budget price point).
These speakers, though, exist in a different paradigm to the musician-oriented active listening monitors that the MR5 very much are. These are the Edifier S880DB MKII, a second-gen successor set of multidisciplinary active bookshelf speakers that ably straddle a broad set of use cases. Bedroom hi-fi system? Small desk-friendly active monitors? Subsidiary speaker set for your small cinema system? Why not!
This versatility is courtesy of some powerful internal amplification, some smart user-friendly features, and some future-friendly upgrades that make them more able (and better-sounding) than ever before. But do they make the grade, and do their updated features do them justice?
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RCA-to-RCA cable; RCA-to-3.5mm aux cable; USB-C-to-USB-C cable; 5-pin DIN speaker connector cable; remote control puck
Edifier S880DB MKII review: Features
Multifarious inputs, plus sub output
Hi-res Bluetooth LDAC connectivity
Handy remote-control surface
The S880DB MKII are a highly connectible set of small-form active bookshelf speakers, designed to settle suavely into a wide variety of different at-home listening scenarios. Being a successor model to Edifier’s OG S880DB, there’s a lot of familiar stuff in here. But that familiar stuff is part and parcel of a pretty comprehensive upgrade, that brings some improved acoustics and techy quality-of-life updates.
The biggest auditory updates come from the new drivers. The 1-inch titanium dome tweeter from the first model has been sized up to 1.25-inch, with a bigger voice coil to match. The mid-bass driver has also had a ground-up redesign, with the impact of more low end, any of which is a gift in small-format speakers such as these.
With their small size, large 88W RMS output and surprisingly broad frequency range, the S880DB MKII are excellent low-profile partners for a home office PC system – and they’ll slide just as effortlessly into a multi-faceted living room hi-fi or home theatre system, with especial thanks to an expansive set of inputs.
On the wired side of the equation, we have two separate channels of RCA input, a Toslink optical in, coax, and an all-new USB-C connection – the latter of which enjoys its own DAC architecture, so you can connect a laptop directly to it without any dongle-y jiggery-pokery. Sadly, this USB-C port doesn’t also provide the option of 5V power – when USB ports are a commodity at your desk, a spare port for powering peripherals (foreshadowing alert!) would be a welcome gift. Also new is a 3.5mm TRS output for optional connection to a subwoofer unit, giving what’s nominally a small-form set of active bookshelf speakers a great deal more oomph potential.
On the wireless side of the equation, the Edifier S880DB MKII are handily equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, up from the previous version’s 5.1, and now supports Sony’s hi-res LDAC codec, too. On-board you’ll find the requisite rear-mounted treble, bass and volume controls, and within, a set of five EQ presets for different sound profiles: ‘Classic’, ‘Monitor’, ‘Dynamic’, ‘Vocal’ and ‘Customized’.
A new 2.4GHz wireless remote-control puck eschews black plastic and clicky buttons in favour of a silver-and-white gesture-control surface. It senses your hand on approach, and can be used to switch audio inputs, access Bluetooth, control the volume and switch between the aforementioned sound profiles. Any and all changes are heralded by a cheery little vibration from within the puck itself. The MKII is also tweakable via Edifier’s ConneX app, which gives you access to the same controls as the remote, and a six-band EQ with which to customize the, er, ‘Customized’ sound profile.
A small OLED screen on the front displays the necessaries – defaulting to your current audio input, but also showing you volume changes and differing sound profiles as you cycle through. It’s subtle, but subtly futuristic. And I like it.
Features score: 5/5
(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)
Edifier S880DB MKII review: Sound quality
Excellent high-end clarity
Exceedingly powerful for their size
Unfortunate handling of low end
The Edifier S880DB MKII are loud, and impressively so for the format. I dared, hubristically, to test them at full volume while sat at my desk – a crime for which my ears paid dearly, and for which I undoubtedly owe my neighbour an apology bottle of wine.
When they’re not being loud, they’re being remarkably consistent. Whether listening via RCA-in or Bluetooth, there are no discernible shortcomings on the fidelity front. As for character, these speakers are decent all-rounders, but particularly and delightfully tactile in the upper register. Knik by Portugal. The Man is a delight of swishy cymbals, woozy guitars and stacked chest- and head-voice vocals. It’d be fair to say, generally, that the S880DB MKII speakers are extremely vocal-forward, a function of those tight mid-range drivers and titanium tweeters.
