Fluance XL8F review: Home theater heart stoppers

Way back again in 1999 two businesses that would loom substantial in CNET’s examination labs got their begin: Aperion Audio and Fluance. While Aperion has stayed on its house theater path around the last pair many years, Fluance has branched out to units these types of as the RT82 turntable, winner of our Editors’ Option award. The organization is on a real tear, and the XL8F ground-standing speaker is the most current example.

The XL8 vary is a price tag-powerful house theater speaker vary incorporating rears, facilities and bookshelves, led by these impressive ground-standers. The healthy and complete of the XL8F is high-class for $600 (£600) a pair, and its pure size is unmatched by other speakers at its degree. The seem of the XL8F is open up and thrilling, but under no circumstances shrill, and when fed a film soundtrack these speakers only zing. They are no slouch with audio possibly.

The XL8 delivers considerably much better price than Fluance’s flagship $800 Signature collection and a much better layout as well. The seem is also much better well balanced than what I recall from the Signature vary.

While the identical income will get you a quite nice bookshelf speaker from title manufacturers like Elac or Klipsch, if you certainly want the most speaker for your income, the massive Fluance XL8F has no equal.

Style and design and functions

The Fluance XL8F is a modern 3-way ground-stander but it offers as a two.5-way, with a bass driver hidden in the base. The Fluance has two, 6.5-inch glass-fiber drivers divided by a 1-inch material tweeter (named a D’Appolito configuration, named right after the designer who perfected the arrangement, Joseph D’Appolito). I did obtain that one of the mid driver’s dust caps appeared a minor tough when seen up close — they’re all built from a piece of glass fiber, and this one wasn’t glued on sq.. But from the sofa I could not actually convey to.

Somewhere else the complete is exemplary, and I want the layout to the awkward Signature collection with its small, yellow midrange driver at the top rated. The XL8F towers are really tall at 46 inches higher, only 1.5 inches shorter than the monster Signature. They are deep, as well, in order to accommodate that base-mounted 8-inch bass driver. 

The speaker cabinet tapers at the back again, to reduce inside reflections, and culminates in two rear bass ports (so it performs much better if you go away a few feet distance from the wall). The front baffle functions a piano-black complete in a option of possibly black ash or walnut for the sides. 

The fixtures are just as high-class as the rest of the speaker, commencing with a magnetically attaching grille. The gold plated binding posts are stable-hunting and there are two sets in situation you want to experiment with bi-wiring or bi-amping.

The speakers are rated at a 87dB sensitivity, meaning they could be driven by most receivers or amps, and are capable of a 35Hz-25KHz frequency response.

While no-one is actually auditioning speakers in suppliers at the second, the organization helpfully delivers a thirty-working day income back again demo on speakers acquired through its web-site.

How does it seem?

As I expect from a speaker with a base-firing bass driver, the Fluance has a massive, daring seem, but it’s also capable of subtlety I didn’t expect. That midrange-tweeter-midrange arrangement is in a position to reproduce lots of depth in audio and videos, with a generously open up character. I as opposed the speaker to my go-to reference speaker, the $900 Q Acoustics 3050i and found that the Fluance sounded much better in numerous essential places, especially when it arrived to observing movies.

The Fluance XL8F’s mixture of deep bass and a revealing midrange produced it a perfect associate for the foyer scene from The Matrix. This scene mixes balletic gradual-mo, ricocheting bullet seem outcomes and a pumping electro score, and the Fluance welded them jointly in a enjoyable way. While the Q Acoustics was in a position to handle the minimal-end part much better, the Fluance sent the shout of “Freeze” and its echoing tail in a extra revealing trend.

Seeing Avatar, the Fluance demonstrated its keen ear with the lush rainforests of Pandora. In the course of the Thanator chase scene the simply click of Jake’s device gun was extra jarring when he understood the Thanator wanted a cat-individual food alternatively of the elephant-like Hammerhead Titanothere. The seem of the chase was only extra visceral when listened to on the Fluance than its counterpart. In comparison, the Q Acoustics ended up a minor extra inert, extra bass-centered and a bit considerably less thrilling total.

When it arrived to audio the two ended up close, but the Q Acoustics’ extra laid-back again quality and top rated-to-base regularity gave it a slight edge. I listened to anything from Claude Debussy’s nocturnes to jazz to rock audio, and found that the Fluance’s talents lay in audio with lots of depth. The XL8F can actually give you a vivid perception of the functionality place and make the speakers themselves vanish — as prolonged as items you should not get as well free. 

For example, the opening times of Phoebe Bridgers’ Know The End gave me goosebumps when listened to through the Fluance, and this ongoing as the chorused electric guitar slithered close to guiding the singer. At two:forty five the bass drum that propels the second fifty percent of the song was deep and pulsing. Only when the song got actually chaotic did the details turn into a clean.

Astonishingly the Q Acoustics presented a various song, and one which was in the end considerably extra enjoyable. The song’s intro guitars sounded greater, and alternatively of remaining in thrall they ended up thrust outwards into the listening place, enveloping me. When the song got busy the speakers retained anything in focus much better than the Fluence, and the 3050i’s keen midrange on the chanted vocals and the enraged “rahhhhhh” ended up extra finely expressed.

Should you get it?

Yes, you can get by yourself a rather killer soundbar for $600, but you can find no way it could match the Fluance XL8F for possibly physical existence or the capability to reproduce a thundering film soundtrack. There are few ground-standers that can do what the XL8F does — marry crushing bass electricity with an open up, in-depth seem — and none of them price tag $600. The Q Acoustics 3050i is a extra refined speaker, especially for audio, but it prices $350 extra and it is just not as nicely-designed. The Fluance XL8F delivers an extraordinary price and if your price range is under a grand, and you have the space, these speakers need to be at the top rated of your audition record.