Edifier MR4 42W Powered Monitor Speakers, 1" Tweeter & 4" Woofer, Balanced TRS/RCA/AUX, Monitoring/Music Mode, for PC/PS5/TV, Music Production & Gaming-White

INTRODUCTION --------------------------- A little run down. My short quest for new speakers came about when the Mackie CR3’s I had for 7 years decided to stop working. In that time, I was quite happy with them. I don’t produce music, but do video editing on occasion. My primary use case is casual listening to music/movies/games. In that regard, I don’t need to have the flattest sound available or desire it – I just like clean, distinctive audio. I’ve been using Sennheiser HD555 headphones with a Sound Blaster Z soundcard for about a decade now. I know there’s better sound options out there these days, but really, these do the job well enough for me and it’s not a necessity to upgrade at the moment. Particularly, I’m impressed with the Sound Blaster software and functionality. I can switch between headphones and speakers on my computer easily and with separate settings for each that changes automatically. Which seems it’d be a convenience barrier switching to a DAC. In any case, I was previously using RCA and have switched to TRS when trying these speakers. The sound is noticeably clearer and unearths sounds more hidden with RCA. I have to crank the windows output a bit higher, but it’s unquestionably better. I also don’t turn the speaker volume up more than half or 3/4th to mitigate noise. With that, I’ll move onto my experience with these two speakers I decided to try to replace my deceased CR3’s. Upon receiving the Edifier MR4 first, I threw on some lossless tracks with some variety, albeit dated. Some artists included: Boris Brejcha, The Chemical Brothers, Erik Jackson, Emancipator, Gorillaz, Hot Chip, Linkin Park, Macklemore, MGMT, Nero, Paul Oakenfold, Papadosio, Pretty Lights, Rinôçérôse, Robert Miles, Sleater-Kinney, System Of A Down EDIFIER MR4 --------------------------- Off the bat I wasn’t stricken with the high end. I like a crispness in my highs and found there was room to be desired with snares etc. But it’s definitely good enough and doesn’t invoke fatigue. Using an equalizer in addition to increasing the treble knob helps and with dialogue in entertainment; which can be a bit muted. The speakers have decent separation and pleasing bass; while having a sound that’s brought together coherently. I have an external bass, which I won’t be inclined to turn on often, as I can also amplify it through software. Playback is warm and easy to listen to. Pressing the power button once enables or disables Music Mode. From what I could tell, it raises the decibel level slightly, as well as the bass and mids for added presence, at the expense of some clarity. I’ll probably use Monitor Mode most of the time. What I particularly liked about these speakers over the E3.5’s is a perceived wider soundstage; instruments have depth and can lightly reverberate (while still having a flatness to them), which sounded more lively comparatively. Overall, these grew on me and I’ve been pleased. If they could be a bit brighter, there wouldn’t be much else I’d desire out of them. ERIS E3.5 --------------------------- The ERIS has an adequate amount of treble and clarity in the high range that I liked at first listen. At the tradeoff of it being sharper and more fatiguing with prolonged use or higher volumes. Highs can sometimes be borderline harsh without equalizing; vocals can be sibilant. I turn the bass knob to the max at +6db and lowering or not touching the treble; which only does so much for lows anyhow. Bass is present, but it’s limited and not as full sounding – the frequency it can hit is punchy though. If you EQ more bass you can get a slight rumble, but nothing compared to the MR4. Even with a subwoofer, it’s not as full sounding. The lower mids don’t feel like they quite bridge to the bass. These speakers don’t sound bad and if I had no other options in this price range or hadn’t compared it directly to a pair with more lows, they might be acceptable. They can just be a bit flat and lifeless (which is part of the idea with monitors I guess), despite having crispness on it’s side. Honestly, I didn’t give this set as much time of day, as I kept gravitating towards the MR4’s; which didn’t make me