There have been recent changes within my work team, and one unexpected consequence is that my daily risk of being Rickrolled has dropped to effectively zero. While that does come with a few trade-offs, it also means I can finally play whatever I like without the Jurassic Park theme somehow ending up on repeat. The Edifier ES300 suits that oddly specific freedom rather well: full-bodied sound for a room with no committee.
Design and build: premium styling with substantial weight
The ES300 has the shape and presence of a small tabletop radio. Its rounded wooden cabinet, braided grille, leather-look wrap and metallic top panel give it a restrained retro finish that is stylish enough to leave on display. The build feels solid and well finished, with a reassuring amount of heft behind it.
At 3.7 kg, that weight is immediately noticeable. There is no handle, so moving it becomes a deliberate decision rather than something you do absent-mindedly. It can travel between rooms, but it clearly expects to spend most of its time on a desk, shelf or side table.
Sound quality: rich, room-filling audio from a larger cabinet
I did not fully appreciate what the ES300 was doing until I put it beside two smaller portable speakers and switched between them. The difference was not subtle: substantially more depth, volume and resonance. That A/B test did more for my appreciation of the Edifier than listening to it alone ever would have, because the extra size is not simply bulk for its own sake. It buys you a fuller, more grown-up sound.
The tuning is warm and bass-forward, with low-end presence that feels earned rather than overdone. The treble sits further back than I expected. It is there, but not especially crisp or lifted. Even so, the overall sound has enough body that the balance feels deliberate. The cabinet size and driver room are doing much of the heavy lifting here, giving the ES300 a sense of scale that smaller speakers struggle to match.
That is where the sizeable footprint starts to make sense.
At higher volumes, music remains reasonably composed, although a little distortion does creep in. Vocals are where it becomes more obvious. For audiobooks, that is not much of a concern. Realistically, I am not trying to listen to a narrator from the other side of the house at party volume. At normal levels, Vocal mode is noticeably clearer than Classic and well worth switching to for spoken content. The sound modes are controlled through the app rather than the top panel, though, and a way to cycle through them from the speaker itself would be genuinely useful.
Ambient lighting: subtle effects that complement the design
The underside lighting made the strongest impression when I placed the ES300 on a glass tabletop. Instead of simply pooling beneath the speaker, the glow spread through the surface and became much more visible, making it feel like a genuine part of the design. On a solid desk or shelf, it is still a pleasant accent, but glass gives it far more room to show off.
The app offers Static, Breathing and Water-flow effects in yellow or white. Brightness can also be adjusted directly from the speaker by sliding a finger around the outer ring of the dedicated light control, while a double press of the light button cycles through the effects. You therefore do not need to return to the app for every small change.
The Breathing effect already works nicely with slower music, audiobooks and relaxed listening. I would still like variable speed for both Breathing and Water-flow. Slowing them down would make the movement feel calmer and better suited to the mood, rather than leaving both effects fixed at one pace.
Edifier Home app: useful features without mandatory setup
I appreciated the ES300’s approach all the more after helping set up another speaker that would not even allow basic Bluetooth use until it had been connected to an app over Wi-Fi. The ES300 can be paired over Bluetooth and used straight out of the box, without creating an account or completing network setup first. That sounds like it should be standard, but plenty of modern devices seem determined to prove otherwise.
The app becomes worthwhile once you want to change sound modes, adjust the custom EQ, configure auto power-off or access the fuller lighting controls. It is also used to connect the speaker to Wi-Fi, which is where the setup becomes less intuitive.
Bluetooth and AirPlay are doing different jobs here. Bluetooth connects directly to a phone or computer, while AirPlay sends audio over the home Wi-Fi network and supports Apple-device streaming and multi-room playback. On the ES300, AirPlay mode is also used when adding the speaker to Wi-Fi through the Edifier Home app, including from Android.
That distinction only became clear when I tried to reconnect the speaker. The app told me to wait for a rapidly flashing white light, but mine was flashing blue and offered no explanation of what I needed to change. Holding play/pause at that point simply returned Bluetooth to pairing mode.
I had to consult the manual, cycle through the sources until the indicator turned white for AirPlay, then hold play/pause for 1.5 seconds until it began flashing rapidly. The manual explains the two connection modes, but the app does not make it clear that a blue flashing light means you first need to switch out of Bluetooth mode.
Account setup is refreshingly painless. Enter an email address, receive a verification code and you are in, with no new password waiting to be forgotten. After I linked the ES300 to the account, its profile and settings survived both a speaker power cycle and a logout/login cycle. My earlier direct setup without signing in was not retained, so linking it to an account appears worthwhile if you want the configuration to stick.
