My cheap-*ss speakers arrived

Brad · « **on:** 20 Jun 2003, 04:41 pm »

The Fluance sm-938b's arrived today (I'm at home with a sick child

).
They were very well-packed (double-boxed, great use of foam).

For $165 plus shipping, they are not bad. One week total ship time from Canada

I'm going to give them some time to break in.

Finish is decent - black wood-grain vinyl, and they are fairly solidly built. The baffle with the 2 mids and the tweet slopes backwards. The side firing 10" is recessed nicely into the side panel.

I'm not expecting miracles out of these, but hopefully they'll be non-fatiguing and get me by for a while.

TheeeChosenOne · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Jun 2003, 06:51 pm »

Have you considered Athena floorstanders at Best Buy?

Very nice sounding and inexpensive. Lots of rave reviews by mags out there on many Athena models.

Brad · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Jun 2003, 09:58 pm »

The cheapest Athena floorstanders I saw were $199 each - way out of budget.

The other speaker I liked in the $200 range was the Acoustic Energy Aegis 2's.

beat · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 Jun 2003, 08:58 pm »

how do they sound so far? I've been intrigued by the price and admit I am curious.

Brad · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Jun 2003, 05:43 pm »

They're not bad.

Vinyl sounds pretty good through them - much better than the Denon's tuner. They're still going through some break-in - the sound is changing quite a bit.

Bass is fairly deep, and a little boomy at this point.
The midrange, especially from the vinyl source, is quite nice.
Imaging, with the speaker only 6" wide, is good, too.
The highs can be a little harsh, especially from the tuner. We'll see what happens after some break-in. I'm headed off to work and I'll leave it playing.....