Fluance Signature Series Speakers Preview

[Brian Mowka]

Glad to hear the you like them so much... Definately beasts. Price per pound delivered is excellent. What equiptment do you have hooked up? I just could not get over the midrange sounding recessed and hidden behind bass and treble in my system/environment. These speakers do look particularly good with the grill off. What music do you like yo listen to most and do you have any speakers you could compare against to help others out as well?

 

[M Midnight]

Signature towers ordered late Wednesday night were delivered Friday morning. UPS guy nearly suffered a heart attack bringing them up the porch steps to the kitchen door as both boxes were marked 80 LBS.
Installed the outriggers and got them running in the afternoon. They are absolutely first class gorgeous: Not a blemish anywhere, gloss piano finish fronts, everything rock solid including the banana plug sockets and gold bar spike connecting the HF/LF terminals.
Played them conservatively for about three hours and they sounded kind of screechy, then around 2:00 AM at four hours they settled down to the familiar balanced, warm very detailed sound I love from the SX-6's ordered last summer.

Listening all day today they are velvet smooth. The feeling is that you're listening to a baroque orchestra or jazz ensemble through a suddenly opened window, they are so detailed and clear. 100% satisfied. Tomorrow I need to make an extra set of cables to properly bi-amp them.
BTW the Canadian economy is trying to tank and the price as of January 29th is now $799.99 instead of $699.99

Thanks for the review! Curios....at what price point do you feel these speakers compete at?

 

[Hocky]

Mine should arrive tomorrow. I don't have a ton of experience with speakers in this price range, but I'll post some initial impressions.

 

[speakerman39]

Mine should arrive tomorrow. I don't have a ton of experience with speakers in this price range, but I'll post some initial impressions.

Looking forward to your observations! Inquiring minds want to know.....LOL!!!!!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[3db]

Just to add some controversey to this thread.. Here's a review done on the FLuance (not signature series) and they seem to like them.

http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-l...peakers/fluance-xl7f-loudspeakers-review.html

and I skip to the conclusion..

Conclusion

We have here a pair of floorstanding speakers for $499, with a top-to-bottom coherent, musically satisfying presentation, and a lifetime warranty. Sheesh. Seems too good to be true, but Fluance has been in business for over 15 years providing this kind of deal.

The big bonus is the speakers look great, and would fit into just about any decor. I personally will look at building a 5.1 system with Fluance speakers in the not too distant future. I can’t recommend the XL7F highly enough taking into consideration all I have talked about above. Fluance is now on my radar in a big way.

 

[Hocky]

The speakers showed up yesterday, so I spent some time unboxing, setting them up, and listening. The build quality feels pretty nice for the price point. I think that it looks a bit higher end than the price indicates, but if you look at the details you can still see that it is has some minor issues. The corners of the laminate aren't great, the piano finish is mediocre, and the stand off system is pretty crappy (and mine had a bunch of QC problems with the threaded inserts in the bottom of the speakers, but nothing that wasn't resolved with some work). All of that said, though, I definitely think that it looks like a nice product if you take a single step back. My wife, on the other hand, immediately said send them back and order another set of ML's. lol

How do they sound? I actually think that they're not bad. The imaging is OK, the mid range is mostly good, and I don't think that they were too harsh or forward in most cases. The bass is surprisingly strong, clean, and tight despite the fact that I have these set up in a large, difficult to fill space. This might mean that the bass will be overwhelming in a small room, though. They will play loudly without sounding strained, but that did bring my primary complaint about the speakers. At louder than moderate volumes, there is a shouting characteristic to the upper midrange. This was only noticeable to me on certain female vocals and electric guitar notes. Overall, I think that this is a far superior speaker to the Infiniti P363. It has better bass, better midrange, and is a bit more laid back on the top end.

 

[speakerman39]

The speakers showed up yesterday, so I spent some time unboxing, setting them up, and listening. The build quality feels pretty nice for the price point. I think that it looks a bit higher end than the price indicates, but if you look at the details you can still see that it is has some minor issues. The corners of the laminate aren't great, the piano finish is mediocre, and the stand off system is pretty crappy (and mine had a bunch of QC problems with the threaded inserts in the bottom of the speakers, but nothing that wasn't resolved with some work). All of that said, though, I definitely think that it looks like a nice product if you take a single step back. My wife, on the other hand, immediately said send them back and order another set of ML's. lol

How do they sound? I actually think that they're not bad. The imaging is OK, the mid range is mostly good, and I don't think that they were too harsh or forward in most cases. The bass is surprisingly strong, clean, and tight despite the fact that I have these set up in a large, difficult to fill space. This might mean that the bass will be overwhelming in a small room, though. They will play loudly without sounding strained, but that did bring my primary complaint about the speakers. At louder than moderate volumes, there is a shouting characteristic to the upper midrange. This was only noticeable to me on certain female vocals and electric guitar notes. Overall, I think that this is a far superior speaker to the Infiniti P363. It has better bass, better midrange, and is a bit more laid back on the top end.

