A Renowned Audio Brand’s New Affordable Bookshelf Speakers Make Hi-Fi Easy

Fluance is a popular Canadian hi-fi company that is best known for its numerous hi-fi turntables aimed at budget-conscious audiophiles. In fact, it makes some of the turntables you can buy for under $500.

For years, the brand has been making passive and powered loudspeakers to work with its turntables, as well. And it just released its more reference-quality speakers to date.

But don’t worry, they’re still relatively affordable.

Fluance Reference Powered Speakers

Fluance

Reference quality bookshelf speakers

The Fluance Ri71 is a set of powered bookshelf speakers, meaning they have built-in amplification and are designed as a plug-and-play system. They are essentially an upgraded and “reference quality” version — hence the “R” in the name — of the company’s existing powered bookshelf systems, the Ai61 ($300) and Ai41 ($250).

Naturally, Flaunce’s Ri71 promise to sound better than the company’s most affordable models. They have the same 120-watt power output as the Ai61, but feature a more advanced tweeter — called the AMT (Air Motion Transformer) tweeter — that, according to the brand, are “designed to preserve the integrity of every note.”

Additionally, the Ri71’s 5-inch woven glass fiber woofer handles the midrange and bass. It has an MDF wood cabinet reinforced with internal bracing and a tuned front-firing port; according to the brand, this “enhances bass response and reduces unwanted resonance, ensuring a pure and natural sound profile.”

Fluance

Floorstanding speakers

For those looking for a bigger and better-sounding system, Fluance has also introduced the Ri91 floorstanding speaker system.

It features similar technologies as the Fluance Ri71 bookshelf speakers, including the same AMT tweeter, but has a three-way design with two larger woofers; instead of one 5-inch woven glass fiber woofer, the Ri91 has dual 6.5-inch woven glass fiber woofers.

The system is also significantly beefier. The Ri91 floorstanding speakers can output up to 150 watts of power and feature the company’s advanced digital signal processing (DSP), the combination of which promises to deliver a vibrant and immersive sound.

Fluance

A soundbar alternative?

Just like most powered speaker systems there days — including Fluance’s more affordable Ai-Series — the Ri71 bookshelf and Ri91 floorstanding speakers are highly versatile.

Each of Fluance Ri-Series speaker sets have wired and wireless connections. They boast RCA and HDMI Arc inputs, meaning you can hook them up to a turntable (with a built-in phono preamp) or a TV and use them as a soundbar alternative. Each also has a subwoofer output in case you want to built out a home theater system and add more bass.

There’s Bluetooth aptX HD support, too, so you can wirelessly stream audio from your smartphone or computer.

Unlike Fluance’s other powered speaker systems, however, neither of the Ri-Series speakers have USB-C line-in inputs, so they’re not quite as easy to use as desktop speakers.

Fluance

Price and availability

Both of Fluance’s Ri-Series powered speaker systems are available now from the company’s website. They come in the same three different finishes: black ash, white ash or walnut.

The Fluance Ri71 bookshelf powered speakers cost $400, while the Ri91 powered floorstanding speakers cost $800.

Fluance

Fluance Ri71 Powered Bookshelf Speakers

• $400 at Fluance

Fluance

Fluance Ri91 Powered Floorstanding Speakers

• $800 at Fluance

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