If you’re looking for big sound but don’t want to fill a room with huge speakers, bookshelf speakers are a great option, as they’re big enough to pump out bass, but small enough to fit on, well, a bookshelf. Fluance’s new Ai40 bookshelf speakers are of the powered variety, so you don’t even need a receiver to make the most of them, and based on the specs and materials used, they should sound fantastic.
The Ai40s are two-channel, 5-inch active speakers, packed with a 70-watt integrated class D amplifier, providing 35 watts per channel of power. This powers silk soft-dome tweeters for clear, crisp highs, combined with woven glass fiber drivers for detailed midrange and deep bass. The frequency range is 40 Hz to 20,000 Hz, and Fluance says that no matter whether you’re into smooth jazz or hard rock, the Ai40 speakers carefully re-create every note.
The speakers are seated in sleek-looking MDF wood cabinets, acoustically designed to produce sound that is precise and warm-sounding, with as little distortion as possible. The 10.9 x 6.5 x 7.6-inch enclosures use an acoustic suspension design to reduce unwanted resonance and vibrations. The speakers weigh in at 15.1 pounds, so while they are light enough to easily move, they are heavy enough to ensure full-bodied sound.
One of the advantages of powered bookshelf speakers is that you don’t need to worry about using a complex A/V receiver setup just to properly hear your music. The RCA jacks on the Ai40 speakers mean you can easily use them with a turntable for a compact vinyl listening setup for record collectors, as computer speakers, or even use them to replace your TV’s built-in speakers. In addition to the analog RCA jack, the Ai40 speakers also feature Bluetooth connectivity with aptX, so if you’re looking for an easy bedroom stereo, all you need are the speakers and your phone and you’re good to go.
The Fluance Ai40 bookshelf speakers are available through the company’s website, retailing for $200, and available in black, lucky bamboo, or walnut finishes. For more information on speakers in general, check out our guide to the various types of speakers available and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
