3DsoundSurge Reviews: Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers


	Mikael Hagén puts Labtec's Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers to the test

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Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers

Mikael Hagén - Last updated March 26, 2001

Performance (Continued):

Sound Quality

The Holy Grail of Sound Reproduction

Perfect neutrality is the goal of every speaker manufacturer. Achieving this goal would mean that without the impact of any consumer-added equalization and DSP effects you would hear exactly what the musician or sound-designer intended you to hear. In some cases you may want to change it using an equalizer (preferably by subtracting rather than adding), but this should be up to you, the end user and not imposed upon you by the system design. This goal is something of a quest for the Holy Grail as no system perfectly reaches absolute neutrality, something that is more apparent on lower priced systems, but its none-the-less an important goal to strive for. Systems with more neutral/uncolored sound, that is more flat frequency response, are generally considered more pleasing to listen to. A system that colors audio in a certain way may sound a bit exciting at first, but typically the more you listen to it, the more likely you are to get irritated/annoyed by some aspect of the sound reproduction. This is especially true if you listen to a lot of music with the system.

As reference systems to help determine quality I used the VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire as a high level reference point, Altec Lansing's ACS56, Labtec's LCS-2514 and Altec Lansing's ACS54 for similar price point. The LCS-2514 and ACS54 are both 4.1 systems for the same price as the Edge-418 so the Edge-418 should beat them in quality. The ACS56 is slightly more than 50% more expensive which is the standard price between a 4.1 and 2.1 of same quality (e.g. SoundWorks Digital 2.1 vs FPS2000).

When it comes to a breakdown of the individual components of the Edge's 418 sound reproduction I can offer the following.

The high frequency clarity is clearly the weakest aspect of the system. It’s almost completely missing the upper highs which are important for instruments such as cymbals. The difference in frequency response and the effect it have on the sound overall is not only significant compared to systems with a separate tweeter but also most single driver cone based systems I’ve heard. This includes the ACS54 and ACS56, which both uses a 3” driver, and of course also the LCS-2514’s that use a 2” driver. The lack of treble makes the system sound a bit like the ACS56 if you covered the ACS56 satellites with a piece of carpet.

The midrange quality is much better than the high frequency response and clearly better than what the LCS-2514’s 2” driver can manage but not quite as good as the ACS56 to my ears overall. I found that the Edge-418 were particularly strong on vocals where it’s on par with the ACS56. Lower and especially higher ends of midrange is where the ACS56 pulls ahead. The ACS54 offers midrange of similar but slightly lower quality than the ACS56. Compared to the Edge-418 it just like the ACS56 performs better for the lower and higher ends of the midrange but the Edge-418 is slightly stronger on vocals. The ACS54 is also a bit more noisy than the ACS56 and Edge-418.

The subwoofer is the most impressive part of the system. It offers powerful and deep bass response of good quality. I found it more defined, tighter and powerful than the LCS-2514 and ACS54 subwoofers but noticeably behind the ACS56 subwoofer. Where the Edge418 subwoofer excels, especially considering the small 5 ¼ driver, is the deep bass response with no roll-off until after 40 Hz and down about 6 dB at 35 Hz. This is clearly lower than what the ACS56 subwoofer reach before it starts to roll off. One other area where the Edge-418 differs from the ACS56 subwoofer is that it has a bass hump of about 5-10 dB for frequencies between 60 and 90 Hz. The bass boost is low enough that it won’t effect vocals but will effect instruments with a lot of low bass. Some will most definitely love the bass boost while others, especially classical music fans, will not be as pleased.

In addition to the bass boost in the 60-90 frequency range you can also increase or decrease the subwoofer output with about 6 dB. This is fairly even across the 35-200 Hz frequency range the subwoofer covers. It’s worth noting that the subwoofer levels will depend quite a bit on your room acoustics as well as where you place the subwoofer.

Now we don’t usually just listen to high-frequency, mid-range and bass on an individual basis and an important aspect of a system like the Edge-418 is how well it is all blended together. In this regard the Edge-418 is average in it’s price range at low to moderate volumes and better at higher volumes where it unlike some other systems maintain good bass response. However, as mentioned above, distortion will kick in when pushed close to maximum levels. Especially the subwoofer will then distort quite significantly which may explain why some of the other systems let the subwoofer fade away beyond moderate volume levels.

So how does all of this apply to normal use? As with most other 2.1 multimedia systems the main use of the system are music and games but some may also use it for DVD movies. Let's start with the taking a more in-depth look how it performs for various types of music which is generally the most demanding media.

Back to the sound level tests

On to the music tests