Philips Fidelio E2 review

The Philips Fidelio E2 is a pair of Bluetooth-compatible speakers that are connected by a 3m cable. We found that the cable was long enough to allow a good deal of flexibility in the placement of the speakers, although we did find the cable unsightly.

The Fidelio E2s are very attractive Bluetooth speakers, however. Each speaker is pillar-shaped and lined with charcoal-grey cloth all around the circumference that looks smart and gives the speakers a high-end look. Philips has also helped keep the design clean by moving all the controls to the top of the left speaker.

The control is a four-way tilting wooden panel that lets you adjust the volume and put the speaker into pairing mode. It’s a clever design and it helps do away with unsightly traditional buttons while giving a more tactile and satisfying response than touch-based controls. There is also a very basic remote control that lets you switch inputs, adjust volume, treble and bass, and turn the virtual surround sound on and off. Usefully, you can adjust the audio sync delay when connected to a television to overcome any lag.

The speakers can connect to wireless devices through Bluetooth and they support the less-lossy aptX standard for better sound quality. Unfortunately they only use the Bluetooth 3.0 standard, which is a shame because Bluetooth 4.0 can mean less battery power is used by connected devices. Pairing is straightforward and can be achieved by putting the speaker into pairing mode using the button on the top or through one-touch NFC pairing if your device supports it.

The Fidelio E2s are also compatible with your TV thanks to coaxial, optical and 3.5mm auxiliary connections, and there’s even an ARC (audio return channel)-compatible HDMI port that lets your TV return sound to the Fidelio E2s for output. The Fidelio’s are capable of decoding Dolby Digital but not DTX.

All of the connection ports are located on the left speaker, which should make cable management easier. There’s also a powered USB port on the left speaker so you can charge a smartphone or tablet while you play music.

The speakers each use a 1in silk ribbon tweeter paired with a 4in woofer, and the speakers have a combined 100W RMS power output. We found the speakers had a pleasant warmness to their sound signature and they had rich detail in the mids and trebles. The lower frequencies were also well represented in our test tracks without any distortion or muddiness.

Carlos Santana’s Black Magic Woman sounded fantastic, with delicate interplay between the different instruments, and the sound of the piano floated wonderfully above the other audio layers. There was strong and nicely balanced stereo separation between the speakers, which accentuated the studio mixing of the song. Vocals were delivered with an impressive level of clarity, and the speakers were also capable of reaching a very high maximum volume that could easily fill a large room. They managed to avoid becoming too harsh at maximum volume as well, although the sound did become slightly muddier in quality.

We also found that the Fidelio E2s improved the sound of our TV. Dialogue in our Avatar Blu-ray was crisp and clear, and the ambient sounds of the jungle sounded excellent.

Loudspeakers that can communicate with each other wirelessly are becoming more common, so it’s a shame there’s a cable connecting the two Fidelio E2 speakers that must be hidden away.

Overall, we found the Fidelio E2 produced much more detailed sound compared to the Samsung Shape M5 and Pure Jongo T6, but the E2 does, of course, lack their multiroom capabilities. If all you want is a pair of stereo speakers that have Bluetooth wireless connectivity, the Philips Fidelio E2 sound wonderful and also look attractive. They are also useful as television speakers, although it’s a shame the speakers lack DTX decoding. The Philips Fidelio E2 lives up to the standards of the Fidelio range and sounds great although it is expensive.