That overall handiness, bolstered by high-end tactility, trades off against an under-representative low end. Knik ends with an explosion of fuzzed-out guitars and blooming bass, all lost to a set of speakers that don’t have the stature to platform them properly. At least, this was the first impression I had of the S880DB MKII, predicated on an initial listen through the automatically applied ‘Classic’ sound profile.
Cycling through other modes revealed a decent wedge more boom on all fronts, the more neutral ‘Monitor’ mode immediately the most musical to my ears. The ‘Dynamic’ mode adds a little treble-y urgency, giving a little more love to transients in the process, while the ‘Vocal’ mode seems to target upper mids, doing exactly what you’d expect it to (with a little compensatory ducking of lower mids). Personally, I don’t see why the Classic sound profile is the default option, when it’s so clearly the worst of the bunch.
Better as the other modes sound, all bear out the same essential conclusion that bass isn’t the S880DB MKII’s strong suit – a fundamental truth of the speakers’ small form. This isn’t to say they’re entirely without punch, though. Across all EQ profiles, they’re tuned exactly as you’d expect a jack-of-all-trades hi-fi device, with plenty of presence for hi-hats, voices, and kick-drum clicks, the latter of which grab you enough to insinuate the oomph you’d otherwise miss much more dearly. And if you crank them, you get plenty of somewhat-indistinct bassy bloom from their ported rear faces.
Of course, Edifier are deeply aware of this form-borne shortcoming, and have even made adjustments towards improving it in this second go-around – including greater low-end extension and a new subwoofer out port. I didn’t have an active subwoofer with which to pair the S880DB MKII, but I’d wager that most potential buyers of such speakers don’t either. Besides which, I wouldn’t want to colour my straight opinion of these things with something ‘else’. All the same, it’s a credit to Edifier that they’re working with the size, rather than against it!
I oughtn’t have spent so long on the lower end of the S880DB MKII’s frequency spectrum, not when there’s so much to love a little further up the graph. Queens of the Stone Age’s Everybody Knows That You’re Insane is an explosive delight, jangly guitars and croon-adjacent vocals giving in to gratifyingly grabby power chords and pingy snares.
Getdown Services’ Blooze, meanwhile, is right at home on these speakers, with a boxy, idiosyncratic mix that attains a woolly, three-dimensional presence on my desk – and brings out the best of the S880DB MKII’s miasmic-bass potential in the process. These are truly some high-definition performers, bringing some densely detailed magic where it counts for most.
Sound quality score: 3.5/5
(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)
Edifier S880DB MKII review: Design
Aesthetically delightful little things
Breezy to set up and use
Remote is cool but slow
The Edifier S880DB MKII are incredibly pleasing to behold, with their two-tone, multi-textured, veneer-sandwiched visual design. There are two colorways on offer: one a black-and-walnut affair, the other a white-and-pine-y sorta deal. My review sample matches Nordic pine vibes with a leatherette finish to make something wholly more living-room friendly than other bookshelf-style speakers, many of which fall prey to the same sort-of boring anthracite proclivities, and stick out like lead-stained thumbs accordingly.
The OLED panel on the front runs the risk of being gaudy, but is understatedly smart in execution. It doesn’t clamor for your attention, and only ever shows you whatever you need to know at the time.
As for the practical side of things, it’s as easy as it could be to situate these speakers. Installation is simply a matter of connecting one speaker to the other via the supplied DIN cable, connecting power and making the various audio connections you require. The S880DB MKII have two RCA-ins, USB-C connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3, so you’re unlikely to struggle, though some may understandably miss the convenience of a HDMI ARC option for their telly systems.
Realistically, the biggest challenge you’ll face setting these up is sorting your wireless connections – but Edifier’s made that a breeze, too. You put the speakers in search mode by touching the dedicated Bluetooth space on the remote, and they pop up a moment later in your device’s list of available connections. That’s it. With Bluetooth connected, you can stream audio and access the ConneX app, which also makes messing with your speaker settings breezy as can bee…zy. [Careful now. Ed.]
The only shortcoming on the design front is the remote – and this is in spite of its relatively inspired gesture-control schema. Every time you go to use it, it needs a moment to wake up first; what could be a smooth one-touch experience becomes a couple of frustrated jabs before your request is recognized. It’s hard to design around this, since the alternative is that the remote’s battery drains so much quicker, but it’s still a minor hiccup in an otherwise butter-smooth setup.
