Magnetically shielded (front and center speakers)
5 way gold plated binding posts (front''''s
Magnetically shielded (front and center speakers)
5 way gold plated binding posts (front''''s only)
Banana plug compatible (front''''s only)
Removable grills
Ported enclosure (front''''s only)
Black ash finish
New with a 2 year warranty!
Summary: First off, I'm a college student, so my first priority is grades and my second priority is entertainment. In my case, that means electronics. I've had a Panasonic 1080P plasma for a while, and I decided it was a shame to watch blu-rays using its side-mounted speakers (Video is only 50% of the experience equation, right?) So I set out looking for a 5/5.1 set that would fit my budget, but after buying a plasma and a PS3, that budget obviously was very low.
I started my search in the obvious places, Best Buy, HH Gregg, Circuit City, etc. Circuit City had some respectable receiver + speaker packages, but the other stores were a joke, mostly only carrying those silly Home Theater in a Box packages. So, off to the specialty A/V stores. I got some good pointers there, but typically found them to be biased to their particular suppliers. Not to mention everything was extremely expensive. Enter the internet.
After much research, and several inquiries on popular A/V websites, I came across Fluance. As anyone reading this probably knows, it's hard to find negative reviews of this product. But, since I had never heard of them, I prodded into the hardcore A/V community. The only people who could find a reason to badmouth them were the ones who had never actually heard them personally. Slightly less skeptical, but still a bit wary, I took the plunge and ordered. (Worth noting, I also opted for 50ft of cable and some banana plugs that Fluance offered to ship with it. The cable is 12 gauge and very well insulated, and the banana plugs are gold doubles with bridges. Both came at a reasonable price, especially the banana plugs)
After an agonizing 5 days of eager anticipation, they arrived. Consistent with every review, they came double-boxed and very secure in formed Styrofoam. You'll probably need somebody to help move the box, it's huge and weighs 80lbs. At my first glance I saw that the speakers are quite minimalist, with no attempt at fancy styling, however, they are not ugly by any means and I find them satisfyingly un-intrusive for their size. Even the spec stickers on the back were tasteful. Only complaint here: 3 of my friends already have commented that they thought the shiny "Fluance" logo actually read "Flatulence" at first glance. Oh well.
Before trying them out, I pulled out a screwdriver to check out the insides. The crossovers and electronics (conveniently attached to the access panel) were very neat, professional, and robust looking. The front towers are reinforced throughout with the same MDF that the enclosures are constructed of. Everything looked nice and beefy, except for the tweeter and woofers in the center unit. All speakers were insulated with foam, though I'll probably be adding some more in the front towers, as there are a lot of uncovered surfaces in them. I did notice that the ports on the towers were not flared on either the inside or outside, and the one in my left speaker came a little loose (spot of adhesive fixed this in 5 minutes). But obviously we're not looking for perfection here. Overall, for the price, the quality was fantastic. Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a set of floor spikes for the front towers in the box.
At last, I plugged them into a Yamaha RX-V800 that I picked up for $100 (fantastic piece of equipment, even at 8 years old), and quickly found that Fluance does not turn the irony of their easily mistaken name into coincidence. They sounded great. My father has always been an audio buff, so I've seen many iterations of powerful home theater systems come in and out of our home. The AV-HTB system competes well with what I've heard in the mids and highs. They love to play classical music, and most other genres sound pretty good, though you hip-hop and electronica fans will definitely want a subwoofer, as the 6.5" woofers in the towers leave something to be desired when it comes to powerful bass.
If you are using this for mostly movies, a subwoofer is just as necessary, as you won't get much of the LFE (low-frequency effects) that the movie makers intended you to hear. If you are like me, you want to *feel* the Death Star explode, to *see* your beer slowly migrating across your table. Tangent: I recommend HSU subwoofers. They're one of the few companies that makes a subwoofer for under $400 that not only is powerful, but actually *sounds* good. Oh, and don't by JBL. Please.
