Edifier e3100 2+1 Speaker System Review

You may find this hard to believe but the satellite speakers also features a custom MDF enclosure and cloth speaker grill covers. Each satellite comes with a PV dome tweeter and 3" paper midrange. The entire system is magnetically shielded which pretty much means the speaker magnets aren't positioned near the sides of the enclosures.

Removing the grill covers will expose the speakers, unlike many mainstream desktop systems these speakers have plenty of room to breathe with very little obstructions directly in front of the speaker cones. This is important for sound quality and accuracy.

The only real way to build a sub bass enclosure is by using wood, the density and harmonics are perfect for audio reproduction and its easy to work with. The Edifier e3100 features such an enclosure and except for the amplifier mounting plate (which is metal) the entire box is made from medium density fiberboard and sealed to prevent air leakage.

One item I look for when purchasing any speaker system is the construction of the sub box since it can really make or break the audio quality and is typically the most expensive part. Edifier is using a single reflex bandpass (or 5th order) design on the e3100 that consists of a single 5" woofer. The box design is inherently very efficient though only in the "tuned" range of the box. Unlike your typical bandpass or sealed enclosure the single reflex design does a very poor job at reproducing extremely low frequencies but can really hit hard in the tuned range with very little effort. Because of this you can get the same volume from a smaller amplifier and woofer when placed up against a larger and more powerful system. However there is a catch, the single reflex bandpass design is also very difficult to "tune" (I know from experience).