Review Details

Reference Series High Performance Three-way Floorstanding Loudspeakers

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on November 20, 2015):

PaulCThe Fluance XL7F is an attractive hefty three-way floorstanding speaker. I have owned these for nearly two years, in a stereo 2.0 system mainly used for music listening. They are very pleasant sounding, being neither tinny nor bright as many tower degigns seem to be. Low volume performance is pleasing, and at high levels, sound quality remains enjoyable, listening is not mared by objectionable distortion or harshness.They arrive double boxed and well packaged to prevent cosmetic or structural damage during shipping. The box also includes a set of spikes for use on carpeted floors if needed. Fit and finish are above par and they look very elegant even when compared to speakers priced 2x-3x higher per speaker. Although relatively inexpensive the appearance is not cheap and should blend in well with most deacores especially now that more color choices are available.They sound good and are attractive, so why arn't they in my main listening room? Well the answer is they are kind of too mellow. The highs aren't shrill but they also seem a little less crisp. The mids are very nice (especially for voices) but the bass just does not come across with authority. The overall frequency range seems compressed. I have not heard a tower system that didn't need a sub-woofer to fill in the bottom end. I did try bi-amping the speakers but it did not really solve the low end issue. Also while playing some New Age peices the bass would fuzz on extended notes (I tried several speaker placements and modified the rear port to no avail) Now that fuzz sound only occurs on a very few peices and in all other instances the bass that's present is tight.Four stars - They look great, sound nice, play loud without strain and are well priced. You can easily pay more and get less in all aspects. I think they would be fairly ideal n systems with a sub-woofer. They loose a star for the bass falloff since, as of yet, I really don't want a sub-woofer in my system. -Verified purchase from Fluance trusted store.