Edifier MR5 Speaker Review

Gaming audio has evolved exponentially since the first bleeps and bloops squelched out of a mono speaker. These days, with production values in the millions, a considerable part of that can be accounted for by orchestras, star-filled voice casts, and audio painstakingly captured from real-world scenarios. You absolutely have to make sure, then, that you experience those things in the highest fidelity possible. With the latest Edifier MR5 speakers, you can do just that.

The MR5 look smart, but I’m not about to tell you that they’re the most eye-catching set we’ve ever reviewed – that award goes to the Edifier QR65 with its mirrored RGB. The MR5 are a set of traditional, black, upright desktop speakers. Their looks do benefit from the copper highlights that sit at the centre of the speaker itself, and which the control button is made of, but they are still relatively unassuming.

At least they would be, if they weren’t quite large. Testing them on top of the pretty hefty Flexispot E7 Plus they look just about right, but anything smaller and they’ll dwarf the rest of your setup. I’m still rocking the iconic Creative Pebble speakers in my regular hardware configuration, and those are absolutely tiny in comparison. If you’ve got a dinky desk, you’d best look elsewhere (maybe at the Creative Pebble, actually), or look to put them on separate speaker stands or hang them from the wall.

The Edifier MR5 are sold as monitors, meaning that they are designed to deliver sound in the clearest, most unadulterated manner possible. That should make them fantastic if you’re doing music and audio editing, but when you’re gaming, watching films or simply listening to music, they’re delivering the audio exactly as the designers intended.

The potential downside to that is if you’re looking for overwhelming, dramatic bass. You aren’t necessarily going to get that here. However, what you are going to get is exceptionally balanced and highly detailed audio, with decent, but not overly emphasised bass production. You can boost the bottom end output as much as possible, with physical Bass and Treble dials at the back of the right-hand speaker, or via a customised EQ in the accompanying mobile app.

I’ve played a heck of a lot of games with the Edifier in tow, from Crimson Desert to the brand new Star Fox, and this is a speaker that’s good enough to make you take a moment each time you use them. Just a little mental nudge to say, ‘Oh, that sounds great!’ goes a long way, and they absolutely trounce my ageing Creative speakers in terms of depth and balance.

Star Fox’s excellent orchestral soundtrack is presented beautifully, the sly Star Wars nods giving way to blockbuster-ready drama-soaked bombast. The Edifier MR5 really highlights the tonal highs, rather than the low-end, but there’s still a very pleasing sense of depth, aided by the bass ports in the side of each speaker housing, where its down-firing 5-inch woofer shoots low frequencies out.

During my review of the MR5, I embarked on a remastering project of an old band EP, and the Edifier monitors offered the perfect headphone-less option for digging into the audio. Their precision made refining, tweaking and tuning the sound much easier, and I certainly felt happier with the new version of each track than I was expecting. There’s a fantastic level of detail to every aspect of the MR5’s output, and for music production in particular, it’s an ideal tool, whether you’re a hobbyist or a serious producer on a budget.

As a monitor, the Edifier MR5 offer a huge selection of connection options, including balanced XLR, phono/RCA, and a TRS/6.3mm jack on the back, with a 3.5 mm auxiliary at the front. This gives you a massive amount of versatility, with further modernity aided by the high-res certified Bluetooth connection via LDAC codec, as well as regular old SDC if your device isn’t compatible.

That Bluetooth connection also gives you access to the MR5’s control app, available for both iOS and Android, and from here you can tweak and tune the three different presets – Monitor, Music and Custom – all of which are accessed by repeated presses of the power button at the front of the speaker. Once you get used to the fact that the only way you can tell which of these you’re currently in is the LED light on the front of the speaker – or in the app – you’ll be well away. Besides that, you can also make adjustments to the Low Cutoff, the Acoustic Space, or activate Desktop Control depending on how you want the speaker to produce bass frequencies, and where it’s positioned in your room, and what you’ve put it on.

With an RRP of £279.99, the Edifier MR5 are a fairly substantial investment, but in the monitor category they offer excellent value for money, particularly with the range of connection options and the addition of Hi-Res Bluetooth as well. As a catch-all speaker option for gaming, content and music production, they’ll fit easily into most people’s setup, as long as you’ve got the desk space.