Review Details

Elite Series High Definition Two-way Bookshelf Loudspeakers

Average Customer Rating:

Rating:
98 % of 100

Elite High Definition 2-Way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers

Product Rating:

Product Rating
Overall Performance
80%

Product Review (submitted on August 28, 2016):

I consider myself to be something of a "practical audiophile" in that I'm pretty picky about sound and such but I don't believe in spending truckloads of money to put together a decent sounding system. I prefer stereo sound over the N.1 systems and I don't go in for all this $100 USB cable stuff as some perfectionists do. A good system at a good price is just what I want. For me a good speaker is one that reproduces the full range of sound it is asked to reproduce without inserting itself into the equation... you want to listen to the music, not the speakers.

The packaging ... These speakers arrived in a triple box. Amazon took the double box from Fluance and put it into another box, making it just big enough to be really hard to carry... and these are relatively heavy speakers. Good protection, but not so good when you got to lug them up to the 6th floor.

General... These are big speakers and they are rather heavy for their size. They are much bigger than any I've had before with 5 1/4" woofers in them. The cabinets appear to be of reasonable quality. They are 7/16" MDF particle board (that's good, btw) and covered in a wood-look vinyl finish. The overall cabinet assembly is quite nice.

Screws ... When I get something that is made in China the first thing I usually do is check all the screws to be sure they are properly tightened. In this case it's a good thing I did as both speakers had loose screws on the woofer and the connector panel at the back. No problem, I just tweaked them a little with my screwdriver to even out the tension. (If you do this on your set, don't get carried away, those screws are in MDF and they're not all that big, it would be very easy to strip them if you aren't careful.)

The Grills ... The front grills are simple wooden frames with cloth stretched over them. When I unpacked my set the grills were dirty with some kind of white powder so I gently rubbed them down with a dry sponge to clean them. Once they're cleaned they look ok. The Fluance logos at the bottom had a bunch of rough edges on the letters --probably from stamping the silver plating onto them-- a couple of gentle passes with a sanding sponge took care of that very nicely. These grills fit over the holding posts on the speaker boxes quite tightly. It would not be a good idea to simply grab them and pull them off. I eased them off and on during testing by pressing or pulling firmly on each corner in turn and letting them find the own speed.

Burn in ... I've seen a couple of reviews where these speakers were panned as lacking bass. Right out of the box they certainly do lack any kind of reasonable bass, leading me to initially conclude they were never intended as full range speakers. In fact I've never seen a set of speakers that needed the "burn in" period as badly as these did. About 12 hours on they started sounding better... and two days in they're sounding pretty good.

Speaker wire... During the recommended 10 hour burn in period I hooked them up using the bargain basement 24ga speaker wire. Now, having moved them to my main system where they are hooked up with 18ga wire, I can tell you that in this case the wire definitely makes a big difference.... as in "Woah, where'd all that bass come from?"

Listening Impression ... These speakers sound pretty good when set on my media credenza. They sound like crap on stands (as full range speakers) and even worse on a shelf where they end up being boxed in. They appear to need some breathing room behind them, delivering the best sound when positioned about 6" from the wall behind them. With the grills off, these speakers are annoyingly "sibilant" every little hissed S or popped P is clearly audible.. With the grills on that goes completely away (apparently they are not totally transparent). The bass and midrange are both handled by the same speaker, which after a proper burn in does an acceptable job... If you're looking to get kicked in the gut by the bass, these are not your speakers. But if you are looking for easy listening with good overall sound, I think you'll like them well enough. Overall, these are very clear and precise speakers. The sound is pleasant although sometimes a little too bright for my tastes.... Maybe they need a little extra burn in time.

About that base plate... The base plate these speakers stand on is a dusting disaster and, yes, for those who are wondering it can be removed. There are 4 screws on the bottom. Undoing them will let you take the base off. Then comes a nice surprise... the 4 silver disks are actually non-slip feet so you may want to flip them over and run the screws back into the boxes, as I did. Surprisingly (or should I say "mysteriously") they actually sound better without the base plate attached... the lower base is much improved, at least in my living room and, of course now you can dust under them.

I like these speakers. Overall I'll give them 4 stars... To get the 5th star, I would suggest Fluance loose the base plate and put the money into an actual 6" woofer, which I think would be a better match with that tweeter.

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