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Fluance Signature Bookshelf Speaker Review

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Fluance Signature "HFS" Signature speaker. I purchased it on sale back in August for $169. It is currently at $199 on Amazon with Prime shipping.

Despite its budget price, the glossy front bezel/baffle adds a touch of class:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf  HFS Review.jpg


The Canadian flag is a clever touch:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf  HFS Back Panel Binding Posts Canadian Speaker Review.jpg


As you see there are provisions for wall mounting. The speaker is said to be for "surround" applications in home theater but clearly also marketed as a standard speaker.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

I used over 800 measurement point which was enough to compute the sound field of the speaker within 1% error.

Temperature was 76 degrees. Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.

Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.

For reference point, I used the tweeter axis. The magnetic grill was left off.

Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker HFS Spinorama CTA-2034 Frequency Response Measu...png


Sadly we do have serious flaws in the mid frequencies. Not only is the direct sound messed up, so is directivity. Both of these are indications of a speaker not doing well in controlled listening tests according to research.

We can see some reasons for above when we measure each driver up close:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Driver  Response Measurements.png


As noted, seems to me if the tweeter high pass filter was a bit lower it would fill in the ditch better. As it is, the level is low which causes the resonance peak in the port (black) to cause more grief than it would otherwise.

Early reflections are bad as we already know:
Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker HFS Spinorama CTA-2034 Early Window  Frequency ...png


And here is the predicted in-room response in a hypothetical, average room according to research:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker HFS Spinorama CTA-2034 Predicted In-room  Frequ...png


Clearly we don't want to apply this EQ to everything we listen to.

I think the speaker is marketed for both desktop and far field use. So I thought I run this new measurement that shows the difference in frequency response of 1 meter versus 4 meter (anechoic):

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker  Near vs Far Field Frequency  Response Measurem...png


Red is near-field. Thick blue is far field which is naturally at lower level due to increased distance. But if I compensate for that, we get the thin blue line over the red one. As you see, the problem is slightly less acute in mid-frequencies when the speaker is used in far field.

Horizontal directivity as we know is quite uneven which means room impact will be quite variable:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Horizontal Beamwidth Measurements.png


Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Horizontal Directivity Measurements.png


Vertically you want to place the tweeter at or above your ear (but not too far):

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Vertical Directivity Measurements.png


Finally here is the impedance and phase:

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker  Impedance and Phase  Response Measurements.png


EDIT:
Forgot to post the distortion graphs initially:
Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Relative Distortion Measurements.png


As noted, please don't be alarmed by those sharp peaks. They are caused by the frequency response dropping there making the distortion percentage spike. It is the same distortion but relative to a smaller amplitude.

Fluance Signature HiFi 2-Way Bookshelf speaker Distortion Measurements.png

Woofer is the problem as we typically find.

Subjective Speaker Listening Tests
The first second impression was "this is not too bad" and then bang: high frequency brightness hits you. I rolled it off with a filter but that surprisingly did not help. Filling in the hole in mid frequencies helped with those tones but added more brightness. Rolling off the extreme low frequencies helped by reducing distortion. But ultimately I could not rescue the HFS with quick filters. Hence the reason I am not showing it.

Conclusions
I watched a few online videos that were seeded by the company and all were generally positive. Such was not my experience. Both objectively and subjectively the Fluance misses the mark. It did not sound hugely awful so I did not give it the decapitated panther. But it is close.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Fluance HFS.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Work on preserving garden harvest continued. Dehydrated and roasted Zucchini and tomatoes:

Tomatoes Dehydrating.jpg


And oh, the third dehydrator finally arrived. Not a happy moment though as the company had completely revised the trays and make them incompatible with the two I have despite keeping the model number and name the same. :(

We are set with produce for the next few months but need money and lots of it for meat and fish. So please donate what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

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andreasmaaan

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Thanks looks good at a glance. They don't have the smoothing or compensation noted though. Could be really bad.

It looks rather similar (a heavily smoothed version of) the measurements of this speaker here, once you've noted the vertical scale :p
 

MZKM

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Finally here is the impedance and phase:

index.php
The proudly claim the crossover is phase coherent. Can we make that out from the phase plot? The phase is at -25 degrees at the crossover region.

I find it odd that even with a phase plug, this 5" woofer is losing directivity before crossing with the tweeter.
 

pozz

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Thanks looks good at a glance. They don't have the smoothing or compensation noted though. Could be really bad.
It's just on-axis response, vertically compressed. So not very helpful even if unsmoothed.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Did you perform also some distortion and spectral measurements with it?
Oh, I did but forgot to save and post it. Busy watching TV right now. Will post later.
 

andreasmaaan

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The proudly claim the crossover is phase coherent. Can we make that out from the phase plot? The phase is at -25 degrees at the crossover region.

Also, I find it very odd that the phase plot looks similar to the impedance plot.

Is it not merely the phase of the electrical impedance depicted in this graph?
 

tecnogadget

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I expected better performance from a speaker that's the company's flagship model.
I didn’t expect better from a $169 speaker independently of origin. In fact it reminds me of the Klipsch RP-600M, but with worse response and less than half the price.

Cheer up. Don’t feel bad. This is Fluance. It was never supposed to be Paradigm.
 

andreasmaaan

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Right, but what would a phase coherent graph look like in comparison to a non phase coherent one?

It's an interesting question. I just re-read your earlier post and saw that the claim was that the crossover (not the speaker itself) is phase-coherent. I can't see how we could determine that from the impedance plot without also knowing the individual impedances of the drivers in the enclosure (at least). It does seem quite likely that the crossover is simply a coil on the woofer and a cap (and L-pad) on the tweeter, however.
 
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