Edifier M90 review: good jack-of-all-trade bookshelf speakers

Edifier M90: One-minute review

When you get into audio, it quickly becomes clear that the best stereo speakers won’t be enough. Sure, they’ll cover your living room, but what about your desktop? Your TV set-up? It’s time to buy more speakers!

…or you could accept the the Edifier M90 speakers’ pitch, which is to just buy one pair of speakers that have absolutely loads of connection options. Not only do they have the basics — Bluetooth 6.0 and aux-in — they have support for optical, USB-C in and HDMI eARC.

That latter’s a big selling point here, so you can plug the Edifier M90 speakers into your TV without losing audio fidelity, as it’s something not offered by too many similar options.

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But the real appeal is being able to do all of these things at once: I could connect the Edifier M90 to my TV, turntable, MP3 player and phone all at the same time, and use the remote to flick between them easily. They replaced every part of my hi-fi set-up, just like that.

And you’re not replacing them with just anything, either. Thanks to their big mid-bass drivers, these things deliver powerful mids and bass frequencies, defying their relatively compact stature to fill small and medium rooms.

In some cases, the treble was a little weaker than it could have been, but the Connex app equalizer can go some way in fixing that. Although, that may be the only time you use the app, as it doesn’t do much else…

If anything will put buyers off the Edifier M90, it’s the price. It’s not expensive for what you get, but it’s a big step up from the Edifier M60, and some might not deem the improved specs or eARC addition worth it.

Edifier M90 review: Price and release date

• Announced in January 2026
• On sale in US, not UK or AU yet
• Priced at $369 (about £270, AU$520)

The Edifier M90 were unveiled at the start of 2026, at CES on January 6, and have been slowly rolling out to physical and online store shelves ever since.

They’re priced at $369 (about £270 / AU$520, but a release in the UK or Australia has yet to be confirmed). That’s quite a step up from the $199 / £159 / AU$289 Edifier M60, but it’s fitting for the spec and size increase.

Depending on where you live, these are cheaper or pricier than the five-star Dali Kupid, which go for $599 / £299 / AU$599, and they closely match the $399.99 / £333.32 / A$620 Fluance RI71, two options that are on our list of the best stereo speakers.

Edifier M90 review: Specs

Edifier M90 review: Features

• USB-C, Bluetooth, optical, 3.5mm and HDMI eARC connections
• App lets you change remote presets
• Built-in amplification and DAC

Perhaps the most tempting reason to buy the Edifier M90 is its range of connection options. You can hook it up to outputs via Bluetooth (at the 6.0 standard), 3.5mm aux-in, USB-C, optical, or HDMI eARC — all at the same time, to jump between using the remote.

The last of those connections is perhaps the most intriguing addition, letting you connect them to your TV so they can be an alternative to a soundbar. This is still relatively uncommon in bookshelf speakers like this (though it’s growing).

Edifier has an app, called ConneX, which you can use for a few extra features. Like the remote, ConneX lets you jump between input sources, control your media playback, and see what you’re actually listening to.

But you can also use the app to customize what the remote’s EQ buttons do, tweaking the settings on a nine-band equalizer. You can also set up a custom mode, which I turned into a movie-tuned balance.

As you can tell from that short list of features, ConneX is far from necessary — I didn’t use it for the first few weeks of testing, and didn’t open it again after setting up my equalizers — and I can see many users ignoring it completely.

This means you’re not getting any in-app streaming support (since there’s no Wi-Fi) or multi-room support. There’s no automatic room correction for the sound or anything like that either.

Edifier M90 review: Sound quality

• 1-inch driver + 4-inch mid-bass driver
• 50W output for each unit
• Solid bass and mids, trebles could fall out a little

Each Edifier M90 unit has a one-inch tweeter and four-inch mid-bass driver, totaling 50W of amplification, which is naturally doubled for the pair. That’s 100W in total, and it was sufficient for my medium-sized living room as an ersatz soundbar or bookshelf speaker — for a desktop setup, it’ll offer more than enough oomph.

The larger driver does a great job in making a subwoofer feel unnecessary, with bass lines broadcast around my living room and mids given glorious prominence in tunes. Frankly, I was surprised by how much low-end I’d get from songs, given that it’s only 2.0 sound, but it was a supported, scooping bass that maintained clarity.

Higher lines such as tinkling piano, higher-pitched vocals and strings maintained the clarity and detail of bass, but were sometimes a little lost in the mix for certain tracks. Dope Lemon’s Marinade is my go-to track for stereo imaging, and its rhythm guitar was hard to make out from the specific speaker I should have been able to hear it in.

Meanwhile, Michigan Rattlers’ Desert Heat’s sax wasn’t as sparkling as on some other speakers I’ve tested.

Testing the M90s alongside a TV, you’re naturally not getting the soundstage or blasting power of a really big soundbar, but I was pleased with the performance as a solid step up from my set’s built-in speakers. I put it through its paces through a variety of genres, and it was only big, bombastic battle scenes where it felt like it was struggling to express everything.

Edifier M90 review: Design

• Familiar boxy design in white or black
• 8.35 x 5.24 x 8.86 in / 21.2 x 13.3 x 22.5cm, 6.6lbs / 3kg each
• Some controls on back of unit

The Edifier M90 will look familiar to people who’ve been shopping around the brand’s options, as it’s a doppelganger for the M60. You’re getting two clean and simple speakers, with a large woofer topped by a smaller tweeter, in either white or black.

The speakers are 8.35 inches tall, 5.24 inches wide and 8.86 inches deep, so they can fit on your desktop by your monitor, or on a bookshelf (as you can see in the pictures). They’re light enough not to worry fragile shelves, and to be easy to move about your apartment too.

While the M90 look clean at the front, there’s a mess at the back. One of the speakers has five different jacks hidden around the corner – not including the audio input – as well as a power switch and volume dial. We’ll get more into this jacks in the Features section, but because of them, the back of my unit quickly became a mess of cables (as you’ll see in the images).

It’s a little annoying that these controls are hidden around the back of the speaker, but the remote makes up for it.

The in-box remote takes two AAA batteries, and it’s nice and small. It has the expected buttons — volume, skip tracks, mute — as well as options to quickly change the input, which I found useful for changing between my TV connection, Bluetooth phone, and any wired options such as a turntable.

You can also use the remote to flick between three presets: Classic Dynamic and Monitor, which you can set up yourself.

Edifier M90 review: Value

• Fits many niches in your home hi-fi set-up
• Not quite as good as any one unit it replaces

The Edifier M90’s price step up from its sibling might give some buyers pause, and a good argument would be made for other stereo speaker setups, which could get you more for your money — especially when it comes to better stereo imaging.

But when you consider how versatile the M90s are, the value proposition becomes a little clearer. These aren’t just for your bookshelf, but can be used for your desktop and TV as well. And so they could be a great value option rather than buying separate pieces of tech for your hi-fi setup — a real all-rounder.

Should I buy the Edifier M90?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Edifier M90 review: Also consider

How I tested the Edifier M90

• Tested for several months
• Tested at home connected to phones, laptops, TVs, turntables and more

I used the Edifier M90 for several months before writing this review. In that time I used the M90 alongside a vast range of devices. I connected them wirelessly to several smartphones, via USB-C or aux to phones, MP3 players and laptops, and also to my TV and turntable.

That means they were used for streaming music, records, MP3 tracks, lossless music, movies, TV shows and games. Several devices I’ve tested in the last few months, including the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Majority MP3 Player, got particular time with the M90.

I’ve been testing audio products for TechRadar for years, including other Edifier speakers, Bluetooth speakers and headphones.