
No, it won’t fit in a backpack, and the pedestrian handle doesn’t beg you to carry it like a boom box. The splashproof Ultimate Ears Hyperboom is the best-sounding portable speaker in our ratings. But for many people that’s a reasonable trade-off for speakers that sound this good. They don’t have multiroom capability, for instance, though they do offer a variety of connections-from robust Bluetooth pairing to RCA and digital jacks. The Edifiers aren’t the most versatile speakers in CR’s ratings. That means if you’re listening to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” it’s easy to sense how far Frank Sinatra is from the piano, and even that he’s standing up instead of sitting down. “The Edifiers produce a three-dimensional image,” says Elias Arias, head of our speaker testing program. Placed properly in a room, a stereo pair of Edifiers seems almost like a hologram generator, creating the convincing illusion that the musicians are right there with you. Its high frequencies are clear and smooth, and its bass is impactful but also musical, so you can tell the difference between, say, an upright bass and an electric Fender Jazz Bass.īut the real magic lies in the Edifier’s midrange, where you can hear the texture of voices and instruments.

The Edifier S1000MKII is simply the best-sounding speaker in our ratings, earning a rare Excellent score for sound quality.
