Review Details

Ai60 High Performance Powered 6.5” Bookshelf Speakers

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on July 26, 2020):

I was so excited for these as they had (almost) everything I wanted and looked great to boot. I read a lot of reviews and watched some videos and decided they would work for my setup (small living room, wishing to connect a turntable but also have bluetooth connectivity from my phone). For reference, my other listening setups are a pair of self-powered Equator D5 studio monitors (for mixing music, but I've also used them just for listening) and a 30-year-old pair of passive Bose 301s (no Bose haters, please -- if you're moving around a room and not sitting front and center, they can be quite nice).The good:- I thought the treble was fairly well-balanced- they look GREAT- easy connectivity- not too bigThe bad:- With bluetooth connected, the mid-bass was so prominent it gave me a headache after a few minutes, even at modest volumes. It sounds like the DSP was designed by a bass player who thought they needed to be turned up in every song. Even with the bass control turned completely down, it was overdone. Was this to please people who don't have a subwoofer? It didn't work. The bass is flubby and annoying, not tight like I'd expect from a closed speaker without ports. I tried isolating the speakers on stands and pads, moving them away from walls, moving them low and high...it's bass: it gets around. No luck. STRANGELY, this is less of a problem with the RCA input that I was driving from my turntable, though still there. Anyway, these have to go back. :(- Smaller issue: you can't switch which speaker is left vs. right, which was unfortunate for my listening setup and locations of my outlets (the right speaker plugs into the outlet) but not a deal-breaker.Overall: I'm assuming these were made for people to enjoy with movies? I don't understand why the bass is so prominent. Upon reading some more in-depth reviews of the frequency response, I see that the bass is, indeed, overstated at lower volumes. Sorry, Fluance, I can't listen at 10 all the time. I really, really wanted these to work, but the bass headaches will win out.