Wow! Very nice pics! Is it that the towers are so BIG or just YOU have a small tv.....LOL???? Just kidding. Looks like a very nice set-up. I am NOT surprised that YOU find the Sig towers to be better than the Infinity 363's. But then again, the Sig towers are also much more expensive. Is there anything YOU can compare this to in terms of price? Just curious is all. Really appreciate the pics!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Hocky]

On Sunday, I listened to a bunch of sub $3k per pair Klipsch, Polk, Definitive, B&W, and ML. Of all of those speakers, the only one that I thought was decent was the ML Motion 40 (which I didn't want to be the case because I didn't want to be biased haha). The rest of them had major glaring flaws that I would nearly immediately pick out. This speaker is good enough that I think I would need to spend some time with the Motion 40 and this in the same room to decide which is better. The Fluance has stronger base output, but the motion 40 does have a better midrange sound to me. I think that the top end of both are similar in performance.

 

[speakerman39]

On Sunday, I listened to a bunch of sub $3k per pair Klipsch, Polk, Definitive, B&W, and ML. Of all of those speakers, the only one that I thought was decent was the ML Motion 40 (which I didn't want to be the case because I didn't want to be biased haha). The rest of them had major glaring flaws that I would nearly immediately pick out. This speaker is good enough that I think I would need to spend some time with the Motion 40 and this in the same room to decide which is better. The Fluance has stronger base output, but the motion 40 does have a better midrange sound to me. I think that the top end of both are similar in performance.

Very interesting. Sadly, I have never heard a ML speaker of any kind. My local BB does NOT offer a Magnolia room. Have always liked any B&W speakers I ever heard. Really liked the 602 S3's. Thanks for YOUR insights/observations.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Hocky]

My problem with the B&W stuff that I listened to was all in the midrange. I felt like they were quite recessed. Mids are the first thing that I notice with a speaker because this is something that my ML stuf does very well.

 

[Klipschhead302]

How's your health?

Shouldn't they be arranged AB-AB to keep the separation same or were you just delirious from flu and listening to Dancing Queen?

Daggnabit!! That song is in my head now....

 

[3db]

Daggnabit!! That song is in my head now....

Yeah that's a really bad song to have stuck in your head... "Blister in The Sun" by the Vioelnt Femmes is stuck in my head.

 

[Klipschhead302]

Yeah that's a really bad song to have stuck in your head... "Blister in The Sun" by the Vioelnt Femmes is stuck in my head.

Thankfully, I don't know that song but now green eggs and ham is in my head, which is worse... oy vey.

 

[M Midnight]

The speakers showed up yesterday, so I spent some time unboxing, setting them up, and listening. The build quality feels pretty nice for the price point. I think that it looks a bit higher end than the price indicates, but if you look at the details you can still see that it is has some minor issues. The corners of the laminate aren't great, the piano finish is mediocre, and the stand off system is pretty crappy (and mine had a bunch of QC problems with the threaded inserts in the bottom of the speakers, but nothing that wasn't resolved with some work). All of that said, though, I definitely think that it looks like a nice product if you take a single step back. My wife, on the other hand, immediately said send them back and order another set of ML's. lol

How do they sound? I actually think that they're not bad. The imaging is OK, the mid range is mostly good, and I don't think that they were too harsh or forward in most cases. The bass is surprisingly strong, clean, and tight despite the fact that I have these set up in a large, difficult to fill space. This might mean that the bass will be overwhelming in a small room, though. They will play loudly without sounding strained, but that did bring my primary complaint about the speakers. At louder than moderate volumes, there is a shouting characteristic to the upper midrange. This was only noticeable to me on certain female vocals and electric guitar notes. Overall, I think that this is a far superior speaker to the Infiniti P363. It has better bass, better midrange, and is a bit more laid back on the top end.

WHen i first got mine they were real tight and nasaly after about 20 hours the started to settle down....after 30 hours they hit there stride, those voices should calm down by then.....

 

[Brian Mowka]

Cnet just posted review, seem to not really like the sound for music, but good for movies due to bass. Kind of agreed with them in my shootout assessment about the mids, but to be they sounded recessed, for them they said compressed...

Any more info for others is always good.

http://www.cnet.com/products/fluance-signature-series-floorstanding-speakers/

 

[Klipschhead302]

I wonder if some crossover magic can be used to fix these up, they look fantastic.

 

[Brian Mowka]

No question, they look much more expensive then they are, in person even better than pictures. I did send mine back as I just could not dial in sound to my taste in a small to medium family room.

 

[theboogeydown]

Sent mine back as well. Once again, could not agree more with Brian. These would be great for a 2 channel home theatre set-up. The High to low range would be fantastic for a big action movie, just not audiophile music reproduction, imo. Shame, because their build quality blows away almost any British (Chinese made) ~$2K pair I've seen.
Where is the Audioholic review? So curious to get "real" opinion.

 

[Hocky]

I haven't decided if I am keeping them or sending them back yet. I want to move them into the room where they'll actually live before I make the determination - that'll be next week. I do feel like the upper mid range shout has mellowed out a little bit.

 

[John Melnicoe]

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.