Fluance has been putting out one impressive speaker after another these days. We last reviewed their Ai40 powered speakers and found them to be excellent, especially at their relatively low price. The latest to come across our desk is the Signature Series HiFi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speaker. Though the name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue and they are a bit bass-light for music, we think the Signature Series are a good, affordable addition to a surround setup.
The Signature series is Fluance’s high-end speaker line, which include large floorstanding multi-driver speakers, center channels, subwoofers, and two-way bookshelf-size speakers. All are available in black ash or natural walnut finish, with gloss black baffles and magnetic grilles — they have an extremely clean and modern look with the grilles on or off, though we’d probably prefer the more muted look in a home theater setup. The Signature HiFi Bookshelf speakers weigh about 9.7 pounds each and are reasonably sized at 12.8 x 7.87 x 8.22 inches. They feature a number of home theater-friendly design cues, including pre-installed mounting brackets, rubber grommets on the bottom rear of each speaker, and front-facing ports. Though the cabins felt a bit thin and hollow, this didn’t seem to create any weird resonances in our testing. Fluance offers the Signature HiFi Bookshelf speakers as part of multi-channel surround sound bundles and separately in sets of two. Our review sample included just two of the speakers; though we were not able to test Fluance’s full surround package, we were able to put the Signature HiFi’s through their paces with music and movies in a full-range two-channel setup and with a subwoofer with a crossover set at 100hz.
Each Signature HiFi Bookshelf speaker is rated at 8 ohms and features two drivers: a one-inch neodymium silk-dome tweeter and a five-inch midrange driver made of woven glass fiber with a phase plug at its center. Though these speakers are relatively space efficient, the smaller internal volume combined with the modestly-sized woofer has its impact. Fluance states that these speakers have a frequency response of 60Hz–20kHz, though in practice they seem to roll off pretty sharply under 200hz. In a home theater application, a subwoofer is a necessary component for the low-frequency aspects of explosions and Hans Zimmer soundtracks. Modern popular music has too much information in those low frequencies to ignore. The Signature HiFi Bookshelf speakers midrange and bass are punchy enough within its operating range, but we think you’ll want to pair these with a subwoofer if you’re going to listen to hip-hop or electronic music. For mid and high frequencies, however, the Signature HiFi Bookshelf speakers perform admirably — vocal ranges in particular were crisp and realistic, and they imaged very well both in our medium-sized testing area and as part of our home theater setup. Fluance’s Signature Series HiFi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers, though awkwardly named and a bit lacking in bass extension on their own, are a very good value at this price point
Our Rating
Company and Price
Company: Fluance
Model: Signature Series HiFi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers
Price: $199