Verdict
The Ai81 is n’t perfect but any literary criticism has to be seen in the light of just how much physical talker it offers for the money . This is the chance to enjoy large speaker chill at small-scale wireless talker prices and many people are sound to jump at the chance .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
For better or worse , the police force of physics do not take a day off . This is good insofar as a sudden want of sombreness would be inconvenient but less good when it follow to other area . One of these is speaker system .
If you desire to have a big , hard polish off speech sound from a speaker , this is most easily reach by give a large cabinet that can plunk for large gadget driver . The catch with this is that this costs more money to do . braggy Speaker are generally rather pricey things , which in turn limits smaller budget to littler verbaliser .
Fluance might not have an response to the physics aspect of this but their sales model is exceptionally good at keeping prices down . The Ai81 is a span of hefty speakers that come in at a monetary value where most of the contender are offering something rather smaller .
What ’s more , thanks to having amplification on board , they do n’t need very much in the way of partnering equipment either which makes them even better potential note value . Of of course , it ’s one thing to get such a thing into the mart but it ’s another matter altogether to ensure that they are serious . Can Fluance deliver big speaker system thrills on a shoestring and does the Ai81 body of work for you ?
Availability
The Ai81 is uncommitted in the UK for £ 429.64 when ordered from the Fluance website . It can also be order bundle with the company ’s DB10 subwoofer for £ 610.09 , giving you a small saving over ordering them singly .
In the US , the Ai81 is usable for $ 499.99 as a standalone and $ 709.99 with the DB10 subwoofer . It is not completely clear if the Fluance is useable in Australia but it was not potential to discover falsifiable pricing in AUD .
One of the reasons why the Fluance can trade the Ai81 at the price they do is down to a direct sale mannikin . Order a pair and they embark lineal from the company . This slay a layer of retail that would otherwise demand to be price in but does mean that your chance to listen to them and see how they baby-sit in your room will be limited unless you order them and make potential use of their return policy .
Design
Fluance makes the Ai81 available in four different stopping point which should give you at least one choice that will suit your room . At one end of proceeding , there is an all - black finish , while at the other is the same peculiarly named ‘ Lucky Bamboo ’ that I saw on theRT-82turntable .
The inspection samples showed up in the ‘ White Walnut ’ option that flux a dark ( and I really do mean benighted , it ’s almost contraband in some light ) chief section with a blank front baffle . This looks very good against the contrast of the black drivers and does a good line of work of making the Fluance look more expensive than it actually is .
As the Ai81 is power and has multiple input signal , it needs a path of show what input is selected at the time and Fluance has strike on an LED fitted to the front of the main speaker that changes color to announce your option . This take a little bite of time to learn but it ’s a neat and goodish way of getting the information take . A humble but logically put out remote French telephone is your main breaker point of control and it works well .
As a magniloquent and fairly narrow-minded machine , the Fluance would be at hazard of falling over from a good collision delivered by a small nestling or big dog-iron . To this terminal , the Ai81 is fitted with outrigger feet that increase the constancy . Where a more expensive speaker might have carpet pierce spikes fitted to the bottom of these fit , the Fluance does without . This and the absence of any form of lattice are the only actual signs of cost cutting on the whole speaker though .
Specification
Key to what makes the Fluance a self - take equipment is the presence of an amplifier on board . Fluance list this as a 150 W gadget but this actually translate to two channels of 75 watt rather than 150 W being available to both speakers . This is a healthy amount force though and think of that the Ai81 should n’t struggle in all but the gravid hearing suite . This amplifier is mount in the base of one of the storage locker and connects to the other speaker via a trial of loudspeaker system cable .
This power is made available to a ternary of drivers ; one of which is a 25 mm soft dome tweeter and the other two are a pair of 6.5 - inch mid bass drivers made of woven glass fibre that operate as a associate pair and pay the Ai81 a arrogate low frequence roll off of 30Hz which is well beyond what most likewise price rivals can finagle .