weary with listening either. If the MR4’s weren’t around as an option, I might have compared with the Mackie CR3’s again. But doubtful: as I think their updated design is ugly, still have that green accent, and apparently they’ve declined in build quality. BUILD --------------------------- Both speakers are quite similar with an understated clean design and near identical dimensions. The MR4 seems to have a slightly better build and I prefer the the carbon fiber looking cone. The volume knob for the E3.5 is smooth – the MR4 turns with an interval of 12 clicks. The E3.5 indicator light is blue and brighter for my taste: I’d cover it up if I were to keep these speakers. The MR4 has a subdued red and green LED for monitor/music mode. Unfortunately, the green light has already started acting up and stopped working in less than a weeks use. The bass/treble knobs have more length to them on the MR4 and are easier to reach back and turn than the E3.5’s. The MR4 weighs a bit more and comes with slightly nicer speaker wire than the E3.5 The E3.5 has a detachable power cord – MR4 does not. The MR4 tweeter actually measures about three quarters of an inch, not the full 1” they claim. With both these speakers I could occasionally detect light distortion/crackling in mids and highs. Not enough to be detrimental for me in keeping the MR4’s. But also due to some solid portrayal, I could hear more of the noise added to the production of certain tracks. For example, listening to some Phantogram, where vinyl grain is frequently added. I believe the E3.5’s also displayed this characteristic, but I returned them already upon noticing more of this. CONCLUSION --------------------------- I tried both these speakers in various configurations of equalizing, but made most my judgments based on how they sound out of the box or their capabilities. The Presonus ERIS E3.5 can hit a higher frequency range; while clear, I found the Edifier MR4 sounded more pleasing and I could almost picture vocalists singing into a mic, rather than just sound coming from a speaker. This carries into the overall experience between the two. The MR4 can give me the impression of being at a concert or watching a movie at a theater, to a degree. I feel the E3.5’s are lacking a bit of soul, but maybe that’s because they’re not as warm. When switching between the two to compare, I found myself wanting to just keep listening to the Edifier’s and not switch back to the Presonus. It’s more lush with it’s prevalent bass for the size and highs can be more pronounced after equalizing (though, they still have an audible frequency ceiling, whereas the E3.5 reaches higher). Given, both these speakers haven’t had a chance for a decent break-in period; but that’ll mostly round out the sound that’s already there anyhow. I’ve also seen more feedback in regards to the Presonus not working after only a year. Most products these days can be a crap shoot, but I’d rather keep the MR4’s for the sound alone and physicality of it (with the aforementioned differences) and hope I get lucky they last awhile. But the LED being faulty already isn’t ideal and I’ll probably replace the pair. I might look further into spending a bit more for different speakers. Though, it seems moving up generally doesn’t include an aux input/headphone output, which is occasionally useful. So, once again, it comes down to weighing out price/sound/conveniences. The MR4 really does sound decent for the price ($129) and I will probably just stick to this model in the end, since I’m not ready to invest in a DAC setup either, that’ll make it worthwhile for spendier speakers. Again, I'm not a music producer, so I can't speak to the decency of these speakers for actual production – you can find reviews with graphs. I'd spend the $30 extra for the Edifiers; unless pronounced highs are super important to you (especially for rock & jazz). But if you create music with any substantial caliber of bass and need to portray it, I’d probably look elsewhere than the Presonus 3.5’s. You’d likely be wanting larger speakers anyhow; though, you may be able to get away with it by adding a sub. If you do consider the Edifier MR4’s, just know there’s a small margin of highs that aren’t as present. But they can be a more fun listening experience overall and less fatiguing.