As others have mentioned, the speakers sounded a bit tinny at first, but after a good 15 hours that was gone. I do have to say I had trouble matching the center speaker tonally to the towers. It's weakest point of the package. A popular fix seems to be to buy Fluance's AV-SC center speaker and use the old center speaker as a 6th channel for the rear. I might be trying this out soon.
Ultimately, for the budget conscious, it doesn't get any better than this. These speakers are the anomaly, the rare exception to "you get what you pay for". With a subwoofer and a quality receiver, I can't imagine anyone being unhappy with the purchase. Oh, and make sure you *do* get a quality receiver. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and waste the potential these babies. Hope this was helpful
Summary: I have been researching quality, low-price speakers to replace my aging and now very unmatched HTiB arrangement. I was looking initially at satellite-based systems to appease my wife's aesthetic sensibilities when I stumbled across Fluance. Once I obtained the WAF I decided to give it a go. My budget was limited to under 1K and was intending on using primarily for home theater. My space is limited as well with the living room having a peculiar "L" shape to it that would need to be worked around. I had already ordered a Yamaha HTR-6060 to replace my crappy 500watt Sony receiver. I had decided on this component over the much-lauded Onkyo 605 mainly because of price but also because I had no need for component to DVI/HDMI conversion and have always though Yamaha's amplification yielded a more musical tone. I am currently using this set with the original Sony 100watt 8inch powered subwoofer that came w/ my first HTiB. This was a rather boomy number on the original receiver, but w/ the crossover at 80Hz w/ the AV-HTB+ and the HTR-6060 its performed much nicer than I would have expected. I had already ordered an Acoustech H100 prior to receiving and setting up my new configuration. In retrospect, I may have given pause and waited a bit longer.
As most who eventually give Fluance a shot, I was impressed by the sheer volume of positive reviews but maintained my skeptcism that this might be another "white van" kind of scam. I had almost been suckered into the DaVinci / Genesis scams proliferated on Ebay but luckily did my research first. I can honestly say this is the most satisfied I have ever been with a purchase of any kind and am quite glad I took the plunge.
I ordered from ebay as they are slightly lowered shipping costs involved from Fluance's eBay front ($29.99 vs $54.99). I was pleasantly surprised when the speakers arrived and I found I had received the upgraded AV-HTB+ set instead of the original set specified on the eBay listing. The packaging was securely double-boxed and came from UPS ground completely unscathed. The speakers were sheathed in plastic wrapping and the floorspikes were bagged and attached to the main speakers via tape. Kudos to Fluance on a professional packing and ship job for very little cash.
I had already decided on my configuration and quickly set about connecting the front speakers straight away in bi-amped configuration (the Yamaha allows you to use the rear back (6,7) channels in a bi-amped configuration with the front speakers. I have all of two movies that even support 6.1or 7.1 and had long decided that configuration to ungainly and combersome for my limited space. I cut a foam wedge for the center channel to aim directly at our heads and set the front speakers slightly toed in. Rear speakers mounted roughly 18 inches over our heads and about 6 inches behind in seating position. I had already measured for reflections to determine these positions as optimum before the speakers were received. The subwoofer was placed at the corner of the inner "L" bend in the wall, fired across the listening space, a foot in front of our seating position. So far this has yielded the most musical bass (will experiment more once the H100 arrives). I ran the Yamaha's included auto-calibration program first and it determined the appropriate speaker distances and EQ'd pretty well. I added a couple of levels to the center channel and sub but that was the only adjustment needed.
