At under £60 for small scale but strong-sounding speakers, there’s very little to complain about with the Edifier R20BT.
Monitor speakers are all well and good for the absolute basics of PC ownership, but really you need some decent speakers, and depending on the size of your desk and your budget, there’s a very solid case for buying the Edifier R20BT speakers. With a small form factor of 8 x 18 x 12 cm, they take up very little room but pack a surprisingly solid 2.5 x 2 W output with good quality sound. Throw in some nice RGB lighting and app integration and you’ve got a lot of bang for your buck.
The speakers connect and are powered by an included USB-C cable, meaning they can be used as regular speakers as well as being attached to your PC thanks to an auxiliary output alongside bluetooth connectivity. These would be ideal bookshelf speakers for a cosy living room if you were looking for compact music player options.
Setup for the PC is as easy as plugging them in and off you go. The buttons on the right speaker allow you to change volume and input source, as well as changing the light setting through a few different preset options. If you want to tinker more deeply with the RGB choices or a more in depth sound mixer, then you can use the ConneX mobile app via bluetooth or TempoHub on PC. As speaker apps go, they’re as solid as any other. I’ve used the ConneX app a fair bit with the Edifier Neobuts Pro and still find it to be perfectly serviceable with these speakers.
The sound output is strong and clear. Apparently they have DSP and dynamic control that keeps the sound clear when they’re at high volume. I can’t attest to that technicality myself, but I can say that they never lost clarity when playing games at higher volumes with intense soundtracks.
In addition to this, they look quite nice too – very unassuming with a clean form factor and obvious buttons that manage to not ruin the aesthetic. They’re available in black and white, with me reviewing the white version. I honestly think I’d prefer the black, especially if I were to use them on our bookshelves rather than the PC, but that’s a matter of taste. Regardless, they look as good as they sound.
There really aren’t many complaints to make, especially at the price Edifier is asking. I think I’d prefer the output ports to be on the back rather than the side, and I’d like if there was an indicator as to which speaker is left and right for ease of initial setup, but the latter is absolutely a minor gripe and I feel the former would be less noticeable on the black model than it is on the white. These feel like nitpicking rather than finding actual issues. A minor irritation is the lights flashing each time I change volume, but again it’s a very small complaint.
If you’re in the market for a new set of PC speakers and want to keep things to a lower budget, the Edifier R20BT are an excellent option that won’t break the bank whilst still providing you with strong sound for your living room or gaming area.
The Edifier R20BT are available now on Amazon.
