Review Details

AB40 High Performance Soundbase

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on May 13, 2019):

I purchased this product nine months ago, and the first nine months were bliss. As you've probably read in other reviews, sound quality is quite good for a fairly priced product from a brand you've probably never heard of. Clean and clear, and has nice bass response despite the lack of dedicated subwoofer. Bluetooth streaming sounds fantastic with aptX. 3D adds a nice effect to both movies and music. I was quite pleased with it.Until it broke. One day it made an awful sound, and then cut out. Over the next week it started to turn itself off, in growing frequency. I checked all wiring and remote, and nothing. Something with no moving parts should not fail like this, but I understand that quality control is not perfect and sometimes you get a bad example of an otherwise great product. So I contacted customer support for warranty assistance.Customer support delivered me the final rub that took this from a good product with a little hiccup to an overall bad experience. Per their policy, if their product fails under warranty, they require the customer to pay the return shipping. As you might expect with a large speaker, this is not cheap to ship. It will cost me $60+ for UPS ground to return for a fix or replacement. This is atop the $250 I already spent, a premium over the usual $100-200 soundbars I had originally been considering. I find it unacceptable that Fluance will not stand behind their product enough to assume these costs, especially when others will. This product failed in less than a year, has no moving parts, and my total cost of ownership will increase 25% because of this policy.While a functional unit sounds fantastic, the potential for a dud and associated cost ruins it. Based on the other customer reviews I've seen on Amazon and their company website, my experience is not isolated. I cannot recommend this product or any Fluance product until they improve their quality control or adjust their warranty policy to make up for it.Update 6/26- Because of this review, Fluance reached out to me to make it right. They covered the shipping and returned to me a brand new product that appears to be an updated version of the AB40. They were very responsive all steps along the way. I'm hoping this new version of the AB40 has fixed the issues of the last.