Edifier R1600T

Avenged7Fold · 17 Oct 2013 at 01:41

I grabbed these on a lovely OCuk deal. They are absolutely stunning!

Now i was wondering if these speakers were essentially two passive speakers where one has an amplifier inside of which it is always connected to?

If this is the case, could i open up the active speaker and disconnect it from the amplifier, then use them both as passive speakers in another set up? An example being to use them as front right and front left speakers of a 5.1 surround sound set up, by plugging them both into a 5.1 ready amplifier as passive speakers?

Am i being an idiot and this idea is just stupid impossible fantasy for me?

Is it possible to just buy the passive speaker from somewhere?

Thanks for the responses guys

Marsman · 17 Oct 2013 at 10:48

Bad idea in my opinion. The problem with that idea is that these things are designed for use with small amplifiers. Their wattage rating is low, 16w RMS per channel. They're designed for near field listening. A AV receiver is capable of much higher wattage output, so there is a very good chance the other speakers you have connected to the AV receiver will be of much higher wattage. In short, if you turn the volume up past what the Edifier speakers can handle, you're going to end up with broken speakers.

dacads · 17 Oct 2013 at 10:55

Yes that would be possible but you might need a new crossover that has a higher wattage rating.

There's a thread where people have carried out a similar operation but on another pair of speakers

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1709457

Changing a few bits and bobs can give you a nice surprise in terms of increasing sound quality

Marsman · 17 Oct 2013 at 11:07

Those Microlab Solo6C's can handle 100w, the Edifier R1600T are 16w. :/

Unless of course the drivers of these low wattage speakers can handle a lot more than what the internal amp puts out.

Kei · 17 Oct 2013 at 11:27

Likely that they can handle more than the amp outputs. There's only one way to find out. If there are resistors in the crossover (zobels, notch filters and L pads) I'd check their rating. (usually you won't see any higher than 5W ceramic in reasonably high power speakers. Usually easy to identify as they look like a piece of french chalk with their specs printed on them) Personally, I reckon they'd sound better run off a more substantial amp. I do wonder if the space occupied by the amp in the one cabinet is deducted from the other to ensure the sound is identical across the two. (removing the amp and increasing the breathing room in the cabinet will marginally improve the LF response too.

Provided the cabinets are sealed, you would be quite surprised how much power you can put through them with dynamic music. Pure tone at 40W+ would probably melt the coil insulation. (usually quite obvious as it gives off a burning smell shortly before it dies) Ported cabinets are not as good, as the loading on the driver disappears below the tuning frequency, which causes over-excursion which usually deforms/de-centres the coil or damages the suspension and causes rattling. (unloading the driver basically means running it in free air with no cabinet to pressurise)

Avenged7Fold · 17 Oct 2013 at 17:01

Thanks guys, Edifier has e-mailed me saying that passive speakers are unavailable separately and that they recommend i look into their 5.1 set up.