I have been looking for speakers for a while now. I had a lot of friends recommend these to me and when I saw them on sale, I decided to give them a try and they actually blew my mind. They sound amazing. They look great, sound great they work amazing very happy with this purchase and works perfectly with my U-turn audio turntable. They are not too heavy. I think these are worth every penny.

So, there are two types of people who look at this product. The first is as an audiophile who is comparing this to speakers 2 or 3 times as expensive. The second is as a non-audiophile reaching up to this price point from the $40 Logitech speakers you've had since 2017 that get the job done, but you're ready for something better. I have experience with the first type of person for headphones, but for desktop speakers, it's time to retire my old Logitechs. Pros: 1. The sound quality, compared to my $40 Logitech speakers, is incredible. It's the same feeling I got when I got my first nice pair of over ear headphones after years of using those old Apple earbuds (not airpods, the wired earbuds they gave out with iPods lol). The sound is much clearer, the bass is punchier, and it's just overall better than the Logitech speakers. 2. The power button doubles as a studio/music profile switched. Red light means studio, green light means music. The green light one sounds better to me, provided you use the bass knob in the back to turn the bass down 3 or 4dB. Otherwise the bass gets a little boomy. But, I like the dual profiles, even if these are, in no way, good for actual studio use (although, to be fair to Edifier, they are vastly better than $50 desktop speakers for studio use lol, it's all about perspective when it comes to audio). 3. These are built for desktop use. Headphone jack in the front, RCA to 3.5mm cable in the box to plug into your PC tower, and they are active speakers, so you don't need any additional equipment to run them like you do with fully passive speakers. 4. Headphone jack is adequate. Won't beat a dedicated amp/dac, but they are on par with the jacks in your PC tower, which is fine, especially if your tower is really far away like mine and your headphones can be powered by a normal headphone jack. 5. Bass and treble knobs in the back are nice for fine tuning. Again, I turned the bass down a few dB to avoid boominess, and the treble stayed at default. 6. Speaker wire is long enough to get around a 34-inch ultrawide with about two feet of cable to spare, maybe more. These will fit around even larger monitors. Neutral 1. I downloaded Equalizer APO to fine tune these just a little bit more. They sound very good out of the box, but I felt they needed a bit more tweaking. I recommend Equalizer APO to really dial in the sound you want. 2. Some folks may want to pair these with a subwoofer. I didn't find it necessary for casual desktop PC use (I also didn't want to deal with connecting a subwoofer to it, or spend anymore money lol), but if you do, it's not the worst idea in the world. The bass is gold enough for uber casual listening but it is another half step up to get a dedicated subwoofer to do it instead. Cons 1. While these are vastly better, clearer, and more sonically competent than any sub $100 speakers I'm aware of, they do have their limitations. Instrument separation gets a little stuffy with big, complex music with lots of instruments. The bass is boomy out of the box (easy fix), and it'll distort when it gets loud enough on some songs. However, I had this up at 60% volume on both the speaker and Windows, and I'm never going any higher than that anyway lol. 2. The volume knob is a step/click style and not a smooth style, and the jumps in volume are surprisingly large. You'll likely need to use both your source volume and this thing's volume knob to get the right volume for you. 3. A front cover would've been nice, like you find on other Edifier speakers like the 1280DB. Not that I mind the bare speaker look, but still, would've been a nice option. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I've had nice headphones for ages (Sennheiser HD650 currently, and probably forever. If it ain't broke, don't fix it), but I still remember the Sennheiser HD558 as my entry level audiophile headphone that got me away from cheap headphones, and how I had that "I hear things in songs I know that I've never heard before" moment with them. The Edifier MR4 is that same feeling stepping away from less expensive PC speakers. Yes, this is the ground floor of audiophilia, so it's not going to impress someone who already owns or has experienced higher end speakers. However, this is still a HUGE step up from the essentially any sub-$100 PC speaker, and that's all I was looking for. It's nice to be able to get some reasonably good audio without needing to wear headphones.

I've spent days looking around for the right speaker and finally concluded this is one of the best duo speaker for it's budgeted price, solid wood build and 'good' audio quality. The first thing I did when looking for a new audio system, be it computer speakers/headphones/earbuds is to always first look up and compare the FREQUENCY RANGE of said item. The lower the low and the higher the high = better audio sound quality. Once I figured that out I was able to sort through all the over priced 'meh' systems and compare the ones that shows promise to peer reviews by audio engineers. By no means this is a fantastic speaker, I have headphones and wireless earbuds that are much better, but atlas I need a speaker to replace my broken one and I'm not willing to overspend. Pros: - Price - Easy setup - No background crackle/buzz noise when there's nothing played - Quiet on and off - 'Good Enough' freq range - Made of quality wood - Everything you need to set it up - Not angled - No flimsy plastic - No 🌈 lights Cons: - It's a tad high for my taste ( 8.9" ) but I knew that before settling for this - headphone jack audio quality Now for those that reallllly want to audio-gasm and not totally break bank. I overwhelmingly suggest you to check out KRK classic 5. For the same price as these 2 speakers you can get 1 Studio Quality speaker that alot of studio engineers uses to calibrate their music with. I guarantee you will not find anything else within the same price range and hit the same audio quality without a 2X-4x price markup... Or better yet stick with wired headphones...

Doesn’t have a remote but it’s very easy to control without one. They look and sound great. Easy to connect and great value for money. Build quality is great too.

