antonpinchuk
New Head-Fier
I watched many YouTube sound tests where Edifier was compared with AirPulse side-by-side. They told that S3000 has a musical character comparing to monitor speakers. By the fact I have the feeling that the scene is just digitally faked.
Embedded DAC spoils all the details, either in USB ASIO and Bluetooth connection modes. With external DAC it works much better. But still sounds cheap and digital.
Architecture
Edifier S3000 Pro has both balanced inputs on the master speaker, I assume that it has stereo DAC inside. Then the left channel analog signal is converted back to digital to transmit to the slave speaker where it's again passing through conversion to analog. While testing my own S3000 I have a strong feeling that the left slave speaker sounds less detail than the master one.
On other hand, in Airpulse A300Pro each speaker has it's own mono DAC and amp (each speaker has it's own balanced input). This architecture is making digital signal transmitted to a slave speaker without change and converted there on mono DAC, making minimal loss even in non-pro mode. The only issue with Airpulse is AUX input, that, like Edifier, has noticeable double conversion problem.
Another issue of S3000 Pro is that it does not have a "pure direct" mode. The balanced signal always goes through volume/presets control, which is not implemented well. I found that it loses quality on lower volume while using speaker's embedded control, that does not happen while controlling volume with external preamp. So I turn the speaker's volume to maximum, but still it does not make it "pure direct", as well as it produces a slight white noise.
Build and drivers
Unlike the digital stuffing, the mechanical part and assembly is implemented well. The membrane tweeters and mid bass drivers have a potential. Based on videos I saw they use foam and wrap internal wires to reduce distortions. I have no complains here.
My sound test videos:
Conclusion
I'm disappointed in this speakers. Wrong architecture and probably cheap components for that price. The marketing targeted to impress unexperienced consumers and even fool some "experts". Significant sound detail loss while using digital inputs, more or less acceptable with external DAC.
Externally look solid and mechanically perfect (for their price range), but electrical and digital implementation is spoiling everything.
Average consumers are happy. Audiophiles, just pass by, don't buy. I personally decided to keep them. But I'm looking the way to do some tuning, implementing "pure direct" mode, and probably make them wired. Welcome to advise.
Embedded DAC spoils all the details, either in USB ASIO and Bluetooth connection modes. With external DAC it works much better. But still sounds cheap and digital.
Architecture
Edifier S3000 Pro has both balanced inputs on the master speaker, I assume that it has stereo DAC inside. Then the left channel analog signal is converted back to digital to transmit to the slave speaker where it's again passing through conversion to analog. While testing my own S3000 I have a strong feeling that the left slave speaker sounds less detail than the master one.
On other hand, in Airpulse A300Pro each speaker has it's own mono DAC and amp (each speaker has it's own balanced input). This architecture is making digital signal transmitted to a slave speaker without change and converted there on mono DAC, making minimal loss even in non-pro mode. The only issue with Airpulse is AUX input, that, like Edifier, has noticeable double conversion problem.
Another issue of S3000 Pro is that it does not have a "pure direct" mode. The balanced signal always goes through volume/presets control, which is not implemented well. I found that it loses quality on lower volume while using speaker's embedded control, that does not happen while controlling volume with external preamp. So I turn the speaker's volume to maximum, but still it does not make it "pure direct", as well as it produces a slight white noise.
Build and drivers
Unlike the digital stuffing, the mechanical part and assembly is implemented well. The membrane tweeters and mid bass drivers have a potential. Based on videos I saw they use foam and wrap internal wires to reduce distortions. I have no complains here.
My sound test videos:
Conclusion
I'm disappointed in this speakers. Wrong architecture and probably cheap components for that price. The marketing targeted to impress unexperienced consumers and even fool some "experts". Significant sound detail loss while using digital inputs, more or less acceptable with external DAC.
Externally look solid and mechanically perfect (for their price range), but electrical and digital implementation is spoiling everything.
Average consumers are happy. Audiophiles, just pass by, don't buy. I personally decided to keep them. But I'm looking the way to do some tuning, implementing "pure direct" mode, and probably make them wired. Welcome to advise.