If only you could wire it straight to the speakers via a handy 5V-powered USB-C port…
Design score: 4.5/5
(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)
Edifier S880DB MKII review: Value
Comprehensive feature-set is great
Performance is better in other, cheaper Edifiers
Buy these if you value convenience over sound
The question of value is a difficult one to answer with respect to the S880DB MKII. They’re undeniably an excellent prospect as desktop speakers or a small-room sound system, irrespective of their cost; their connectibility, ease of use and perfectly serviceable sound performance make them functionally excellent. But cost is relative, and something else entirely.
The RRP of these speakers is $449.99 / £335.99 / AU$595.99 – not a lot in a world of high-valued mid-range hi-fis and break-the-bank audiophile speaker systems, but still a fair whack to put down (even if what you’re getting is a completed integrated, powered audio system). It’s especially difficult to judge fairly when another set of Edifier speakers – the aforementioned MR5 monitors – are simultaneously cheaper and, to my ears, far better.
The question of value, then, is a question of what value you place on certain things: convenience, aesthetics, fit. The Edifier S880DB MKII are compact, easy to place, easy to look at and handily controllable with a wireless remote – all things that could justify a little uplift in price, but only to those of you that value them.
For me, this is hard. I genuinely like these speakers, and I think they’re pretty faultless for most of the things you reasonably expect from them. But when I enjoy another set of Edifier speakers far more, which cost quite a bit less, it’s difficult to say this is a good-value purchase.
Value score: 3/5
(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)
Should you buy the Edifier S880DB MKII?
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Features
Fully kitted out, with six different input options and a new sub out for better bass; better speakers and internals than their predecessor.
5/5
Sound quality
Excellent mid-to-high-end communicators, with bright, clear and vocal-forward articulation. Bass is lacking in some sound profiles.
3.5/5
Design
Hard to fault aesthetically, they're unreasonably fetching on one’s desk. Easy setup but remote can feel laggy.
4.5/5
Value
Hard to say these are great value – if only due to the fact that Edifier have a much more capable, and cheaper, set of active monitors on their roster.
RCA-in x2, USB-C, Optical (Toslink), Coaxial, Bluetooth 5.3
Dual XLR, dual TRS, RCA, 3.5mm aux, Bluetooth 6.0
HDMI ARC with CEC, USB-C, Optical (TOSLINK), Bluetooth 5.3. RCA, 3.5 mm aux
Outputs
3.5mm TRS subwoofer out
3.5mm headphone out
RCA subwoofer out
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.3: LDAC, SBC
Bluetooth 6.0 (two devices): LDAC, SBC
Bluetooth 5.3: AAC, SBC
Output (total)
88W RMS
110W RMS
100W RMS
Extras
RCA-to-RCA cable, RCA-to-3.5mm aux cable, USB-C-to-USB-C cable, 5-pin DIN speaker connector cable, remote control puck, power cable
x1 3.5mm to 3.5mm aux cable, 1x RCA to 3.5mm aux cable, power cable
Remote control, 2x magnetic grilles, power cable, speaker wire, rubber feet
How I tested the Edifier S880DB MKII
Tested for 3 weeks
Used in attic office, as primary desktop listening speakers
Predominantly tested using audio output from a Universal Audio Volt 4 audio interface, and Bluetooth transmission from a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
The Edifier S880DB MKII found their home on my attic office’s desk, as a primary pair of monitor speakers for my work setup.
They received audio via RCA-in, from my trusty Universal Audio Volt 4 interface; I also tested the USB-C input directly from my HP Pavilion 15 laptop, and Bluetooth connectivity using my Samsung Galaxy S23 FE smartphone.
Over four weeks, I rotated through some new and familiar artists on Spotify and in my personal digital music library, to get a feel for the S880DB MKII in different musical contexts.
James Grimshaw is a freelance writer and music obsessive with over a decade in music, audio and tech writing. They’ve lent their audio-tech opinions (amongst others) to the likes of Musicradar, Louder, Guitar.com and the London Evening Standard – before which, they interviewed indie glitterati for online music publications a-many. When they aren’t blasting esoteric music around the house, they’re playing out with esoteric artists in DIY spaces across the country; James will evangelise to you about obscure late-2000s records until the sun comes up.
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