Hello all, my first posting. I recently got the Fluance Signature towers, put them through their paces, then read the C-net review. I really felt the C-net review missed the mark a bit perhaps. I did test some of the song choices C-net spoke of and found the Signatures performed well, (especially the Beta Band song "Life"). Further, they DO come with magnetic grills, (the C-net review seemed to have an overall sarcastic tone that seemed unnecessary). With good break in and perhaps a small amount of EQ adjustment in the mid range, they sing nicely to my ears. Even with no adjustment, (pure mode) they were good, but for my wife and I perhaps a bit better when the mids were very slightly tamed by about 1.5 db on the receiver. We have a Yamaha Aventage 110 W receiver in a 7.1 set up, (our other speakers are Fluance XL7F's, Fluance XLBP's, an Infinity Primus 351 center, and an Energy S-10 sub) which all work well together. For home theater, the signatures are really great, and for 2 channel stereo seem very nice also IMHO. Reading through this forum it is interesting to see such varied opinions-so I thought I would toss in my own view of these speakers. I only paid $630, so that was rather nice but for $799 they still seem a very good deal as they sound excellent overall.
They really shine with things like Drala "Child of Illusion" and other sorts of instrumental music, but also do nicely with most anything. We typically listen to things like Dire Straits, Doors, Lorena McKennitt, Traffic, Pink Floyd, Zepplin, Jazz and instrumental stuff. They do most music well. They sound full and dynamic to our ears and capture details and buried tracks in the mix well. We are hearing things we did not even notice before in the music, so each listening seems like a new treasure hunt. Their overall "tonal quality" does vary, depending on the source material, but is lively and accurate and does not seem at all fatiguing, especially if the EQ is slightly adjusted, if necessary. We like them a lot and plan to keep them. They are certainly worthy of a listen. Overall, they definitely seem "musical" rather than just for home theater.
I Hope this adds to the discussion. I noted on another area on the forums that others seemed to assume as C-net did not like them that they were not good. Hopefully Gene will give them a good shake down and some balance may come out of the hype that review seemed to generate. Happy listening folks.
