Why buy an all-in-one home theater system that uses digital tricks and sleight of hand to produce virtual surround sound, when you can pick up the real deal for the same price? That seems to be the compelling question Edifier is asking with its new S760D Multimedia System, a self-powered, fully decked-out 5.1 sound system that can be nabbed for an impressively modest $800.
Edifier has been on a bit of a roll lately when it comes to speaker design, recently releasing a Bluetooth-equipped desktop favorite of ours, the E25 Luna Eclipse. The new S760D is one of the company’s most ambitious offerings yet, combining a loaded line-up of four 2-way satellite speakers that pack a 3.5-inch driver matched with a 1-inch tweeter, a center speaker with a three driver configuration, and an aggressive-looking 10-inch subwoofer that employs dual passive radiators to barrel out the low end.
The system is self-powered by a claimed 540 total watts (RMS) of Class D amplification, pushing 60 watts per channel to the satellite speakers, and a whopping 240 watts to the sub. Source options include a trio of digital optical inputs as well as a coaxial digital input, 5.1 channel analog inputs, and dual stereo analog inputs. Digital surround signal decoding for the system incorporates a nice selection of the standards, including Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS. The system does not, however, appear to decode the latest high-resolution formats found on Blu-ray, such as DTS-HD Master and Dolby TrueHD.
The full setup can be controlled by its nifty looking hardwired control panel with digital display, or via the included wireless remote, both of which provide the user options for “trimming, tuning, volume, and input adjustments,” though there’s no mention of a full parametric EQ, which will limit the ability to mold the system to your exact specifications. There’s also no HDMI or ARC connection, so the speakers won’t be able to communicate to your other devices for easy control from a single remote, unless you program a universal remote to do so.
That said, this little system is a clever offering from Edifier that is definitely worth a long look. At a time when even mid-tier sound bars can run upwards of the $500 mark, offering a fully autonomous surround sound setup, complete with everything you’ll need to spice up movie night, and all for under a grand, is an enticing proposition.
Since the S760D just debuted, we obviously can’t speak for its performance yet, but if it stacks up to previous offerings from the company we’ve heard of late, it may be hard to go wrong at this price point. If you’d prefer to wait for our ears-on verdict, we hope to perform a full review of the S760D soon, so stay tuned.
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