A sea bass porthole on the bottom of each console help this process and ensures that the Ai81 is n’t too seriously strike close to walls . This is further helped thanks to an on control board DSP that ensures the Ai81 can make the most of its useable baron and deliver hefty down in the mouth end . This also allows for basso and treble to be correct via the remote control condition . you’re able to then tally a subwoofer too should the fancy take you .
The inputs that the Ai81 offers to the outside world are reasonable at the monetary value but not that panoptic . One optical and one analogue input on an RCA connective are joined byBluetooth . It should allow you to use the Ai81 in a motley of ways but it means that useful features likeHDMI ARCare not fitted and , if you use the optical connectedness for a goggle box , you will have to route audio via the RCA connection whether you like it or not .
Sound Quality
I go under the Fluance up to run with a WiiM Mini streamer connected to the RCA stimulation . The WiiM is priced at the sort of layer that might be partnered with the Ai81 and is minuscule enough that you could physically stick it to the back of one of the cabinets if you desire to be tidy . This allow for the optical outturn to be connected to anLG OLED TV .
Right from the head start , the Fluance shows the benefits of that big cabinet and hefty drivers . listen to the 24/96 - bitQobuzstream of Peter Gabriel ’s The Court , the Fluance is able-bodied to give a praiseworthy sense of encroachment and ordered series . This is more than just ‘ bass ’ , it ’s the weight of bass guitar and a feeling that everyone and everything on the cartroad is the size of it they are hypothesize to be . Very small competition at the price can do this as in effect .
What I ’ve find more interesting than this clout is that the Ai81 can be usefully ticklish when you call for it to be . listen to the stunning Storm by the Black Lilys , the Fluance does a fine job with Camille Faure ’s wonderful , almost passing vocal . The three driver hang together beautifully and produce a performance with no hearable sense of crosswalk to it .
So long as the speakers are place with any degree of care and tending , you also get a convincing and three dimensional soundstage . A fragile limitation is that the Bluetooth stimulation does without some of the more sophisticated codecs so it sound a bit flat and congested compare to the WiiM into the parallel connection .
There are limitations though . The Fluance can deliver impressive bass weighting but it can miss a bit of upper and articulation . Listening to the dead bonkers Jdid by Acid Arab ; a heady combination of traditional North African implemental styles and the sort of bass that can vibrate your visual modality , the Fluance is brawny but a turn ragged . The speed and energy of the material is sapped a routine , pluck it of some of its power .
This is where the adjustable bass and treble really come into maneuver . Roll the sea bass off slenderly and while you misplace a bit of out and out power , things stiffen up nicely and the Fluance father a bit more agility . Then , when you turn the music off and decide to take in a moving picture with batch of explosion ; and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare filled this role brilliantly , you may wind it back up and enjoy some serious clout when thing go windfall .
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Should you buy it?
The Fluance is a huge amount of speaker for your John Cash . Very small else under £ 500 will go as deep , off as hard and vocalise as heavy and convincing as the Ai81 will and not many other thing look as smart or are as well ruined .
The Fluance has to give primer coat so as to encounter its keen price and the slightly limited connectivity and some point economic system measure on the finish are part and parcel of it come in at the damage it does . If you need nuance like that though , you ’ll necessitate to spend more money .
Final Thoughts
If you have a significant space to fill and not a huge amount of budget to sate it with , very little can touch the Fluance for effortless headroom and decent low close shove .
Any rival that offers better connectivity ; from companies such as ELAC or Triangle is far smaller than the Ai81 . In rooms that do n’t involve a cock-a-hoop speaker unit , this might make more sense but the Fluance rescue clearance and impingement that some people will find irresistible .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every wireless speaker we survey thoroughly over an extensive period of time . We apply diligence stock psychometric test to compare features right . We ’ll always tell you what we discover . We never , ever , assume money to survey a product .
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FAQs
You ’ve obtain a option of four colours : Black Ash , Natural Walnut , Lucky Bamboo , and White Walnut .
