FluanceAi61 Powered 2-Way 2.0 Stereo Bookshelf Speakers with Speaker Stands 6.5" Drivers 120W Amplifier for Turntable Bluetooth 5 Wireless Music Streaming - RCA Optical USB & Sub Out (White Walnut)

I have been comparing active bookshelf speakers for a while. These sound a step above the Edifier 1280 and smaller Swans. Sound is more on par with Kanto YU. They are very well made and solid. Sound has good imaging. Bass is punchy and deep. But this is not a bass head speaker for music like rap. For that you might want a additional sub woofer. This speaker has a sub out. For music like Michael Franks, James Taylor, Def Leopard, George Benson. This would be a great choice. I played If I Die You by A Band Called Perry. And it sounded really good. So rock, jazz, vocal that's the sweet spot. I played SK8rboi by Avril Lavigne. The beginning of that song has a extremely low backing bass. Definetly a Sub woofer would have helped there. Also I played Get Low by Flo Rida some Warren G and 50 Cent. Again a sub woofer would add that extra impact. For reference I'm no audiophile. But in the 80's I did have quite the set up JBL L 112 Twin Carver amps NAD pre amp, Dual turntable Revov B77 reel to reel and Nakamichi cassette deck Sansui Se7 graphic equalizer. So I know pretty decent sound when I hear it. I can confidently recommend these speakers for anyone looking for a good value and wanting to avoid a jungle of wires like my 80's set up had

The media could not be loaded.  Well first things first - it's shipped from Canada. So do plan for that. It was delivered to me exactly the 10th day after placing the order. The wait was killing me as I was having second thoughts after placing the order.Relevant context about me: I work from home and listen to lot of music. I just use macbook pros. and for the last 3 years I was using the Bose Companion 2 Series III speakers. They are flawless, but recently I started wanting more.Packaging: Today I received these speakers via UPS. They came in a brown box with styrofoam moldings inside - encasing the speakers. The box was dented on one edge and that gave me such a scare, but upon opening and seeing that the styrofoam had absorbed that damage I was relieved. Speakers are heavy, so make sure you don't accidentally press the woofers when taking it out of the box.Setup: Connected the speaker cable, powered on and connected the RCA inputs to the macbook 3.5mm jack (using a Y-splitter RCA to 3.5mm cable). Played some music and everything worked well. No surprises. Next I tested out the Bluetooth option and all the features worked well. Then I explored the remote and played around with the Treble and Bass controls to adjust to my liking. To be honest, they sound very flat out of the box. So the adjustment on the remote was welcome.Thoughts: One of my BIGGEST concerns for this purchase was the hissing problem with many other speakers on the market and I was so afraid purchasing them online as I didn't know they'd hiss or not. But I am extremely happy to report that there is absolutely 0 hissing in these speakers. They are dead quiet when no music is playing or they are turned to stand by via the remote. Oh what a relief that was! I am really happy. Now, they need a 10-12 hr break-in. So I need more time to give a final verdict. But so far, I think I got what I paid for. Now if it performs well after the break-in period, then that would be the end of this successful project for me. The soundstage feels nice, the highs are clear and I was able to enjoy the songs of my liking. Rock, pop, Electronic, Indian classical, Irish, Sufi everything feels enjoyable. And I feel I can listen to it non-stop - which was one of the requirements for me. (This is one of the reasons I didn't go with the Klipsch Powered Monitors as many people reported them as dry and fatiguing). The primary purpose of this speaker for me was as Computer speakers on my desk (what people call Near Field listening I guess)Subwoofer: I am trying not to add a subwoofer to them, as I live in an apartment and love my elderly neighbors. So far it looks like they won't need a sub by a lot. Talking about a sub - know that if the speaker detects a subwoofer cable connected to it(even if it's not connected to a subwoofer on the other side mind you), then the amp will still cut out the sub-frequencies from the speaker (so if you don't plan on using a sub - make sure you don't plug in the cable as well) - for a much fuller sound. This is mentioned in their quick start guide, but is easy to forget.Build Quality: 5/5 (This was very reassuring. and I am very picky)Sound: 4/5 (I'm no expert, but this is enough for me.)Connectivity: 5/5 (Simple, but enough and everything works.)Standout features: Remote(no doubt.. very very handy and that too IR one - so no need to point), Color (I got the walnut with white face)They are just a great purchase and at this price are simply unmatched.. even overkill. Good luck to anyone buying them. 100% recommend.

