Fluid Audio FX80 8" Co-Axial Studio Monitor

Everything you play will sound like a vinyl album because of the white noise that is always present. That said, I can turn almost any quality source to max volume, and it never becomes painful. It is plenty loud and incredibly detailed oriented. A true monitor. The white noise, while an extreme annoying at first, grew on me and became a feature rather than a bug after some listening. The speaker is not fatiguing, and that is the biggest compliment I can pay it. If my ears hurt, it is because I felt so comfortable turning up the volume I lost track of just how loud the sound was. Not for everyone, and the features on the back are limited, including the dip switches. Great entry point and price for quality audio, if you do not mind the white noise when idle.

I have a speaker problem, lots of speakers. These FX80s are the most balanced and neutral speakers I have while still being fun and for my listening and close to full range.Shortcomings - 1. They don't go down to 35Hz -3dB in my office, with that being said, it's not a problem for me - I even turn the bass down -1dB for balance AND I choose to not connect a sub in my room because they have plenty of bass. I have no reason to believe that they can't do 35Hz at -3db with corner-loading, just doesn't happen in my room with my placement. I attached my in-room response chart - 35Hz is more like -10dB.2. They're a little noisy at idle but they are silent when they go into sleep mode and I can't hear the noise at low listening volumes so it's a non-issue for me. Of note, I am using an unbalanced RCA connection, I'll try balanced and update if it is different.The pros are everything else I love about the speakers - detail, midrange clarity, punchy bass with a lot of extension and slow roll-off. My settings as I listen to them are bass -1dB, treble -1dB, and midrange +1dB. I have it set to flat in the response curve that I screenshotted. Great soundstage and imaging, great everything. The front port and coaxial/concentric design are also a plus for me and work better for my office setup than the JBL 305p monitors they replaced that are sitting on my floor at the moment. Looks are subjective, I like them, they are fat and weird in the best possible way. Fluid Audio is a great company from my experience, they've answered 2 email questions I had re: stands and subwoofer, very quickly and these speakers are great. If I were to absolutely nit-pick, I would say that I have other speakers around this price point that on some songs with some instruments have a bit more natural of a tone or timbre.These speakers compete for listening time in my house with my Swan D1090s, JBL 530s, Thiel CS1.5, JBL 305p, and Jamo S803s. My Eris 3.5s and Swan D100s don't compete because of lacking comparable bass etc.Thank you Z for bringing these to my attention.

I just went through a few popular studio monitors after selling my JBL ls305s. I wanted to upgrade woofer size so that I had some more bass depth. I first tried the krk rp7g4, then mackie xr624s, m audio m3-8 and then these Fluid FX80s.Sound wise the fluids were descent. Measuring them from my listening position about a meter away showed a similar response to what the manual shows. The bass is lifted which I like, recessed mids due to a couple dips and then a small but noticeable peak at the high end at 10khz. Combine all that and you get a speaker that has a bit of a smiley face response. With a bit of eq I raised the midrange and tamed the 10khz peak and was totally happy with the sound.The reason I returned them is because of their massive self noise hiss. These had the worst hiss of any monitors I ever owned. The krks were not far behind. At 1 meter with quiet music playing which is how I mostly use them the hiss was audible. With no music playing I was able to hear the hiss 2 meters away. I don't get how a 30 watt tweeter amp can be so cheap that they hiss that bad. Other than that my favorite thing about them is how compact they are. I believe these are the most compact and lightest 8 inch studio monitor on the market.Compared to the others i mentioned, sound wise the krks were my favorite besides their lack of bass due to a smaller woofer. However the krks had an annoying 8khz peak which gave the high end a glassy character. It could be eqd but I sent them back because of their bad self noise as well. The mackie xr624s were horrendous. I dont know why I took a chance on an aluminum tweeter again but those things rang like a bell. No amount of eq could help a tweeter that inherently rings. They also started picking up noises and transmitting them. I had to move them out of my room which wasn't a solution. Their self noise wasnt bad. The m audios were mid range heavy and i realized they're a mid field monitor so they were sold. My jbls were alright. I never fell in love with them. They were too bright and lacked lower midrange. Their self noise was pretty low.The next monitors I ordered are tannoy gold 8s. With class ab amps I'm hoping they're dead quiet.

Tried upgrading the power cables. Tried different RCA shielded cables. Contacted Fluid Audio support over a week ago asking if they could help me with this humming problem. No response. Maybe these a great with balanced inputs, but these speakers are worthless using RCA cables. Not sure why they wouldn’t fix this issue in the speaker and charge a little more money or just get rid of the unbalanced input altogether and stop marketing these with the RCA input. Disappointed. I’m sending them back. 😪

I have had my FX80's for about 3 months. Previous monitors Include KRK R8's and a few others around the $500/per mark. After going from the KRK's to these Fluid's I went through some of my older tracks and immediately thought there was an issue with them but I was wrong. They are SO CLEAR that I was noticing aspects of my mixdowns in the low mids and bass I simply couldn't hear with my KRKs. The separation these little puppies give of layered instruments is hands down incredible. They are FLAT. It's taken me a bit to get used to mixing down on them because simply I'm not used to such honestly flat monitors. Early on I kept upping the bass on my tracks too much because with most monitors I had too. With these, if the bass is sounding a little too loud....then it's mixed a little too loud. Mix it flat and your tracks will shine on other systems.COAXIAL : I am a sucker for new technology and investigating progression vs gimmick. Eagerly I set up these coaxial monitors in my very non-acoustically treated room to see how they work. They have a VERY wide sound space and moving around in different directions causes very little change in sound as compared to other monitors I have owned. Generally, the coaxial style monitor is optimal for non treated rooms and sounds extremely accurate no matter their positioning.Build Quality : Solid and rock solid as monitors should be. Because of the coaxial design they are significantly smaller than any 8" monitors i've ever owned which is very nice in my small studio space. The design themselves is well...cute. In a good way. They look happy!Issues : No issues at all as of yet!Last notes : For rock, acoustic, and non-heavy EDM monitors these things are hands down the best monitors in the price range by a HUGE amount and I'd be willing to say even possibly the best in the under $500 per monitor range even. Myself I make a lot of EDM and sometimes I want a little more *thump* as mixing down the super low frequencies can get a little difficult with these. But that said I feel that the trade off of clarity they provide is much more worth it. 5/5, would recommend and buy again.