The Subwoofer

Our initial impression was that this was yet another set of black speakers. Black seems to be in the ‘in’ thing these days, with silver coming in second. Thanks to the "white assault" by Apple, white is starting to become popular. Still, black is the best colour to hide dust and stains, especially if it has a matte finish.

With some silver buttons and accents, the Edifier C3 satellite speakers have an all-black theme. The subwoofer could look better, however. The grayish metal grills make the subwoofer look rather ordinary, like a generic product. However, it does suit the black theme well.

Subwoofer grill

The subwoofer is boxy in shape, mainly because Edifier used MDF (medium-density fibreboard), instead of solid wood. The subwoofer uses a ported design with an 8” woofer driver unit. It produces out the low-frequency effects that complement the mid- and high-frequencies from the satellite speakers. The amplifier delivers 30 watt RMS to the subwoofer driver.

The subwoofer	Subwoofer port	Subwoofer back view

The Satellites

The Edifier C3 satellite speakers are pretty boxy affairs too. A slimmer design would have been much better, allowing for the use of less desktop real estate. The facade have a piano finish and are removable. This is useful in the event you need to replace their drivers. However, it would look much nicer if the netting did not cover the nice finish. The netting beats having thick criss-cross plastic grills though, as it allows for acoustic transparency with better audio quality.

The satellite speaker	Front view	Back view

The satellite speakers have a 2-way configuration. Therefore, each satellite speaker has a mid-range driver and a tweeter (for the higher ranges). The drivers are specified as 3.5" mid-range drivers and 13 mm silk diaphragm tweeters. By combining the satellites with the subwoofer (for low frequencies), the Edifier C3 speaker set is able to deliver almost a full audio spectrum.

Mid-range driver	Tweeter