I immediately threw in "Pirates: At World's End" and was simply blown away. I've heard better systems than mine before, consisting of much more expensive and higher grade componentry. My current configuration could give these systems a run for their money. Granted, it helps my listening space is relatively small with few standing waves and that I had done my acoustics 101 homework before attempting this configuration. I immediately noticed the crisp mids and highs. I was used to pretty full sound from the Realistic Mach 1's I've had since I was small. Now, in no way do these speakers compare to the depth of mids from the giant horn midrange on the Mach 1's but they do sound a bit more crisp and pronounced overall. The tweeters feel a touch weak and the bass overall is a bit feeble (especially in comparison to the Mach 1's) but I was not expecting earth-shattering bass from those 6.5 woofers in the fronts. I must say there is a remarkably pronounced difference though in bi-amped configuration and is certainly worth the effort if you have the capability. I'm currently running this as "small" with the LFE output only to the subwoofer for the moment. Once they've broken in a bit, I change these settings. I did listen to them briefly at Large with LFE output to the fronts with pleasant effect for music listening. I am pleasantly awaiting the end of the break-in period so I can evaluate the true character of these speakers.
Overall opinion of these speakers: Highly recommended! If you're on a modest budget, I seriously doubt you could do better. Addition of a decent quality sub and receiver makes for an excellent setup in a small to mid-sized room. I'm ecstatic over the quality of the sound, appearance and build. Above all though, the value for the price is incredible. I've spent roughly $835 for the entire set as described and even without the new sub, its light years beyond my previous setup. More importantly, its beyond any other home setup I've heard. Obviously I don't expect this to compare with a serious home theater, but the price doesn't even begin to knock a dent in the budget of one of those either.
Strengths: Clean, distortion-free overall sound
Bi-Ampable connections and floorspikes for front speakers (addition to the newer AV-HTB+ models)
Attractive, clean cabinets with excellent construction and attention to detail
Gold-plated 5-way binding posts with plenty of room for an easy 12 gauge wire connection
Amazing value (especially for the price)
Weaknesses: Tweeters don't seem to match the power output of the Mids and Woofers in the front speakers
Bass (even when bi-amped) is somewhat underwhelming. Requires a good subwoofer (capable of low extension) and a resonably high crossover setting (atleast 70Hz) to obtain a good musical tone during music playback
Somewhat weak center channel (considering upgrading to the highly recommended AV-SC to rectify)
Similar Products Used: A few various HTiB setup (nowhere close) in the HT
Realisitc Mach1s and a Realistic SA-2000 power amp in the HiFi arena
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Summary: After reading all the positive reviews on this website and the "Music Choice Award" I decided to give them a try. All I can say is I wish I would have did my research before I went and purchased the Infinity Primus Theater Pack "MSRP $329.99" These speaker put my Iinfinity's to shame as far as clarity, crispness, and detail. My only regret is that the timbre of center speaker isn't perfectly matched with the floor speakers, being that it uses a 3/4" tweeter instead of the 1" To fix this problem I just purchased the Fluance AV-SC center speaker. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I get it. Overall I am a believer that you will NOTfind a better speaker system than Fluance in this price range! I highly recommend this system for anyone who wants quality for half the price.
Strengths: Clear, Crisp, can't beat the price!!! They also look better than I expected...
Weaknesses: Just the timbre matching between the center and the front L/R, but don't let that discourage you...
Similar Products Used: Infinity Primus Home Theater System, and Bose
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Rating Reviewed by: John Caputo(Unregistered User)
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date May 9, 2007
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for Less than 1 month
Review 4 of 29
Price Paid:
$199.00
from Fluance.com
Summary: I replaced a "top of the line" Sony mini-speaker system with this system. I was expecting a big improvement, just going from a mini system to a large system, but the difference was much more than I expected. I have finally achieved the movie theater type sound I was looking for without breaking open my piggy bank. Thanks Fluance.
Strengths: Solid construction, solid performance, full range sound reproduction
Weaknesses: None, so far
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Summary: Overall, I have to recommend this speaker set to anyone looking to put together a decent home theater setup on a dime. The sound that these speakers deliver is absolutely phenomenal. They sound phenomenal and are so inexpensive that everyone should own a set. This set sounds like it could have cost upwards of $400 or even $500. My experience left me with nothing to complain about at all.
Strengths: They sound great, are inexpensive and well built!
Weaknesses: This particular set is only available in black and is a bit bulky.
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