Edifier D12 front detail

One of the very first reviews here at HF&MS was of the Edifier Spinnaker Bluetooth speakers. We said of them, ten years ago, they were:

the first set of speakers that can truly call themselves ‘dock busters’, because buying a dock for your smartphone just went out of date.

We were right about ‘docks’ all those years ago, but how has Edifier progressed over this period?

Design

The Edifier D12 is a Bluetooth Speaker that plugs into the wall, so there’s no battery. Inputs include a 3.5mm ‘Aux In’, a standard RCA input, and Bluetooth 5.0. There is an Output to a 3.5mm ‘Line Out’.

Edifier D12 rear detail

The cabinet itself houses 2 x 102mm woofers and two 19 mm silk dome tweeters. They are driven by a claimed total of 70W (RMS) power output.

The top of the cabinet is flat and has three knobs adjusting bass, treble and volume.

There is also an excellent remote control.

Quality

The Edifier D12 has a wooden enclosure, apparently managing resonance and the box itself feels very solid indeed, nothing’s rattling here. The sides can be in black, white, or natural wood finishes. There is a leather effect top to the cabinet that

Edifier D12 with the front grille removed

demands things get put on it, like the remote, the phone you’re streaming from, keys, etc. You could have a TV, or another source, of course, though there’s no optical input to the DSP.

The front grille on the cabinet comes off, revealing the driver cones and offering a bit of ‘Grrrr’.

The cabinet size (W×H×D) is 359mm×159mm×203.5mm and it is 4.6kg in weight, so just a fraction larger than a classic Roberts radio. The D12 is priced at £99.99 on Amazon at this time.

Performance

Physically

… it is so easy to use

The speaker has been on our central ‘island’ in the kitchen with daily, almost constant use, it is so easy to use. With The Ashes cricket on at the moment, it is BBC Sounds constantly at the moment on Bluetooth. My personal preference would be for the power lead to be separate from the cabinet rather than being wired. A rechargeable battery would work too. Because the D12 is at the heart of our kitchen it has become a central point for keys, phones and the like, an interesting idea one of the kids had would be to have a wireless charger on the top for mobiles. This changes the price point I’d guess but it is an excellent idea.

Sound Quality

… there is simplicity and basic functionality that the D12 delivers…

Edifier D12 with tone controls on the top of the cabinet

The quality of the sound is very good here. There is a deep resonance on vocals as we’re listening to a lot of radio. The music is solid too. Compared to our own classic Roberts radio we have more weight in the radio and music playback is simple on the smartphone. The tone controls for treble and bass on the top are a nice touch with the volume control and they keep the D12 as the centre point it has become in our kitchen space. It would presumably work nicely in the bedroom, with sleep controls in most Apps these days like BBC Sounds.

There is nothing at all to complain about here, there is simplicity and basic functionality that the D12 delivers with ease.
There is no headphones output, Airplay or Chromecast, or any smart features like Alexa, etc. There’s no WiFI either but at this price point, I guess that’s a different product if you want that.

Thoughts

…the beauty of this D12 is in its simplicity and lack of complication

There are loads of BT speakers out there, but this is a nice focal point in our kitchen area, we’ve had it outside too with a BBQ on the patio. It is hard to find fault anywhere here, for what this is and Edifier has a solid history and a good sound in my experience.

There’re bundles of these speakers on the market, just think about your budget, what you really need these days with our amazing smartphones and if you really do need Alexa, Chromecast, Airplay etc. If you do need these things, you have to pay for them of course. Having heard the Sonus single speaker recently (ERA 100, £249 in the UK), this D12 is easily on this level at half the price, though of course, the functionality is a lot less. But with a smartphone and Bluetooth, you have just about everything anyway, the beauty of this D12 is in its simplicity and lack of complication.

Overall

Just give it a listen, if you’re on Amazon and you don’t like it send it back but for a hundred quid, it is a nice focal point in any room and with its simplicity, this is just perfect gravy.

Specification

Full details are on the company’s site.