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The Powered Edifier S880DB Desktop Audiophile Speakers Reviewed!
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May 29, 2025
There are lots of speakers you can plug into your computer or laptop, but almost all of them sound like they were off the budget or clearance shelf at Walmart. That's why the Edifier S800DB are such a breath of fresh air with their huge, breathtaking sound and vast array of inputs. You can use them with your TV through an optical connection, for example, and connect your phone via bluetooth too. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ plugs the Edifier speakers into his computer and finds they deliver great sound. But there are some quirks with the design... https://amzn.to/2Ppm2Lv
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ready to be blown away these should be
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your next computer speakers Dave Taylor
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here and in the spirit of vast overkill
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let's talk about these these are awesome
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these are the Edifier s8 80 DB
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near-field monitors
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they're basically speakers with a
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built-in amplifier and a million
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different inputs and boy oh boy are they
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great computer speakers so let's start
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out however with Bluetooth so I'm just
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gonna play some Bluetooth music and I'm
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gonna actually point the speaker's
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towards me and you'll also get a glimpse
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of what we'll talk about later which is
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a really complicated back on that one
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speaker so we're gonna do that let's
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have a listen
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[Music]
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it's so good the audio quality and this
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is just bluetooth streaming off my phone
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using mp3 quality audio but let's talk
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about that for a second
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so these speakers support something
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called high res audio now more likely
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than not you don't have high res content
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because high res is completely lossless
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a really common format for high res is
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something called flack or free lossless
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audio codec FLAC I have a flack audio
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file we'll get to in a little bit you
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won't be able to hear much of it because
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I don't have licensing rights for it but
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it is crazy good quality here's how the
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numbers rate so an mp3 file like you'd
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get from iTunes or something like that
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is generally 256 kilobits per second or
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kpb kbps right if you play a CD directly
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a CD is about 1400 kbps but when you get
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to high res audio and it's lossless and
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it's collecting all the music everything
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from the original source that's up to
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4600 kbps and you're thinking so what
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does that mean this is like the
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difference between 480p and 4k video
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right there's a huge amount of
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additional data so that means that the
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speakers when you have high res speakers
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they can produce a lot better audio
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because there's just more there so you
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get more richness you get a fuller sound
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you get more crisp and tight highs you
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get a nice clean baseline and you get
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what they call a sort of spatial sense
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to it so you know when I'm listening to
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these I could hear individual
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instruments and I can actually if I
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close my eyes I can pinpoint where the
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bass player is or where the drums are
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even where that symbol is it's really
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quite remarkable if you've just been
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listening to you know your phone with
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your ear buds or something this is a
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whole nother level of audio now let's
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talk about these speakers because on the
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back of this one this is sort of the
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primary speaker you can see there are a
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lot of inputs so you have RCA input you
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have an aux input
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you have USB you can use optical there's
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Bluetooth 4.1 there's even a coaxial
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input now it comes with all the wires
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too so the aox I already have plugged
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into my computer
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there's USB there's optical which is
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great if you're hooking it up to a
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television these would work amazing as
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TV monitors here's your standard RCA
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with two plugs on each end and then this
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one this is another USB connector so
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there's different ways you can connect
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things they really haven't missed a bet
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here now one thing I also want to say
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speaking of wires is there are just a
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lot of wires here this is just a wire
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heavy unit and the wire between the two
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speakers is fairly long but it's a
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substantial wire there's a lot going
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through there
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but that's also how it gets really crisp
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audio sound kind of wish there was the
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option for me to have these undestand
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have it wirelessly working between the
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two because that would give me a lot
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more freedom with placing them but if
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I'm gonna have them right next to my
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computer like this then holy cow this
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gives me a really amazing options and
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really amazing music at the price of
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having to deal with all the cables and
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wires so it goes now on the back the
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other thing to notice is there are some
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audio adjustments you have here the top
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one is treble the middle one is bass and
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then the bottom one is an overall volume
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control but you don't really need to use
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any of them because it comes with this
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crazy circular remote now the remote is
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actually pretty fun because it gives you
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a lot of power and you have as you can
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see in the close-up there's different
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sound configurations that are pre-built
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so if you want to just listen to
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classical music you can go right to that
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EQ curve and pause play next previous
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volume up volume down all in the middle
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part and then perhaps the most important
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one is source so source lets us switch
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now we're on bluetooth right now and you
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can see in this little close-up there's
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a little indicator bar on the bottom of
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the primary speaker it's pretty subtle
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but if I push on source I can change to
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my computer
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so now let's and on again I can only
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play a couple of seconds of this but
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let's jump into this is Duran Duran save
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a prayer and this is flack audio so this
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is high-res so let's hear how this
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sounds let's see pause I was hoping it'd
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start at the beginning
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so let's try that here we go oh whatever
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it is where it is and you know what I'm
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gonna tell you is that the audio quality
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here is so clean that when I first
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started listening to this with the
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speaker's position like this I actually
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was suddenly wondering if there was a
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speaker inside my screen because there's
