The small form factor of desktop speakers is very convenient but comes at the price of sacrificing sound quality!
For all listening purposes, including gaming, streaming videos, music and movies, you will find superb value in the Edifier R1850DB because it is an independent bookshelf speaker system that does not require external amplification because one of the speakers is an active speaker while the other speaker pair it's a passive speaker.
The built-in amplifier in the Edifier R1850DB active speaker produces rich enough sound and good bass, thanks to the large wooden cabinet enclosures, which have a black ash piano finish on the sides. The enclosures are made of 100% medium-density fibreboard (MDF) wood, which allows the R1850DB 4-inch bass drivers and 19mm silk dome tweeters to deliver a full range of sound.
The volume power output is a massive 70 watts, which is delivered via two 19-watt speakers and two 16-watt speakers both of which, deliver the treble, midrange and bass with a nice tonal quality. The speaker driver enclosure is angled at 10 degrees so, the sound is fired slightly upwards, rather than in a straight line at you.
Depending on the size of your desktop, the Edifier R1850DB speakers would make fantastic desktop computers but, thanks to their ability to connect external devices via line-in, you could put the Edifier R1850DB speakers anywhere.
The R1850DB speakers feature multiple outputs that would allow you to use them as nearfield monitor speakers for a home studio or home theater speakers connected to a TV.
If you do plan to connect the Edifier R1850DB speakers to a TV, it is best using the included optical cable, instead of the RCA to RCA audio cable because optical connection provides superior audio quality.
Speaking of versatility, the Edifier R1850DB speakers can also be used wirelessly without wires, thanks to the integration of bluetooth 4.0, which enables you to use the Edifier R1850DB speakers just like a bluetooth speaker.
To turn on bluetooth, you simply press the volume dial on the back of the active speaker until the led turns blue. You can also turn on bluetooth from the remote control, which is more convenient. Once paired to a phone, you can stream wireless sound with very good audio resolution, thanks to aptX support.
The dimensions of the Edifier R1850DB speakers are 26cm in height, 15cm wide and 24cm deep, including the connectors of the cables on the back.
The integration of bi-amping allows the Edifier R1850DB speaker to be more effective at delivering the lows and highs because both the bass driver and tweeter driver have their own dedicated channel of amplification; hence no chance of distortion.
Many speakers with woofer and tweeter systems share the same amplifier for the low frequencies and high frequencies, which can cause an issue as the amplifier can over deliver too much power to the tweeter, causing distortions in the audio.
While the Edifier R1850DB speaker doesn't require external amplification, you can, definitely, get more bass out of the R1850DB speakers by connecting an external subwoofer. There is subwoofer "preamp" output built on the the back of the active speaker.
Having a subwoofer output is neat but, it is just a regular speaker level input that will rely on the external subwoofer’s crossover to dictate the range of frequencies; hence you will need to use a powered active sub-woofer, which will have its own active crossover and amplification (passive subwoofers don't). The Edifier R1850DB speakers themselves have a frequency response range between 60 Hz and 20 KHz.
Connection to the external subwoofer from the active R1850DB speaker can be done via the included 3.5mm to RCA audio cable. These speakers will also remember the volume, treble and bass levels you set but only from standby mode. If you power them off via the main switch, it erases the settings.
The standby mode feature in the Edifier R1850DB speakers automatically activates after several minutes of inactivity. Once you start playing audio again, standby mode is dis-activated automatically. The speakers are very silent in standby; hence no humming noise, which you can sometimes hear with stereo speakers while in standby.
There are a total of four cables that are included with the Edifier R1850DB speakers. Three of those cables measure approximately 1.7 meters long, while the longest cable that connects both speakers measures 5 meters.
The three other cables included are a fiber optic input cable, RCA to RCA audio cable and a 3.5mm to RCA audio cable. The cables are standard without bells-and-whistles. If you are an audiophile, you will, probably, want to use higher end, gold plated audio cables with oxygen-free copper conductivity and extra shielding to prevent ground loops and other interferences from transferring to the audio.
The included IR remote is about the size of a credit card but slightly thicker, and it's powered via coin cell batteries.  The remote needs to be pointed directly at the master speaker (active speaker), which integrates an led that lights, blinks and changes colour to confirm that it has received the signal from the remote.
The Edifier R1850DB speaker remote controls almost every function, aside from powering off the speakers, which can only be done via the switch on the back of the main active speaker. With that said, the remote gives you the ability to turn on and off the speakers from standby mode, which is always very convenient. Check out the review of the Edifier T5 powered subwoofer and the Edifier M201BT