Edifier MR4.5 Mixes Studio Inputs With Wireless Audio

Edifier’s MR4.5 arrives as the boundaries between studio monitors, desktop speakers and compact hi-fi systems continue to soften. Recent products such as Kanto’s new YU and TUK models, Tangent’s Spectrum II X5 Active BT, Fyne Audio’s Cubitt 5 and PSB’s iQ Series combine amplification with wireless playback and increasingly broad source connectivity. Most sit much further up the price scale, making the MR4.5 a considerably more affordable entry point into the expanding active-speaker category.

For its part, Edifier is clearly pitching the MR4.5 as more than a budget studio monitor, claiming its bi-amplified design can handle music production, video editing and everyday listening. Balanced inputs and placement adjustment support the professional side of that brief, while LDAC Bluetooth and app control make it more practical as an all-purpose desktop speaker. In other words, it is being asked to wear several hats without charging designer-hat money.

Each MR4.5 keeps things fairly traditional with its pairing of a 114mm polypropylene mid-bass driver with a 25mm silk-dome tweeter. The tweeter sits inside a dimpled waveguide intended to spread the top end more evenly. Both drivers are mounted in MDF cabinets, with the amplification and control electronics tucked into one speaker. Class D power is split between the drivers, supplying 30W to each mid-bass unit and 10W to each tweeter for a claimed 80W RMS across the pair.

Edifier claims a maximum sound pressure level of 98dB at one metre and a frequency response of 50Hz to 40kHz. The company describes that response as wide and flat, although no tolerance figure is provided, so the specification tells us more about its reach than its accuracy.

Connectivity is one of the MR4.5’s stronger suits. Balanced XLR and 6.35mm TRS inputs allow direct connection to audio interfaces and mixers, while RCA and 3.5mm inputs cover conventional consumer sources. A front-mounted 3.5mm headphone output is also provided.

Bluetooth 6.0 supports LDAC and SBC, with LDAC capable of carrying compatible material at up to 24-bit/96kHz and 990kbps. Multipoint connectivity allows two source devices to remain paired, while the system carries both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification.

What is missing is USB audio. Edifier says the analogue front end, internal processing and amplification support signals up to 24-bit/96kHz, but computer users wanting a direct wired digital connection will still need an external DAC or audio interface. That will not trouble studio users who already have an interface in the chain, although USB would have made the MR4.5 a more complete laptop-friendly system. For a speaker designed to live beside a computer, its absence is difficult not to notice.

Placement adjustment is one of the MR4.5’s more useful features. Rear-panel controls provide high- and low-frequency trim, while the Edifier ConneX app adds low-frequency cut-off, acoustic-space compensation, desktop compensation and custom equalisation.

This is not automated room correction, and it will not turn a difficult spare room into Abbey Road. It should, however, help address the predictable bass reinforcement and reflections caused by placing compact speakers on a desk or close to a wall. That level of app-based control gives the MR4.5 a useful customisation edge beyond just bass and treble adjustment.

The MR4.5 is also unlikely to take over the desk, with the powered speaker measuring a svelte 140mm wide, 244mm high and 229mm deep, while the passive cabinet is slightly shallower at 208mm. That gives it almost the same frontal footprint as ELAC’s compact ConneX DCB41, although the amplified Edifier extends around 26mm further back. The complete system weighs 6.63kg and is available in black or white.

The Edifier MR4.5 is available in the United States now, priced at US$249.99. Additional regional pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.

For more information visit Edifier