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so much spacial sense to this especially
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with the speakers like this they really
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should be another couple of feet apart
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but there's so much spatial sense that
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the music's absolutely sounded like it
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was coming right out of the middle of my
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screen which was quite interesting cuz
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this is like I'm pretty sure it's coming
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out of these speakers but I don't hear
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it out from the sides I hear from the
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middle because there's this whole
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soundstage going on really really pretty
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cool now the speaker's themselves and
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I'll turn this one around so you can see
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that part of it the speaker's themselves
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are 192 kilohertz digital audio oh sorry
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inside them is 192 kilohertz digital
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audio processor like I said there's an
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amp that's why it sounds so good you can
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give it okay music and it's gonna sound
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really good and you give it really good
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music it's gonna sound really amazing
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top part here is a 19 millimeter
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titanium laminate tweeter and in the
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lower part is a four inch metal
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diaphragm bass very nice it gives you 50
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to 20,000 Hertz frequency response with
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greater than 85 decibels of sound and
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noise ratio so that means that all the
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noise that you're getting on the lines
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is way over compensated by all the music
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you get so you really never hear if you
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have a silent part in the music you're
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not gonna hear any historical or
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anything it's just absolutely silent in
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fact you'll wonder you know do these
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things still on
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so the remote control is great if you
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lose your remote you really kind of up a
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creek because the controls in the back
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are insufficient and in particular
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there's no source button that you can
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push to step through different sources
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so you would then be stuck on whatever
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source you had I wish there was a mute
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button there's a pause play but that's
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not exactly the same thing though from
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many input sources it will look and sort
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of deliver the same result
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speakers are pretty heavy these are
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eight pounds per speaker so if you're
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gonna hang these on the wall you might
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want to actually build a shelf to put
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them on cuz that's a lot of weight but
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again the whole sound quality the whole
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experience of having these is pretty
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phenomenal I really really am impressed
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these are really nice I already know
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Edifier really focuses on making really
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great speakers and this is another
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example of you know how well they can
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deliver that now I will say I have you
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know a couple of little glitches and the
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biggest one is and this is a weird one
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is that on the bottom of this unit it
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lost one of its feet I don't know what
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the deal is I looked through the box and
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everything I couldn't find it and so
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this particular one it means that you
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know it's not exactly stable this would
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be super easy for me to fix if I went to
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the hardware store or something or
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probably if I contacted the company they
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would quickly rush me the appropriate
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foot but it's a little surprising the
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other one is of course much more stable
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and again you know look at the design I
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like this design with the beach and the
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white but you know other people might
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want something a little more discreet
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some people really like having a grill
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on the front of their speaker this
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doesn't have that option this is just
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exactly what they look like this sticker
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on top if you're curious this actually
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can peel off I've chosen not to but if
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you really want it to be just a nice
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white you know totally fine you can do
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that I just don't know how many computer
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users have a computer desk set up that
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has this color scheme again whatever is
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probably not a big deal you're probably
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going to be so busy listening to these
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speakers that you're not going to give a
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hoot about what
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look like and they look really nice you
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know don't get me wrong really beautiful
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speakers the density and complexity
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factor on the back of the speaker will
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probably leave you a little bit stymied
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for a bit but once you get the hang of
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it and once you sort of adjust these to
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where you like you really never touch it
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again my experience is that you know
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once I got that treble and bass to
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levels that I like then it's all about
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the remote and frankly the remotes
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preset eq's so that becomes something
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where you can just sort of play with
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different buttons and see what kind of
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results you get so all in all is they're
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fantastic these are really cool speakers
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they're a really good value for the
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price when you look at like go to Best
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Buy or something and look at speakers
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for your computer with separate
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subwoofers and everything these sound
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way better and they're still in the same
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ballpark and what is that ballpark well
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hold on before we get there I'm gonna
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ask you click on that subscribe button
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but don't just do that leave a comment
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and tell me when you're working on your
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computer how do you listen to music do
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you use speakers or do you use the
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speakers built into your computer or do
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you use headphones 100% of the time
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because you know if you're using
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speakers this will up your game big-time
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however other people in your office
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might complain and your neighbors might
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complain depending on how loud you
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listen to your music so that's kind of
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on you now the price the Edifier s88
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zero DB will cost you two hundred and
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ninety $9.99 at amazon.com and i would
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say if you're looking for really good
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quality music this would be amazing in a
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dorm room or a small apartment also you
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know you can't go wrong with these these
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are just terrific speakers I'm really
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become a big fan of them so this is Dave
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Taylor I'm going back to Duran Duran
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which means I'll catch you
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in my next
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[Music]
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