Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
As we have indicated in the introduction, the Edifier R1010BT are a pair of bookshelf speakers. However, the Edifier S1000DB were also called "bookshelf" speakers, yet those are quite a bit bigger. At specified dimensions of 24.1cm tall, 15.2cm wide, and 17.8cm deep, these speakers are smaller in all dimensions, even compared to the Audioengine HD6. These should fit on your desk, unless you are severely limited in space. The Edifier R1010BT comes in two styles of either a brown and silver finish or a black finish. Personally, the R1010BT in black look pretty generic compared to other audio equipment. I think the brown finish would have looked nice if you were looking for a natural finish or for more color. Either way, I think these speakers look pretty sleek. According to Edifier, the housing is made up of 15mm MDF, or medium-density fiberboard, to dampen vibrations and other unwanted energy. The edges of the speakers are rounded out for a less boxy look. Moving forward, I am happy to see detachable speaker grilles included with the R1010BT. They are held on by four friction tabs.
Taking a look at the left and right Edifier R1010BT speakers, you can barely tell the two of them from each other. After removing the front grille, you can see the top shows off a 13mm or 0.5" dome tweeter, while the bottom houses a 4" ceramic paper woofer. Combined, their frequency response is rated at 70Hz to 20KHz. These numbers will be translated into actual performance when we evaluate these speakers later on. Signal to noise ratio is specified at ≥85dBA. On the front of the grille, you can see an Edifier logo attached. A dual-color LED is also hidden on the right speaker to indicate power status and input source. When it glows green, it indicates auxiliary or PC input, while blue indicates Bluetooth input. As you can tell by the "BT" in the name, this speaker set does support Bluetooth. No IR receiver is here though, as there is no remote included with the R1010BT.
Flipping the Edifier R1010BT powered desktop speakers, we get a better view of the backside. By "powered", it means it comes with an internal amplifier. Internally, each speaker outputs 12W of power for a total of 24W RMS. Edifier does not specify how much the speakers weigh, but according to my bathroom scale, both speakers came out to be around 4.2lbs. A bass reflect port opening can be seen at the top of both speakers. The main and bass volumes can be adjusted independently by two knobs shown in our photo above. Pressing the infinite rotation master volume dial will allow you to cycle between the two inputs, while holding it down will disconnect the active Bluetooth device. Power is supplied by a 100-240V internal power supply, which can be turned on or off by a rocker style switch.
As you can see in our photo above, Edifier offers two sets of input connectors on the R1010BT, both of them being two RCA line-ins. A 3.5mm to RCA cable is included for you to connect devices that uses this jack. Otherwise, this is it for ports, as there is no optical, coaxial, or USB input. You can select between aux/PC and Bluetooth separately by pressing the volume knob. However, you cannot choose between the two RCA line-ins. The primary RCA line-in has an input sensitivity of 700mV±50mV, while the secondary RCA line-in has a reduced sensitivity of 500mV±50mV. As for output, no stereo line level output is present. Missing a stereo line level output is an oversight in my opinion, because you lose the option to pair a subwoofer. The only output is the one that connects the active right speaker to the passive left speaker, where an included 3m cable gets the job done. On the wireless side, Bluetooth operation depends on an internal antenna. This supports Bluetooth 4.0 and allows for two simultaneous connections to the R1010BT. However, the aptX protocol is not supported over Bluetooth. For your information, aptX is a time domain ADPCM compression algorithm that promises "CD like quality" according to the people promoting it.
The Edifier R1010BT is built using a wooden enclosure as aforementioned. Our photo above shows the bottom of the R1010BT, with four rubber feet used to dampen it from the surface it resides on. As this is most likely a wooden or glass desk, these four feet will help in keeping the speakers upright while preventing any unwanted vibrations between the hard surface and the enclosure. No inserts are present to wall mount the speakers. As we have already mentioned, there is no remote included with the Edifier R1010BT either.
With all this in mind, it is now time to put the Edifier R1010BT through APH Networks' infamous subjective audio tests.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
