Edifier M60 review: The speakers have an understated, classy look.
The Edifier M60 compact desktop speakers take up very little space on your desk. But they’ll claim your heart when you hook them up to your Mac for the first time.
I’m historically an earbuds kinda guy, but the Edifier M60 speakers’ reputation caught my attention. After spending a few weeks with them connected to my Mac, I don’t know what took me so long to give a pair of speakers another try.
In fact, I think the last time I used speakers with my computer was back in the late 2000s. I was a big gaming PC enthusiast back then, and I’m afraid to admit, I had a 5.1 speaker setup in my bedroom.
These days, I’m all about listening to podcasts and YouTube videos with the latest pair of wireless earbuds to cross my desk. But something changed when I installed Edifier’s diminutive speakers.
Now, I only fish those earbuds out when I’m listening to something my kids probably shouldn’t hear, like a True Crime podcast. Or something particularly embarrassing, like another video about something the same kids would mercilessly mock me for.
But for everything else, I flick my 16-inch MacBook Pro over to the M60s. Sure, I agree that Apple’s laptop speakers are pretty good in their own right. But these Edifier speakers really do put them in their place.
As well, they should. They’re small, yes, but they’re ginormous compared to Apple’s built-in speakers, so the disparity is to be expected.
What I didn’t expect was just how much of a difference that disparity would make during the eight-to-far-too-many hours I spend at my desk every day.
Let me explain.
Edifier M60 speakers review: Design
The first thing that I noticed when I unboxed these little wonders was the aesthetic. They come in black, white, and classic oak finishes. I received the black ones for testing.
If you’re a fan of minimalism, you’ll be right at home with these speakers on your desk. From the front, you see the tweeter and mid-low drivers and a gold Edifier logo.
The lack of any guards on the front of the speakers does, of course, make them a dust magnet. But I think that the looks outweigh the need to wave a duster at them every once in a while.
The rest of the speaker is as black as the rest, in my case. The majority of the touchable surface is ever-so-slightly matte and almost rubbery to the touch. Almost, but not quite — it’s hard to describe.
On the bottom, the speakers have four feet to dampen vibrations when you crank the volume up. Buyers also get a silver stand for each speaker, no matter which color is chosen.
The stand props the speakers up to a 15-degree angle so the sound is pointed more squarely at your ears. Edifier knows that the majority of its M60 speakers will wind up on desks, clearly.
Around the back, we find the connectivity options. There’s a 3.5mm AUX port as well as a USB-C connection. The final ports are somewhere to plug in some power, and the cable that connects the left and right speakers together.
A word on that cable, for a moment. It’s needed because only the right speaker is active, handing off the left channel audio and power to the left speaker for stereo sound.
That cable measures 1.8m, which is likely plenty long enough for most people. But I’m using the Innocn 49-inch ultra-wide monitor I reviewed a while back, so the cable is a slight issue.
It works, I admit. But the cable is stretched such that there is little room for error. In fact, there’s even less room for any kind of cable management.
I admit that most people aren’t using a monitor this wide, but I do think the cable should be longer. No matter your monitor, a decent distance between the speakers makes for a better stereo experience, after all.
This all brings us to perhaps one of the coolest parts of these speakers — the touch controls.
The top of the right speaker plays host to controls for power and volume. All of the buttons are touch sensitive, with the power button also handling the switching of sources.
Each button is backlit and looks great. The color changes depending on the source, so blue for Bluetooth, red for USB-C, and green for AUX.
Not everyone likes touch controls, I’m aware. But I think they’re a good compromise here because they keep the clean, minimalist lines Edifier was clearly going for. I’m a fan.
Edifier M60 speakers review: Specs
Speaker specs aren’t always the most interesting of things, nor are they the most lengthy. With that in mind, let’s get these out of the way so we can move on to something more interesting.
Each speaker is rated for 15W treble and 18W mid-low audio from their 1-inch silk dome tweeters and 3-inch long-throw aluminum diaphragm mid-low drivers. Frequency response comes in at 58 Hz – 40 kHz with a signal-to-noise ratio of 85dB(A).
Bluetooth 5.3 is supported alongside the aforementioned wired connectivity, and the SBC and LDAC codecs are also supported. AirPlay 2 support would have been nice, but beggars can’t be choosers.
As for the size, Edifier measures its M60 speakers at 100mm wide x 168mm high x 147mm deep. I knew they were small, but I wasn’t prepared for just how small they were when I unboxed them.
Finally, these speakers with the Edifier Connex iPhone app, where you can switch sources, choose your preferred EQ settings, and more. It’s a workable app, if uninspiring, and it gets the job done.
But none of this matters if these speakers don’t also get the job done. Thankfully, they do.
Edifier M60 speakers review: An easy choice for Mac owners
If you’re reading this, you’re probably going to hook these speakers up to a Mac. Maybe connect an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, too. And you absolutely should.
As I mentioned, these speakers have spent the last few weeks connected to my 16-inch MacBook Pro via USB-C. They were connected to the Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 dock I reviewed previously.
Connectivity worked as expected, and without fuss. I plugged everything in, switched the Mac’s output to the “Edifier M60” option in my Menu Bar, and waited.
I waited because I had to give my go-to speaker and earbud testing song to get going. Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing, via Apple Music, if you must know — I’m in my 40s and spent my youth listening to my Dad’s choice of music in the car.
If you know the song, you’ll know that it takes a minute to get going. Then once it does, there’s a drop with plenty of drums and guitars that, frankly, still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Especially when I’m listening via the right gear.
The Edifier M60 speakers did not disappoint.
The bass is surprisingly strong given their size, all while avoiding everything else becoming muddy and indistinct. Do they sound like world-beating audiophile speakers? No, of course not.
But they sound like what they are — an excellent pair of small desktop speakers that are at home playing your favorite rib-breaking song as they are playing YouTube videos.
I also put the speakers through their fair share of gaming. If you’ve read my reviews before, you’ll know I’m an Nvidia GeForce Now subscriber, and the speakers were great when playing the PC versions of Avowed, Atomfall, and Doom: The Dark Ages, among others.
Again, the bass did its job while the stereo separation meant that I could easily tell where enemies were shooting at me (and usually hitting me) from. And the volume goes high enough that my family had to come and tell me to turn it down more than once. So there’s that.
So you know how I feel about the Edifier M60, but how much will they cost if you want to add some to your own desk? They normally retail for around $200, though they are often available for a smidge less here and there. All three colors are the same price, too.
Are there cheaper ways to ditch your earbuds? Absolutely. But will you get a much better experience, aesthetic, and importantly, sound for spending the $200?
Again, absolutely.
Edifier M60 speakers review: Pros
- Incredibly small speakers
- An attractive aesthetic
- Strong bass without comprises elsewhere
- Three connectivity options
Edifier M60 speakers review: Cons
- The speaker cable could be longer
- No AirPlay 2 support
- Not everyone likes touch controls
Edifier M60 speakers review: 4 out of 5
Where to buy the Edifier M60 speakers
The Edifier M60 speakers are available from Amazon in all three colors for $199.99. However, there are often discounts that reduce that price by varying amounts.