4/15/2024 updated my review recently and mentioned how now the sub out signal has failed in some way. It turns out the power supply on the subwoofer plate amp went out. It was a 8 year old Polk psw10. Speakers sound the same. Still has the weird signal drop every hour or so for a half second. Still not sure what's causing it. Wish someone from fluance would have reached out to me at this point. Whatever, still using the speakers.I still like the sound profile of fluance and will probably continue to buy their products. I do like the passive speakers I own from them more than these, but I much prefer the way these look on the shelf. I put my passive speakers in the garage10/4/22: update three. I still haven't hooked these up to a different TV's optical out, but the speakers haven't failed yet and I don't think they will.... The signal issue is still exactly the same, which isn't ideal, but it honestly doesn't bother me enough to take the speakers into the other room lol. I did end up fixing my AT-LP-120-USB that I yanked the terrible integrated preamp out of (never grounded it, oops.) and hooked it up via RCA. Absolutely no problems with RCA into the ai61s. No problems with Bluetooth either. I need to check to see if the USB-C has the same issue. toslink is garbage technology anyways.On a more positive note, my new firestick 4k's remote has power and volume buttons and *do* control these speakers volume and power which is awesome. Power button turns off the TV and the speakers. Volume buttons control the speakers only, no TV volume control which is perfect.3/12/22: update number two. I love the quality, however I have a feeling they are beginning to fail. Every 45 minutes or so the audio cuts out for about a half second. I need to do some troubleshooting to make sure it is in fact the amp failing or the dac itself. I'm running optical input from the tv when this issue arises. When I get the chance, I'll see if audio drops out when using RCA input. If I don't get the issue on RCA, I'm going to hook them up to a different tv to see if a different optical input gives the same result. Dropped one star temporarily until I figure out what's going on. If it's the TV, I'll add the star back, but if it's the speakers, I'm dropped additional stars.9/5/21: This is the second set of fluance speakers I own. The last pair were passive speakers and the quality from them was also excellent. I was looking for an active pair of speakers that had multiple inputs and these fit my needs perfectly. I haven't used the USB input, but the Bluetooth, optical, and RCA inputs work great. Glad they included BT5.0.I'm not used to having DSP built in, but from what I can tell, the DSP really enhaces the speakers. The DSP filters almost all of the bass out when you plug in a sub. Somewhere around 110hz. Also, the sub out only sends 110hz and below. Definitely a plus. They do sound great even the sub unplugged, just don't expect them to add more bass if you have a sub that's lacking in performance. Big rooms need big subwoofers.***Edit: I just watched a movie and the surround sound system hooked up to it had some of those like 4" full range speakers that mount on the ceiling.... Let me tell you.... They just don't cut it compared to these fluance bookshelf speakers. You won't believe how awful everything sounds with generic speakers, sound bars, and TV integrated speakers. If you enjoy good audio whether from a movie or from music, buy fluance. Either passive or active. Get a subwoofer too. You'll be amazed how much better everything sounds when you let the subwoofer handle the sub frequencies, the midwoofer handle the mids, and the tweeter handle the highs.***

I'm not what you would call a huge audiophile, but for the cost, this set of speakers delivers very solid sound, many ways to connect with devices and simple set-up with a variety of source devices.

I really love these speakers. They sound as good as they look. They sound best paired with a subwoofer.

I have these in my cottage living room and they are perfect. Sound is crisp and clear with minimal distortion when I rack it up. I thought these were good value for the sound quality. I have them attached to my record deck with integrated amp. My room is roughly 13'x 10' with a ceiling about 6' high. Sounds like a rock concert in here. Can't comment on non-hobbit like spaces though.

Currently using these speakers as a TV sound bar replacement. They sound noticeably much better than the TV sound bar. Although they perform well with background music listening in a home office or workshop, they are not quite at an audiophile level for serious music listening due to their V-shaped output signature. The available bass and treble adjustments can help to improve this somewhat.

Great functionality with Bluetooth and other inputs. Loud but not overly loud; subwoofer is needed with these speakers.

I live in an apartment now and move around a bit, so don't have a big system at the moment and miss it. My ears were adjusting to an okay soundbar and a heap of bluetooth speakers, mainly JBL. These are in no way comparable. I've only really been a fan of Wharfedale and B&W. Sound quality for dollar, these have to be tough to beat for a compact system. Canadian made too, which is what got me to take a gamble, not a big one though, the reviews are good. Just a bit of stranger danger, now I'm already looking at their other products.