Listening Tests


Music

Without a doubt, this Edifier system has a wide and deep soundstage. The sound output has a very smooth and the bass level is balanced very nicely. I was very surprised at the sound produced by this system for its price point. The sound produced was very warm and dynamic but unfortunately the bass would distort if the bass level was set 80% and over. The E1100 can crank up its volume pretty nicely for someone using a PC or using this speaker system for an Mp3 Player output. I found the sound could be improved quite a bit by using a graphics equilizer in order to tailor the output to someone's particular taste.


Movies

This system is passable for personal movie viewing but don’t expect large envelopment and big bass sound. On the other hand, placing the sub on my desk helped with the bass output because of the down firing subwoofer. The virtual center produced was quite accurate for scene dialog and center based action scenes.

Once again, the bass would bottom out in many action scenes if it was set to high. The system did seem to have a high crossover and low-mid frequencies seemed to come from the subwoofer also. I found sub placement was crucial for getting accurate sound from movies.

Movies tested:

Saving Private Ryan: Omaha Sequence
Spiderman3
The Matrix


Gaming

Like with movies, for gaming I personally prefer a 5.1 system but I have used stereo configurations in the past. The fact that this speaker system has a wide and deep soundstage helped with producing an accurate front stage for gaming. Dialog seemed clear and concise while bass response was reasonable and clear. When playing FPS games, I could easily pin-point targets within the front sound stage and all the sounds were reproduced clearly with no muddying for the image sometimes found on smaller 2.1’s.

I found it best to extend the satellites out to the ends of my desk to help widen the front image. After I did this, I could easily locate sounds between the two speakers in the sound field. There was ample volume for gaming if someone requires extra loud an system for FPS gaming but the clarity of this system helped more then pure volume.

Games Tested:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Medal of Honor: Airborn
Call of Duty 2
Bloodrayne 2