Fluance Signature Series HiFi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers Review

I’m an unabashed budget speaker connoisseur. Sometimes—especially in this industry of Hifi—the sonic rewards you reap for shelling out wads of cash aren’t always met with superior sound. The bang for your buck usually happens in the budget audio sphere and these days with technology being as sophisticated as it is, the consumer really has the luxury of choice. Fluance has a line of speakers on offer that they believe can offer that ‘bang for your buck’. Enter their Signature Series.

Fluance is a proudly Canadian, online only HiFi company. Their Signature Series aims to crack into the bigs with a full range of affordable speakers; a monster 3-way floor-standing tower, a center speaker, a bipolar-surround and bookshelf speakers. It is the bookshelf that I’ll be focussing on in this article. Fluance supplied me with their ‘Signature Series Hifi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers’ which retail for just $249 CAD. $249!! (That’s approximately $190 USD) Fluance believes that they have a winner on their hands.

The Fluance Signature Series HiFi Two-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Bookshelves not only offer up possibly the longest name for a product ever but, also a few different uses for this product. According to the company literature it can be used as (A). Part of the Signature Series Package which is offered up in many configurations on fluance.com as fronts, rear or side channels in a Dolby Atmos™ Surround Sound System or (B). As a stereo pair in a traditional Hifi set up. I decided to test out their usefulness in both areas. Fluance supplies an HFS frequency response chart on their site for every speaker in their range. It shows a roll off starting around 80Hz.

These Bookshelf Speakers utilize 5” midrange drivers made of lightweight, woven glass fiber with a black pointed dome center which make the drivers look eerily like my B&W 685 S1’s. Taking care of the high-frequencies are ‘ultra-high-end’ Neodymium tweeters. The tweeters are flanked by dual tuned front bass reflex ports. The entire range is crafted from engineered MDF. The front is a gloss black adding a touch of class. The grilles are magnetic which for me adds more value as non-magnetic grilles usual tend to see damage in my hands over time from the constant attaching and removal. Around back you’ll find speaker terminals that accept banana plugs and a bracket for mounting on a wall should you choose to. The speakers stand about a foot tall and are about 8 inches deep. Overall, they get a check for a good finish.

I started off my listening with the bookshelves as the rears to my home theater system. My theater consists of a Marantz SR6009 powering my B&W 683 (s1) towers, HTM1 center and 686’s as rears. I mounted the Fluance Bookshelves on stands which are positioned just behind and to either side of my couch. They blended seamlessly into my system. To my ears, I didn’t notice a difference between them and the 686’s that they replaced. With The Avengers Infinity War streamed via iTunes the effects were steered well and the everything seemed just fine. I don’t have a Dolby Atmos™ so I was unable to give that a go.

With Fluance Signature Series Bookshelves warmed up I decided it was time to see how they fared as stereo speakers in a proper two-channel system.

Where I really found these speakers shine was in a two channel set up in our main room. I used them in place of my B&W 685s which retail for about $800 CDN. Thanks to Fluance’s handy frequency chart I knew off the bat that certain tracks probably wouldn’t have the sort of heft that I’m used to hearing due to its 5” driver and shallow cabinet depth, but I kept an open mind. Online, Fluance boasts that the Signature Series Bookshelf are ‘As powerful as Tower Speakers’ that’s quite the claim.

I assigned the Fluance Signature Series Bookshelves the duties of replacing my favorite pair of speakers—the B&W 685 S1’S)—in my living room powered by my lovely Cambridge Audio CXA60 with my trusty Marantz cd5001 as a source, alongside our cable box for light tv watching. Out of the gate, we started watching Ballers on HBO. There isn’t much in the way of dynamics on this show but there’s quite a bit of music across most popular genres. The title track features a Drake verse off the top over one of Lil’ Wayne’s trademark and god-awful beats. The Fluances do well with it and almost disappear letting us just ‘enjoy’ the intro. They handle dialogue quite well, everything is clear, lifelike and nothing is muddy.

Because we have children, Pixar’s Coco gets played quite often and luckily (for review purposes) there’s a whole bunch of music in the movie. The standout track Remember Me sounds spectacular through the Fluance’s. The Singer’s voice has ample weight as does the music at both low and moderate volumes.

Speaking of children, my 3-Year old daughter Winnie now knows how to use our cd player (sadly she doesn’t know that CDs are not chewing toys) and one cd in particular from was from my wedding day. It’s a selection of some of our favorite tracks and some that my wife and I were just into about a decade ago. Winnie has learned how to fire up the cd player, crank the volume on the amp and shuffle through to her favorite track of the day. So about every night for the past few weeks, my wife April and I take a fond trip down memory lane.  

The tracks on the cd alternate between ‘his’ and ‘her’ select and proved to be great testing material for the Fluance Bookshelves.

Fluance has come up with a very interesting proposition. If you are on a budget, or if you are building your first system you would do well to give these a listen. $250 CND buys you great speakers that will immediately make your music collection sing. In a smaller room, like a bedroom or office, they will in no doubt provide room-filling sound. And should you ever move to a larger space or upgrade to larger fronts you can easily make these rears of a surround system.

Over-all I’m quite impressed by the Fluance Signature Series Bookshelves. For a very modest price, you get a lot of speaker. I went into this thinking that they couldn’t possibly sound great in a two channel set up and I’m happy to say that I was totally wrong. I was impressed with how well these fared. Especially over weeks of listening I didn’t long to have my old speakers back in place. That being said I wouldn’t back Fluance’s claim that these are as powerful as tower speakers because unlike a solid pair of towers they simply lack bass extension. A subwoofer would be ideal with these speakers in a two channel set up. Fortunately, Fluance sells those too!