I find this very interesting. It is not every day I meet someone who are of a completely polar opposite opinion of myself, so let's try to unpack this. I would genuinely like to better understand your position.
Honestly, can’t disagree more with you in just about any aspect of your response.
Obviously we are at opposite wavelength and you are quite hard to catch as seems you always seem to be telling the opposite story. What does not make sense are your comments. I do require a world from a tower costing as much as this one and it does not make any sense to me that you would be thinking of that as nonsense. On the contrary - I think that your are completely in the wrong.
"I do require a world from a tower costing as much as this one and it does not make any sense to me that you would be thinking of that as nonsense". Here you are either actively using a straw man, or you are reading between the lines and attributing opinions to me that I do not have. I have not anywhere said that a tower costing 10k should not be a good speaker. At the same time we live in a world where the Borresen X3 with its 4.5" woofers and ..interesting measurements costs even more than this. We also live in a world where you can find speakers that cost 100,000 or even 1,000,000. So when you say that you require "a world" from a tower that cost 10k/pair, it is a bit hard to understand exactly what you mean by that, and what you are comparing it to.
So for the record, my view thus far is:
As of now, and regardless of what nonsense people are throwing in here (not to limit just to
@sigbergaudio) Arendal 1528 big towers and center have nothing to distinguish them from more established offerings on the market, that BTW seem to have smaller form factor or lower price.
I agree with you that I am not sure why the 1528 needs to be as big as it is, or as heavy as it is. So I think we must assume that the intended audience here is people who WANT a large tower speaker. So I am not sure we can hold that against it. We're back to personal preferences again. If I am looking for a small speaker, a big speaker will not be for me. But that doesn't mean it is not for other people.
Beyond that, and my apologies if I have missed it, can you please suggest a current, speaker that has a list price (not discounted) that is lower than the Arendal, that you think is a way better deal?
Similarly, trade in value of Arendal is zero so one has to think of who would ever want to buy these bulky speakers and for what price.
If anyone can point to the different view based on measurements and science, pls be my guest. But really tired of the voodoo masters and alike telling me I am wrong.
Why would you suggest that the trade in value of Arendal is zero? It certainly isn't in my country, and I think they have a decent enough popularity that I doubt that is the case in a number of other countries either. According to your profile you live in the EU, so I do not think this is true for where you live.
You are also again pointing out the bulkiness. Again I agree with you from my personal point of view that such large speakers is certainly impractical. But again it seems you are taking your personal opinion and generalizing it. Others my find it super cool that they are large and heavy.
Different view: The size and quality of the cabinet work alone makes it impressive that the 1528 Towers aren't even more expensive. The only way they've pulled that off is by producing at scale in China. Personally I try to avoid it, but if they did, they would be even more expensive. And again it is perfectly fine that you find this to be a negative rather than positive, but it is cost and subsequently value for whoever appreciates this. Further you get a speaker that is probably at least at the Revel F328be level with regards to capacity and SPL, and I would also argue apparent build quality. Sound quality is to me so far unknown. The F328 costs more than twice as much.
Finally I take slight offense by being implied to be part of a group of voodoo masters. If you have familiarized yourself at all with my offerings, you would know this is far from the truth.