Edifier MR5 Review: Simply Great Speakers For Your Office Or Studio

The Edifier MR5s have a clean design with a single-color construction (black or white), visible black driver membranes, and brass accents around the tweeter, at the center of the midrange driver, and covering the knurled volume knob. The plastic components feel sturdy, but a slim gap I spotted between the front panel and the main body of the cabinets prevents me from calling the construction refined.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The speakers are modestly sized. The active speaker measures 10.39 by 6.26 by 11.02 inches (HWD), while the passive speaker is slightly shallower at 10.39 by 6.26 by 10.11 inches. By comparison, the Fluance Ri71s measure 12.2 by 7.3 by 7.8 inches. While each Edifier enclosure features built-in rubber feet to minimize vibration transfer, they don’t ship with angled stands to help direct the drivers toward your ears; you’ll need to supply your own stands or wedges.

A 3.75-inch midrange driver and a 1-inch silk dome tweeter grace the front of each speaker. Further, a downward-firing, 5-inch, long-throw woofer is tucked inside each unit, with ports located on the side and rear panels. This extra driver is part of what makes the MR5s so deep from front to back.

Edifier MR5 left and right speakers

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The woofers hit 30W, the midrange drivers hit 15W, and the tweeters hit 10W for a combined output of an impressive 110W. Though three drivers might seem like a recipe for a wider frequency response range, the speakers are only rated from 46Hz to 40kHz. In other words, you’ll still need a subwoofer if you want to dig down deep.

The MR5s connect to nearly anything, from the professional to the everyday. Around back, there are balanced XLR inputs, balanced quarter-inch TRS inputs, and stereo RCA jacks. On the front, there’s a 3.5mm jack for auxiliary input and a headphone output. It’s a little surprising there’s no USB-C input, given the speakers’ full digital signal processing, but this is not a deal-breaker.

What you won’t find? A subwoofer output. That leaves you with limited options if a subwoofer is important to your setup or needs. The Ri71s, meanwhile, include a subwoofer output with an 80Hz low-pass cutoff, HDMI ARC input, and a grounding post for use with some turntables.

Edifier MR5 rear ports

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

Since the speakers feature a three-way active crossover design, the left and right speakers aren’t connected with simple speaker wire. Instead, they use a proprietary 9-pin mini-DIN cable provided by Edifier.

Extra features include high- and low-frequency tuning knobs; diagrams explaining the positive, negative, and ground pin layouts for different ports; details on the behavior of various app settings; and a dedicated Bluetooth pairing button.

The MR5s are the first audio product I’ve encountered that uses the newer Bluetooth 6.0 standard. The high-resolution LDAC codec is enabled by default. The Fluance speakers also support the AAC, aptX Low Latency, aptX HD, and SBC codecs. What’s more, the MR5s can play sound from multiple inputs at the same time, so no need to worry about swapping between input settings—Bluetooth can play right alongside wired input. Unfortunately, the speakers don’t support Wi-Fi audio, which would enable even higher-resolution playback.