Whether or not you believe anyone over a certain age when they say everything was better in the old days, there’s no question retro and throwback design are all the rage right now. That’s especially true in speaker land, where there are more vintage-looking wireless speakers than modern ones. The Edifier D32 is the latest to go old-school, with a hand-made wooden housing ripped right from the 60s.
Launching in Black (which is really a dark walnut) and white (which looks more like cream to my eyes), the D32’s braided fabric grille and gold trim has real old-timey charm. This tabletop speaker’s cabinet has also been given an acoustic treatment to strip out unwanted resonance.
There are two 1in silk dome tweeters, a 4in mid-low driver and dual bass reflex ports at the rear, powered by 60W of Class D amplification. Edifier reckons the combo is good for a wide 52Hz – 40kHz frequency range, which is enough to earn Hi-Res Audio certification.
It has dual-band Wi-Fi on board for AirPlay 2 streaming from your Apple gadgets, along with Bluetooth 5.3 from everything else. SBC, AAC and LDAC codecs are supported, plus ALAC when in AirPlay mode. LDAC streaming means the D32 also gets the Hi-Res Audio Wireless seal of approval, while multipoint connectivity lets you connect two devices at once. USB and auxiliary inputs handle your wired kit.
Edifier’s ConneX mobile app lets you tweak EQ using a bunch of pre-sets, or your own custom configuration using a six-band slider. Finally, the built-in battery pack means you can move it around the house for up to 11 hours of listening between charges.
Just about the only thing missing is a built-in voice assistant – but given the price I don’t think that’s a major omission. Music lovers with an eye for design can able to bag an Edifier D32 for $180/£190.