The app then gives you battery level, source selection, playback, volume, lighting and channel controls. If you have more than one ES300, speakers can also be assigned to left, right or stereo channels for a wider setup.
There are four sound presets — Classic, Monitor, Game and Vocal — plus a custom EQ. The custom option is welcome, but it would be much more useful if several personal presets could be saved. Being able to jump between tunings for different genres, rooms or listening moods would make the feature feel far more complete.
Battery life and placement: cordless flexibility with practical compromises
Edifier claims up to 12 hours of playback using SBC at 50% volume with the ambient light switched off. That is a useful guide rather than a promise; higher volume, lighting and different codecs will all pull the figure down.
Realistically, I suspect many people will leave the ES300 on mains power most of the time. The battery still earns its keep, though. It lets you place the speaker somewhere temporarily without a cable trailing across the furniture, which suits the design far better.
The power cable creates its own small placement problem. It exits straight out of the rear, so the speaker cannot sit particularly close to a wall while plugged in. For something with such furniture-adjacent styling, a right-angled connector would have made far more sense.
There is also a small AUX quirk. During desktop testing, disconnecting the PC caused the ES300 to fall back into Bluetooth pairing mode rather than simply sitting idle. Without the app-controlled auto power-off timer configured, it then needed to be switched off manually. It is manageable once you know the timer exists, but worth knowing before settling the speaker into a permanent desk setup.
Edifier does not publish an official full-charge time. Retail listings generally suggest around four to five hours, which broadly matched my partial top-up while the speaker was powered on but idle. It was not a controlled zero-to-full test, so treat that as an estimate.
Powering on takes about the specified 1.5 seconds. Powering off consistently felt closer to three seconds in my testing. Neither is a problem, but both require a deliberate hold rather than an instant tap. The shutdown delay is just long enough to make you wonder whether it registered.
Edifier ES300 review verdict
The ES300 is not especially portable, and pretending otherwise does it no favours. It is heavy, handle-free and awkward to sit close to a wall when powered. But that same footprint gives it the body, bass, volume and resonance that smaller portable speakers simply cannot match. In direct comparison, one of the two smaller speakers sounded especially out of its depth. Poor little thing.
The app is worth setting up, even if the Bluetooth/AirPlay split could be explained better. Once linked to an account, it retained the speaker and settings reliably, and the email-code login avoids another password to forget. I would still like saved custom EQ presets and variable speed for the animated lighting, but Edifier gets the most important hierarchy right: the speaker works first, and the app adds control later.
The ES300 feels best suited to someone who wants a solid, furniture-like tabletop speaker that can occasionally shrug off its power cable. I would happily keep using it on a desk or side table. It can move from room to room; it just expects you to mean it.
Edifier ES300 specifications
| Product type | Tabletop wireless speaker |
|---|---|
| Australian RRP | AU$399.99 at the time of review |
| Available colours | Black and Ivory |
| Acoustic architecture | 2.1 active system with symmetrical dual bass-reflex channels |
| Drivers | 2 × 1.25-inch silk-dome tweeters and 1 × 4-inch long-throw mid-bass driver |
| Total output power | 60W RMS (15W × 2 treble, 30W mid-bass) |
| Frequency response | 56Hz–40kHz |
| Signal-to-noise ratio | ≥85dB(A) |
| Audio processing | Full digital signal processing, two-way active crossover and dynamic range control |
| Hi-Res support | Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified; up to 24-bit/96kHz |
| Audio inputs | Bluetooth 5.4, dual-band Wi-Fi with AirPlay 2, USB-A and 3.5mm AUX |
| Codecs | SBC, AAC, LDAC and ALAC (AirPlay mode) |
| Bluetooth multipoint | Simultaneous connection to two devices (enabled through the Edifier Home app) |
| AirPlay features | Apple-device streaming and multi-room playback |
| Multi-speaker setup | Left, right or stereo channel assignment through the Edifier Home app |
| Battery | Built-in 5200mAh rechargeable battery |
| Claimed playtime | Up to 12 hours (SBC, 50% volume, ambient lighting off) |
| Ambient lighting | Static, Breathing and Water-flow effects; yellow or white light; adjustable brightness |
| Mobile app | Edifier Home (Android and iOS) |
| Cabinet | 15mm MDF wooden cabinet with leather-like wrap, braided grille and metallic control panel |
| Dimensions | 277 × 165 × 165mm |
| Weight | Approximately 3.7kg |
| Power input | 100–240V AC, 50/60Hz, 600mA |
| Australian warranty | One year |
