As avinyl-enthusiast, I’m continually impressed by Fluance’sflagship turntablesas the few I’vereviewedboast premium build quality, full audio, and a great price. So, I was eager to add Fluance’sbookshelf speakersto my set-up and see if they lived up to my admittedly picky standards. And after testing, I can say they didn’t let me down in either style or sound.
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Fluance Ai61 Powered 6.5" Stereo Bookshelf Speakers
The Fluance Ai61 are an affordable set of powered bookshelf speakers from a company that’s formed a reputation for high value audio products. They sound great, are easy to set up, and pair perfectly with a turntable or PC setup.
Price, availability, and specs
The Fluance Ai61 powered bookshelf speakers are widely available at Amazon, Target, and other large retailers, as well as directly from Fluance. These stereo speakers are sold for $300, which is a bargain for powered bookshelf speakers with as much connectivity and input versatility as they offer.
The Ai61 speakers are each powered by a 6.5-inch woven glass fiber composite driver with a rubber ring, as well as a 1-inch silk tweeter, driven by a neodymium magnet and cooled with magnetic ferrofluid. Essentially, it’s a pretty high-quality tweeter for speakers at this price point.
The speakers are powered, meaning they don’t need an amplifier to drive them and are ready to go right out of the box. The various input options offer users a wide array of choices for how to actually play their music, encompassing Bluetooth, USB-C, digital optical input, and RCA. The Bluetooth can also be used to pair the speaker withGoogle Home,Amazon Echo, andAppleTV.
What I liked about the Fluance Ai61 stereo bookshelf speakers
Input options make them easy to use anywhere in my home
I’ve spent a lot of time testing and using a variety of speakers, ranging from passive bookshelf speakers to standalone Bluetooth speakers. My issue with both of those is the lack of options for how I source my music. Sometimes, I want to indulge the audiophile side of me and ensure the absolute highest fidelity signal is being fed straight to my speakers, and other times I just want the simplicity of playing some music from my phone or laptop via Bluetooth. The Ai61s make it easy to do it all thanks to the different input options.
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For my home office setup, I plugged my PC directly into the speakers via a digital optical cable. This allowed me to play ultra-high bitrate music from FLAC files or Hi-Fi streaming services like Tidal without skipping a beat. When set up in my living room, the Bluetooth connection made it easy for my wife and me to play music from our phones and even control the music using our Google Home. Finally, I was able to plug in my turntable setup to the speakers via RCA directly from my receiver. The Ai61 also has an output for a subwoofer should you choose to use one.
Impressive audio quality, especially for the price
I’ve long been impressed that Fluance products, in general, make the most out of every feature – ensuring I got every penny out of my purchase. While I’m not saying its $300 turntable sounds and performs like a $1,000 table, but it does sound and perform like a $500 table, and the Ai61 bookshelf speakers are a continuation of this trend. Clocking in at $300, you would think these speakers were $500-$600 if I had you listen to them, and told you about the features, but didn’t tell you about the price. The 6.5-inch driver delivers impressive bass for a speaker of its size, and working in concert with the silk dome tweeter, it also delivers impressive highs.
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I’ve been conducting a test in speaker reviews that the Ai61 passed with flying colors. I listen to From Now On from The Greatest Showman, sung by Hugh Jackman, and then Easy On Me by Adele. If both Hugh’s deep, rich, resonant voice and Adele’s precise high notes can give me chills from their sheer beauty, then I know I’ve got a good set of speakers on my hands.
What I didn’t like the Fluance Ai61 stereo bookshelf speakers
My only complaint is a perceived lack of power
For a $300 set of stereo speakers, I’m not going to demand the world. There is plenty that a $1,000 set of speakers can do that these can’t, but that’s okay because it’s to be expected. However, my only complaint that I feel right in having is in regard to the volume on this set. I love to listen to music, and sometimes I like to blast my tunes if I’m really getting into them. When trying to do so with the Ai61, I was always left wanting. Often, when listening to a particularly fun song, I would keep trying to turn up the volume on the remote control, only to realize that I kept hitting the max. Now I’m not saying they are quiet by any means, but I do wish they had one or two more ticks of volume in them. It felt like 10% more was all I was looking for.
Should you buy the Fluance Ai61 stereo bookshelf speakers?
As I seem to always find when it comes to Fluance products, you will not find a better combination of features and sound quality in bookshelf speakers at this price point. The $300 tag might buy premium features on a single wireless speaker unable to produce true stereo, or they might get you a touch more sound quality on passive speakers that don’t offer a single feature other than playing music fed by speaker wire, but I’m not aware of any other model where you get a true stereo set, with so many input options, for this price.
Ultimately, these speakers are a great buy for anyone looking for an entry-level set of speakers for their home, office, or turntable setup, and their wide array of input options make them appealing to a large swath of music enthusiasts.
