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):

Music

With good bass and midrange but lacking highs the Edge-418 is a fairly mixed system when it comes to music. I found the stereo imaging to ok, not far behind traditional cone based systems and as an advantage it offers a noticeable but not significantly wider sound stage.

Starting on the positive – for music with a lot of midrange usage like horns, piano and especially vocals the Ege-418 is on par and in some cases even better than the ACS56, where as for music with more upper midrange and treble usage the ACS56 is clearly better. One other area where the ACS56 is slightly better is the stereo imaging but the difference is not major and the Edge-418 more than makes up for it with a clearly wider sound stage.

When it comes to bass heavy music the subwoofer and how well it blend with the lower midrange from the satellites will be important. As noted, the subwoofer does not deliver very defined bass output and has a bass hump in the lower bass frequencies that some will love and others dislike. Personally I found the effect quite nice for dance, rock, rap and pop music but less desirable for classical music. If I reduced the subwoofer volume I found it to be quite ok for classical music as well even though the bass hump was still there it wasn’t that noticeable. Compared to LCS-2514 and ACS54 the bass response for all types of music is clearly better and with the exception of classical music significantly better. The picture is a bit more mixed when compared to the ACS56 which I think has slightly tighter and powerful but not quite as deep as the Edge-418.

Instruments such as the double bassoon which goes as low as 26 Hz or the organ which can go as low as 16.4 Hz! It’s worth noting that there is no multimedia subwoofer that will deliver those low frequencies and systems in this price range, including the Edge-418 won’t do as good a job when reaching for the lower notes. If you like to listen to music and want to exaggerate your bass the Edge-418 will do a good job for the price.

When it comes to volume, the Edge-418 is loud enough for anyone who wants to play music loud while at their PC or in a small room but not for someone who wants to fill a living room with even fairly loud music. I have noted before, like most any system, the quality is not at its best when playing extremely loud and unlike some more expensive system, the subwoofer does not scale well at high volumes. For the task of music in mid to large sized rooms nothing in this price range will deliver both loud volume and excellent quality.

Overall the Edge-418 is a good music system for those that don’t mind a bass hump and consider good midrange and deep and powerful bass response more important than good high frequency response. On top of the deep bass response you have the opportunity to exaggerate it and you also get good but not excellent midrange. Personally it took sometime to get used to the lack of highs compared to the Sirocco Crossfire ($450) and Sirocco Pro ($900) system I usually use. However, once I got past that point I found that the Edge-418 is definitely a system I can enjoy listening to, unlike many cone based systems that offer better high-end frequency response but worse midrange quality.

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