Fluance?

[bsdgeek]

Has anybody ever heard (of) Fluance speakers? KvH?

The reason I ask is I might be finally upgrading my aging stereo setup (Sony STR-V340, Technics CD & EQ, pair of JBL J320As, all circa 1986... in case you were curious ), maybe even entering the realm of HT. They seem to be priced well, at any rate.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[az]

Oh, I don't know. I went to their site and clicked "reviews", hoping to find some magazine reviews, but it's all just anonymous "customer testimonials". They are cheap, alright, but I don't know if they're very good.

If you can get them, be sure to check out Teufel speakers for your HT. They're not very well known, but their speakers are reference for all major german HiFi/AV mags (not that I trust the HiFi press here...). Their site www.teufel.de is only in german, though, and I don't know if they're available in a sluT (they're factory direct in germany).

Better only buy speakers if you can listen to them in your own room and can take them back without hassle and "restocking fee".

AZ

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by az
Better only buy speakers if you can listen to them in your own room and can take them back without hassle and "restocking fee".

AZ

Yep. Go to a real store and listen to them first. If you're like almost everyone else here, you will find B&Ws to be irresistable, in just about any pricerange except the ultra-cheap (and if you buy ultra-cheap speakers you won't be happy anyhow.)

Never heard of these "Fluance" things. Unless you can listen to them before you buy, assume cheap is cheap. Sending them back would be a real hassle, and probably not worth the trouble. Who knows? They might be good, but if they were, they would probably be in real audio stores.

[az]

General consensus on the net (yes, I'm bored) seems to be that they're good for what you pay for them. Better than "white van", but of course nowhere near high end. Problem with customer testimonials you find on the web is that most people are idiots (sorry to say, but it's true, and I'm probably one of them a lot of the time), most people who bought those speakers have never heard really good speakers (which would cost a lot more, of course), and psychology plays a great role, most people will defend what they've bought. You wouldn't believe what kind of stuff people are recommending.

General advice: If there's one component you shouldn't skimp on, it's the speakers. CD players all sound good, even the cheap ones. Cheap DVD players are good, and even play odd formats (brand-name ones are just getting there now). Pay more attention (and money ) on the A/V receiver, and most on the speakers. Building good electronics is good engineering, building good speakers is good engineering and art. Speakers (and placement!) are the absolutely most important part of your HiFi/AV system.

AZ

[VJ]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
Yep. Go to a real store and listen to them first. If you're like almost everyone else here, you will find B&Ws to be irresistable,

Hmm, I chose Quadral (http://www.quadral.com) over B&W... I feel they sounded better in combination with my Onkyo 9711...

Of course, there are other makes: Dynaudio (http://www.dynaudio.com ), Floating Systems (could be harder to find, http://www.floating-systems.be/home.htm - the Synthese 3 models are sensational, don't know if that model still exists though).
Recently, my brother purchased some speakers by Monitor Audio (http://www.monitoraudio.com/ ), and even the small speakers sound great.

But the best advice is to go listen to them (and use CD's that you know, bring you own even). Also, bear in mind that you system must be well balanced (e.g. for the Synthese 3, you must have a Sphinx amplifier in order to drive them properly - there could be other models that suit this speaker, but the choices are limited).


Jörg

[Umfriend]

Amen to Quadral, got them as well. Which ones you got? (no HT, just 2).

KvH: Where does ultra-cheap end in your view?

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Umfriend
KvH: Where does ultra-cheap end in your view?

Ultra-cheap would be under $250/pair

[VJ]

Umfriend: the Argent 70 (no longer in their catalogue), also not in a HT setup.

KvH: The monitor audio speakers fit well within this category (at least: their bronze-range ).


Jörg

[Umfriend]

Poor sod! I got me a pair of Shoguns (not the Shogun 2). Awesome with my van Medevoort amplifier, although they sound way better still on my friends Sonic Frontiers pre and (i think) cardinal end amplifiers.....

[bsdgeek]

First, thanks for all of the responses.

Second, a little update on Fluance, CNET wrote a review of one of their HTIB packages.

I've decided to wait a little bit to raise funds and set my sights a little bit higher. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and listen to some speakers soon. B&W and Paradigm have local dealers here, so I'll check those out and I'm hearing very good things about the $/performance of Axioms. I don't think I can hear an Axiom here, but they have free shipping/30 day guarantee so I may try those out as well.

Dynaudio also seems to have a local dealer, so I will take a look there too. Sorry, but I don't think any of the others mentioned have a presence here (Oklahoma, USA).