The Article

S880DB MK.II FROM EDIFIER

5th February 2026

A pair of compact speakers, these small-footprint powered units can, says Paul Rigby, be parachuted in, to solve most sonic problems

I’m pretty sure that you can still buy the original Mk.I S880DB speakers but this new iteration looks to move the story onwards from that original design.

For example, the tweeter for the new Mk.IIs has been reportedly enhanced from the earlier 25mm model to a 38mm titanium dome driver with a larger 25mm voice coil and associated neodymium magnets.

The mid/bass driver has also been redesigned. According to the company, the soundstage has been improved too because of that but well see during the tests.

Inside, the 32bit multi-core Texas Instruments XMOS XU216 handles the USB port and the interface between that and the DAC. Speaking of which, digital support ranges up to 24bit/96kHz. There’s no obvious information on the featured DAC chip itself and I suspect it’s not a boutique model but part of an integrated TI chipset.

MASTER & SLAVE

You’ll also find a Bluetooth 5.3 receiver, which I’m very happy to see supports LDAC codec – one of the best codecs currently on the market. It’s way better than aptX or aptX HD, for example.

The speakers are configured in classic master/slave arrangement with the amplifier and controls in and around the master speaker while the other is passive but connected to the master via a bespoke and rather chunky inter-connecting cable. That cable uses Edifier’s own DIN ports as terminations. Make sure you push these DIN plugs in securely before use, incidentally to make sure all of the music signal is getting through.

On the rear, in addition to the rear-mounted bass port, you will find tone controls plus a sub out, a pair of single-ended RCA inputs, coax, optical, USB input, volume knob, figure-of-eight power socket and rocker power switch. All of this is supported by a 88W Class D amplifier.

What I really liked, on the front, was the small yet easy to read OLED source window, featuring auto dimming, on the base of the master speaker.

APP CONTROL TOO

Edifier’s own ConneX app can be used to tweak the speakers during play. Alternatively, you can control the speakers via the included remote control, which reminds me – at least in a very broad sense – of the Ruark remote. This hockey puck-like remote can be charged via its built-in USB-C socket. It has a 10 second auto-power down which then wakes up when you reach for it. You can change the volume, select your source, there’s a dedicated Bluetooth button as well as play/pause.

Spanning 145 x 237 x 207mm with a combined weight of just over 6kg, you can buy these speakers in either white or black.

Questions is this – how do they sound? Well, let’s have a little listen, shall we?

SOUND QUALITY

To begin, I wanted to look at lossy streaming. Powered speakers are ideal for this sort of quick, casual listening experience so I wanted to replicate that and did so via Bluetooth and YouTube Music via my iPhone 15.

Side panels

I also picked a track with some extremes. Jon Secada’s Just another Day offers piano with thumping bass and varying vocal deliveries when the backing harmonies are taken into consideration plus synths.

VS FLUANCE RI71

I began my comparison with the recently reviewed Fluance Ri71 powered speakers.

The Edifier speakers allow you to select a range of Sound Effects EQ. Running through those, both the Classic and Dynamic options overly boosted both treble and bass to varying excessive amounts while Vocal removed too much bass so I stuck with Monitor mode which was broadly neutral.

Underneath

The Ri71s are much larger than the S880DBs so the latter cannot compete with the Fluance’s larger cabinet in terms of bass punch but I did feel that the Edifiers had a deeper bass exploration and were possibly better integrated in bass terms over lossy music while the soundstage was open and well presented. I was easily able to hear each instrument across that soundstage. So yes, the soundstage does work well.

Sure, the S880DBs couldn’t compete with the Fluance’s AMT tweeters for delicacy and detail in upper frequency terms but they did control The Dove’s Carousels at 24bit/96kHz more successfully over Bluetooth, keeping a hold of the potentially wayward frequencies and the busy nature of the soundstage as a whole.

VS EDIFIER S1000W

I then moved to another Edifier power design, the S1000W speakers. A much larger speaker design. A speaker pairing that towers over the diminutive S880DBs.

Remote control

The larger cabinet and bigger mid-bass unit produced a grander, more portentous listening experience from the 1000s. That melded well with the upper mids to produce an epic presentation. Even so, the S880DB speakers held their own here with a surprisingly large bass response for the size of the cabinet and enough detail from the upper frequencies to compete with the 1000s. If anything, I felt that the S880DBs were more nimble and mobile in upper midrange terms.

VS KANTO YU4

More pertinent perhaps was a comparison between the S880DB stand-mounts and the similarly priced and similarly-sized Kanto YU4 speakers. Speakers that can be used for both listening room use and near-field desktop use.

For the listening room, I hooked up my Audiolab 6000CDT CD transport and played a selection of China Crisis tracks.

During listening room play, I noted, via the S880DBs, that the rather shy, treble-infused acoustic guitar strumming was more noticeable and informative, bass played a firmer and more foundational role, rooting the track to the ground, while cymbal taps were lighter and were pulled from the rear of the mix, giving the track and more complex presentation.

NEAR FIELD

Finally, I tried both speakers in near-field desk configuration using the same source and flip-flopping between RCAs and direct to the coax port. In near-field mode the result was a lot closer.

In upper frequency terms, both speakers offered great detail with heaps of information although the YU4s supplied a more fragile, delicate, open performance around the upper mids. Saying that, the bass performance, while tight and nimble from the YU4s was deeper, more impactful with more grunt from the S880DBs.

CONCLUSION

I was mightily impressed with the Edifier S880DB MK.II speakers. Why? Well because of their solid sonic performance. They performed well during standard listening room situations and also in near field and low-volume situations. They are fully featured which also helps system integration, they perform well against the competition and they are small enough with a low footprint design to work in just about every house, room and situation.

They are, therefore, a real Swiss Army knife speaker design. The S880DB speakers are trouble shooting speakers. Problem-solving speakers. Who ya gonna call?

EDIFIER S880DB MKII POWERED SPEAKERS

Price: £335.59

Buy Here:

UK – www.amazon.co.uk

EUROPE – amzn.to/4qSuwvY

USA – https://ebay.us/nmwzNX

GOOD: general sound quality, feature set, small footprint, suits all situations

BAD: nothing