EDIFIER S300

The EDIFIER S300 is a compact active speaker system from the Chinese manufacturer Edifier.

Edifier’s position is value. The company builds competent active speakers at prices well below the European and American brands, and sells largely direct.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker itself and its own app.

Before you buy

Active speakers include their own amplification, so there is nothing else to buy. That makes them the cheapest complete route to good sound, and it means the amplifier cannot be upgraded separately later.

Check what physical inputs you need. Edifier usually provides optical, coaxial and analogue inputs alongside the wireless connections, which matters if a television or a turntable is involved.

Edifier sells largely direct and online, so compare prices across its own store and the marketplaces before ordering.

Specifications