This is another good, sincere review for the Edifier MR4. I just bought and compared them to the Edifier R1280Ts, and the new Presonus Eris 3.5 (2024 Gen.2). I really liked the Edifier R1280Ts. Such a smooth, warm, and comforting sounding speaker. But it was making a pop sound whenever I'd wake my pc and play a song. So I returned them and tried the Eris 3.5. The Eris 3.5 has good build quality and I liked how it went into power saving mode. It did not make any popping sounds. But it was lacking mids, and the treble sounded shrill. They were very fatiguing to listen to. I tried to like them for a week, but returned them. My ears are still ringing. Now I have the Edifier MR4's. I read reports of hiss when the volume knob is turned all the way up. So that was the first thing I tested. I didn't connect any thing to it, I just plugged into the the wall and turned the volume all the way up, and there is absolutely NO hiss. So I keep the volume on max and control it through windows. In "music" mode they are very balanced, with some warmth, but more clarity and detail than the R1280Ts. Instruments sound like they are right in the room. I'll be playing some background music while working, and they will distract me with their amazing musicality. I'll have to stop and take a minute just to enjoy them. The MR4s are very easy on the ears! Reputable reviews say the MR4s EQ very well. It's nice to know when I have time, I can download and learn how to use Equalizer APO in order to improve them. But they sound awesome just leaving the bass and treble dials on default. Also, putting them on speakers stands that tilt towards my ears made them sound even better. My search for the best quality budget speaker is over. This is a safe purchase I can confidently recommend. Enjoy.

(Coming from a blown pair of presonus Eris 3.5) I loves these studio monitors they sound better, feel better not light or cheap, very easy to control the volume nob does up and down in steps (not smooth), if you press the volume nob it switches from music mode to studio mode. Idk why i got the presonus eris at first when these are wayy better

These are absolutely the best budget speakers I have ever owned. I am amazed at the sound. They have so much depth, make you tube videos and movies feel amazing. right now i have them directly connected to line out on my motherboard they are almost too powerful lol So easy to set up. size is perfect. and looks great

Edifier MR4 - BLUFFANTES, EBLOUISSANTES ! Aussitôt reçues, aussitôt installées. Instantanément conquis. Précision, délié, graves surprenantes, aigus et médiums détaillés, le tout en quelques instants d'écoute sur des musiques un peu difficiles (le Grand Bleu, Bach, Sibelius, Vivaldi , Mesparrow comme si elle était devant moi là, à deux mètres, etc.... ). C'est vrai, pour ce prix, elles sont "énormes" ces petites enceintes sur mon bureau. Tout à l'heure j'essayerai les ouvertures de Wagner... Bon, ce ne sont pas mes Cabasses à 150W qui ressemblent à des armoires au rez de chaussée mais ces petites là sont vraiment très exceptionnelles par leur prix et par leur taille. Elles sont très parfaitement adaptées à l'écoute de proximité, aux côtés de l'écran. Bref, un délice tout en finesse ! Bravo Edifier! On pourrait regretter l'absence de protection des HP mais ils sont placés en retrait d' 1cm de la façade et puis ces enceintes là ne sont pas non plus et a priori destinées aux salles de squash... :-)) J'en rajoute après une heure : Basses profondes et harmonieuses, présence des voix et des instruments sans confusion, stéréo parfaite. Attention : du PC aux enceintes , ampli obligatoire ! J'ai choisi Topping E30II Lite Préampli DAC, totalement neutre et tout petit.

低音たりないが、出力考えたら十分である、ブックシェルフ型なので場所を取るのが難点

Sound is good especially playing physical format of music. Wired still the king

Looks good, great sound for such a small footprint. Easy to install, plug and play.

Dopo qualche giorno di utilizzo posso dire di aver fatto la scelta giusta. Venivo dalle Mackie CR3, che già mi avevano colpito per la spazialità e il cosiddetto “phantom center”, cioè quella sensazione che la voce arrivi perfettamente dal centro tra le casse. Tuttavia mancava qualcosa: i bassi erano praticamente assenti e l’ascolto risultava incompleto. Con queste Edifier MR4 ho trovato esattamente quello step in più che cercavo. La differenza non è rivoluzionaria, ma è proprio quella giusta: - i bassi sono finalmente presenti e danno una base alla musica (senza essere invadenti) - il suono resta pulito, definito e molto equilibrato - la scena sonora è credibile e avvolgente La cosa che mi ha colpito di più è il livello di dettaglio: su brani che conosco benissimo (Pink Floyd in primis) ho iniziato a sentire elementi e attacchi degli strumenti che prima mi sfuggivano completamente. Altro punto fortissimo: suonano bene anche a basso volume. Anche tenendole a un quarto della potenza, mentre lavoro al PC, restano piacevoli, leggibili e mai stancanti. Le sto usando con tutte le regolazioni a 0 (flat) e modalità monitor: non ho sentito il bisogno di toccare nulla. Conclusione: non sono casse “da bassi potenti”, ma sono monitor veri, pensati per ascoltare la musica per come è stata registrata. Se cercate dettaglio, scena e un suono equilibrato per rock/progressive, sono assolutamente consigliate.