Review Details

Ai41 Powered 5" Stereo Bookshelf Speakers

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on December 31, 2022):

I bought these without too much expectation. My initial impressions were very positive. Nicely balanced sound for small speakers and loud enough to fill our 12'X16' open plan room. There was a problem with the first set of speakers where the optical cable could not be inserted but Dawn at customer service was very nice and quickly sent out another pair without issue.

The sound is great at moderate listening levels with a fairly compressed soundstage and a reasonable amount of bass. The mids are clear and precise and voices are projected to the fore. Perhaps a little too forward but it makes for very good movie and tv watching. The treble set at 0 is a little bright and I find that turning it down to -5 smooths out the upper frequencies without removing all the sparkle. The sound is not fatiguing at all and it's easy to listen to them for long periods. They perform very well connected to the TV with the optical cable, clear dialogue and decent but not amazing low frequency effects.

While the bass is good pairing them with a tiny REL T/Zero MKiii changed things fantastically. This little sub has transformed the sound signature. Finding the best crossover point wasn't easy but now that I have found the optimum setting the speakers no longer compress as much at higher volumes and the soundstage has opened up beautifully. The deep bass underpinning the precise mids and highs has made these a joy to listen to.

Very satisfied both with the speakers and with Fluance's quick solution to the initial QC problem.