Edifier QD35

Verdict

The style is at odds with the limited volume and weak low bass, but perhaps that is the true genius of a speaker parents might buy for kids or teenagers newly obsessed with music

Introduction

The Edifier QD35 is one of the more distinctive Bluetooth speakers I’ve reviewed in the last 15 years. It’s going to be the perfect stylistic fit for a pre-teen’s bedroom, or the backdrop of a budding YouTuber. 

It’s not a great wireless speaker though. However, a lot of the issues I’m going to pick out are reasons for parents to seriously consider getting one if their kid likes the look. 

The Edifier QD35’s bass depth is poor, it’s oddly quiet for a speaker of this size and design. And as such it’s not going to totally ruin the peace and quiet of a household. The negatives might just be positives, with the right perspective. 

This one is resolutely not for me. I don’t love it, but I have a feeling my 11-year own nephew might.  If you have a kid with a birthday coming up, or perhaps a partner who really has never grown up, read on for more of the highlights. 

Design

• Brash exposed speaker driver design
• Built-in clock

The Edifier QD35 is a mid-size wireless speaker with a very provocative design. Its front panel is transparent, and the two active speaker drivers are mounted onto this part. 

Behind this there’s a clock display, a light-up Edifier logo, a multi-colour LED strip that runs around the woofer, and an embossed chrome background made to look “techy”. It mines the same sort of style as Nothing’s part-transparent earphones. 

There’s more. The top is starkly contoured, like a shipping container, and bears a massive Edifier logo. There are equally bold markings on the side. 

Edifier made the QD35 for folks much younger than me. I find it crass in most respects, but it’s bold. The one issue I can’t put down to taste is the speaker placement.  You want to put exposed speaker drivers on this thing?

Before Fortnite and Minecraft, one of the favourite pastimes of young kids was pushing in tweeter domes with a curious finger. Consider that if you will be buying for someone with a younger sibling. It could all end in tears. 

Features

• App support
• Programmable multi-colour LEDs
• GAN charging tech

There is some neat stuff going on in the Edifier QD35, though. The multi-colour LED lights are nicely implemented. An Edifier app gives you control over the colour, and the pattern “animation” of the lights. There’s a mode that blinks the woofer light along to the beat, for example. 

The app lets you change the light’s intensity too, but there’s a dial on the Edifier QD35’s side for that job too. It’s just a shame there’s no control over the light of the clock and Edifier logo. If you want to put it in a bedroom for someone sensitive to light sources at night, you’ll have to flick it off using the rear power switch. 

Thankfully, this doesn’t also reset the clock. The ideal would be an ambient light sensor that could dim the clock display when the room gets dark. There isn’t one, and there’s also no alarm feature either. Missed opportunities.

The Edifier QD35 does have good connectivity options for a speaker that only offers Bluetooth on the wireless side. 

First up, there’s a USB on the back that lets you use this as a digital laptop/desktop speaker. However, your PC will need a USB-A port as I couldn’t get it to work with a normal USB-A to USB-C cable. No good for recent MacBooks. 

There’s also a 3.5mm aux input on the back, and a pair of charging sockets on the side, another USB-A and a USB-C. The larger USB-A provides up to 18W, the USB-C up to 35, and the QC35 uses the efficient GAN charging tech.

Do bear in mind the Edifier QC35 needs to be plugged in at all times to function. There’s no battery, and no option to add one.  

Sound Quality

• Fair sound quality
• Limited maximum volume
• Fairly poor bass depth for its size

The Edifier QD35 has two active drivers and a bass reflex system, designed to amplify bass tones. However, both of the drivers are small. There’s a 3-inch woofer and a 1-inch silk dome tweeter. 

This speaker doesn’t sound as I expected. It looks like a party box, but is far too polite for that tag. I was surprised by how usable the maximum 16/16 volume setting was, and spent some time listening to Spotify at that level in my kitchen without any worries the neighbours would complain. And I live in a flat. 

It really isn’t all that loud. The bass floor is also quite poor, largely because it doesn’t have a bass radiator that could be used to generate sub-bass frequencies. There is zero sub-bass here, meaning in some more electronic-based music certain lines will be completely absent. A speaker like the Sonos One produces significantly deeper bass thanks to its high excursion woofer. This woofer is more conventional. 

Edifier amps up the slightly higher-frequency bass to compensate, and this in turn can make it seem like bass guitar lines dominate the mix too much in pop and rock tracks. 

I also find the tweeter slightly underutilised in the default EQ modes, particularly if you’re going to be listening casually without the drivers pointed right at your head. 

The app lets you pick between three EQ presets or use your own “DIY” labelled one. I liked the speaker best by dramatically lowering the bass registers and increasing the big frequency bands. Much of the congestion of that muddled upper-bass disappears, and the tweeter is capable of quite zesty treble without making it sound harsh or overdone. 

So far I’ve non-stop complained about the Edifier QD35’s sound. It’s not remotely a class leader in any area. However, I don’t think it ever sounds remotely bad in any of its EQ modes. The worst it ever sounds is inoffensive, and while I don’t think bass is that well-managed, it doesn’t boom in anything like the way I’ve heard speakers up to twice the price boom. 

If you want to buy your child a speaker that you won’t hear pumping through floors below, that still exudes a sense of fun. You could do far worse. 

The sound becomes an issue if you are someone a bit more discerning who is attracted by the talk of Hi-Res audio. Here it appears to mean the Edifier QD35 supports LDAC, a high-quality streaming standard supported by Android phones. I imagine it may be technically “Hi-Res” when connected over USB too, but these tech credentials typically have little effect on a speaker’s actual sound at his level.

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