Edifier MP300

Th second little groovy audio system I have to try is the Edifier MP 300. Like its smaller Soundbar cousin, this unit is designed to be portable. But while the Soundbar unit is a single solid item, this unit is three separate pieces.

This lends itself to places where you want an unobtrusive sound unit, have limited space, but also are probably going to be setup for more than a few hours. For me this is perfect for our study, where space is a premium, but I stillwant good audio.

The unit produces far better sound that a laptop, and better than the crappy plastic pillar upright units that you see for sale in bargin bins by far.

The good:

• Sound quality is nice and full. More than enough to fill a study, bedroom, or small living area.
• Attractive design, which is a refreshing change from the black plastic or beige hardware seen in most rooms. Its also not overed in “extreme” icons and stupid symbols.
• Setup was easy when using with an iPhone, basically plug in and turn on.

The Bad:

• Many cables and cords, while needed are not handy if you have to pack up quickly. Thus the use in a semi-permanent or fixed position rather than a road device.
• I had a terrible time getting the unt to work correctly with my laptop’s audio port. After a good 20 minutes of playing around, I just piked and tested the iPhone hoolup. This is totally the opposite of the SoundBar which worked straight away. This is probably due to the laptop having pretty strange audio devices in teh windows system, so not a total mess.

Overall: I’d be ok to have a set of these speakers, but would probably hook them up to a desktop unit, rather than a laptop or portable device. They are good enough for most sound applications, but do not require an extensive nest of cables, and also not as bulky as a full 5.1 sound system, which would be totally under utilised in out home office.

I still have a full 5.1 sound system sitting in my garden shed, as it is too power intensive

Edifier Soundbar Review

Out of the blue recently I was offered the opportunity to test a few portable sound devices, so like any true blood geek I jumped at the opportunity.

The first one is the Edifier MP 250 (a.k.a the Soundbar). It is a very simple and portable single unit speaker which improves the sound output of moble devices. It will work with anything that can plug to sdb (like a laptop), and also anything with a stereo plug (like amost every other audio device on the planet).

Here is a quick review.

The good stuff is:

• It is darn small, and reasonably light.
• No setup required (plug in, pause for recognition, then it worked straight away – fark!).
• Comes with a nice handy carry sleeve, so that it won’t get wrecked by your other gear.
• Far better sound quality than standard laptop speakers.
• It looks nice – all silver and smooth, not a fugly blob of black plastic.

The bad (only the obvious and the trivial):

• As it needs power from the USB, you’ll go through battery life in no time. Use it when plugged in to power and there is no issue.
• No tech solution can deliver high end sound, especially high end bass sound in a manner to replace a good multi-speaker setup. Do not have the illusion that the SoundBar will be a home stereo. Better, but not a holy grail.
• Carry case should be slightly bigger, so it can also hold the cables. You can squish them in, but it takes a few minutes.

Overall: It would make an excellent gift for a techie who works regularly with a laptop or ipod/iphone on the road, and for aus$60 its reaonsable. 

I didn’t want a Soundbar until I tested it, and now I am very glad to have it. It is already in my laptop bag.