Edifier G2000 Pro review

I kinda like 'ugly' hardware. The first time I saw the Edifier G2000 Pro, that was exactly what I thought. It's an angular set of speakers, with see through panels on the side to blast RGB light into your eyeballs. It feels very 2000s to me, in a way I haven't experienced with any of the speakers I've tested over the last few years.

With a depth of connectivity options and that look, it already stood out, but $200 is a decent chunk of cash to spend, and we buy tech for more than just the look. And the answer to 'does it sound good?' ends up far more nuanced than I thought it would after my testing.

The G2000 Pro's pretty iconic look is both a big positive and a negative. It's true that among your audiophile friends (assuming you have some), this will be one of the most 'out there' set of speakers. They have a radical angular design, plus a ring in the centre of the see-through plastic that is covered in RGB-lit lines.

Powering the G2000 Pro on feels like an event in itself, bathing bright colourful lights into the room. It is truly striking. However, it can also be kind of annoying, as that colour is very bright and pulsing. Holding down the G button on the right-hand side turns off that RGB lighting, but it still blasts you every time you swap connectivity or turn it on.

And the setup process for the G2000 Pro is easy and straightforward. On the back of the right speaker sits a port to get power, plus a USB Type-C port, aux in, headphones, and a wire to the left speaker.

The wire between the two speakers cannot be unattached, but it is just shy of 1.4 metres, so you shouldn't have problems getting the G2000 Pro working on even long tables.

This wealth of ports means the G2000 Pro has pretty phenomenal connectivity. It has two physical connectivity modes plus Bluetooth. The USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable even comes with a Type-C adapter in the box, which is a neat touch.

The speakers disconnected over Type-C a few times in testing. Though this wasn't reproducible and stopped after a little while.

Ultimately, great connectivity and a striking look mean little if the sound isn't up to par, and sound through these speakers is rather strange. At loud volumes, the bass absolutely thumps, and the rest of the mix has clarity and depth to balance it. However, this is all let down by mediocre performance at low to middle volume, plus a muddying in dynamic sounds.

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The pulsing chorus of Elysium comes through well in Disco Elysium, and the sparse trumpet is as evocative as you might think. In these solemn, poignant moments, the speakers have a clarity and depth that works well.

The blindingly fast and varied dynamics of Japanese math rock band Jyocho fare worse in my time with the speakers. When there's a cluttered soundstage, things come through more muddled than I would like. That cluttered sound persisted over all connectivity modes.

This muddiness isn't just true of music. Playing on timeloop FMV horror game Dead Reset, nothing feels unclear, but in the most rushed moments, things do blur a little. In the right context, this can add to the hectic scene of horror, but I doubt it's intentional.

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In slower, more methodical games, even ones that have textured, cloying sounds like horror visual novel Higurashi: When They Cry, the bass comes through lovely, and drones feel especially evocative. The cacophony of cicadas screams bursts through the little town of Hinamizawa.

The snowstorm at the start of Borderlands 2 really does shake, as the wind howls and Claptrap's voice echoes through your skull. Once the firefights start, though, problems persist at low volumes. If you only crank your speakers up to the max, you may notice this problem less, but I spend most of my time with my speakers firmly at medium or low volume, and $250 is a decent chunk of cash to spend on a set of speakers with such a drawback.

This isn't helped by the fact that the software for the G2000 Pro is pretty dreadful. You can turn off lighting, but the EQ adjustment settings are entirely greyed out. I honestly find the idea of having EQ settings and greying them out worse than just not having them—like a glass case right in front of my eyes holding the potential for balanced audio just out of reach.

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The heartbeat RGB mode (assuming it's not making assumptions about my health) flashes arbitrarily and aggressively, and is seemingly only available in the software. You also can't adjust the intensity of the RGB lighting either, so you pick a mode that pulses, keep it blasting, or turn it off entirely. I'm hoping this gets better with time, but that's not always a given with software, unfortunately.

Though the G2000 Pro is easy to set up, the instruction manual isn't great. It's loaded with text and poorly explained. For instance, under sound effect, it tells you that you can swap between gaming mode, music mode, and movie mode by hitting the G button on top of the right speaker, but there's no sign of what exactly that's doing to the EQ.

And, ultimately, our choice for the best mid-range speakers, the Logitech Z407, is half the price of the G2000 Pro, and comes with solid sound and some of its own unique quirks. The bass isn't as large, but, day to day, I'd prefer the cheaper set (plus that extra cash in my pocket wouldn't go amiss).

There are moments using the G2000 Pro where I really get what it is trying to sell. Cranked up high, with the blaring of trumpets or gushing of blood in a particularly violent shooter, the bass rumbles the desk, and they're loud enough to lightly annoy my neighbours. However, it's those quieter moments where the G2000 Pro fails to shine as bright as its translucent body.