Arendal 1723 Speaker Review

[Spkrdctr]

To summarize, all Arendal Sound crossovers have the same characteristics:

• 24dB/octave slopes.
• Heavy gauge, low DCR air-core coils.
• Metalized Polypropylene capacitors.
• High power, low inductance wire wound resistors.
• Wide, 1oz copper traces on 1.6mm thick FR4 PCBs.
• Low inductance, low insertion loss, twisted-pair wiring.

But what about the cheesy stuff? Like no no res and no tube connectors.

 

[rvsixer]

My thoughts on this speaker: it may be low distortion in the bass (& elsewhere), but there is not a lot of bass at all - it starts rolling off slowly at 80Hz, and it's 5dB down at 52Hz already. So if low distortion is supposed to the main attraction of this speaker vs other competent speakers, then I don't understand this speaker, because you'd have to combine it with a subwoofer(s) due to lack of bass, at which point you're taking away the whole point of the speakers power handling & low distortion in the bass - because there are plenty of bookshelves that can play loud & at low distortion when combined with a subwoofer, and they'd be bookshelves with better horizontal & vertical directivity (because not MTM) and they probably wouldn't cost as much either, and their frequency response can be just as good if not better.......so I don't really understand this product in terms of it's benefit.

I'm not sure why everyone keeps commenting on the "poor" performance of this speaker OUTSIDE of its intended usage (i.e. the few cases where in-room bass response is truly excellent at a location coincident with the LR mains locations).

ALL Arendal monitors/centers per the manual, intended use is:
"...it is envisaged that the Monitor and Center will typically be supported by a subwoofer..."

If your room actually has excellent bass response at the mains position(s), the 1723/1723S towers should float your boat. Same for the 1723S bookshelves if the bass/overall output level is sufficient. There are 3rd party measurements of those already out on the interwebs too....

 

[amirm]

Folks, this speaker has some of the best sounds I have heard in such a small form factor. Do not discount it easily.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

anyway my problem is the 300hz - 700hz region, i don't know why this measure that bad vs this Arendal 1961 in the THD, because this one looks way better

 

[Dj7675]

The only flaw in their lineup is really not offering any 3 way centers. All are MTM horizontal. For those that need a horizontal speaker, it would be a welcome addition to their lineup. Otherwise they seem to offer really great value.

 

[Jon AA]

My thoughts on this speaker: it may be low distortion in the bass (& elsewhere), but there is not a lot of bass at all - it starts rolling off slowly at 80Hz, and it's 5dB down at 52Hz already. So if low distortion is supposed to the main attraction of this speaker vs other competent speakers, then I don't understand this speaker, because you'd have to combine it with a subwoofer(s) due to lack of bass, at which point you're taking away the whole point of the speakers power handling & low distortion in the bass - because there are plenty of bookshelves that can play loud & at low distortion when combined with a subwoofer, and they'd be bookshelves with better horizontal & vertical directivity (because not MTM) and they probably wouldn't cost as much either, and their frequency response can be just as good if not better.......so I don't really understand this product in terms of it's benefit.

It doesn't usually work that way though. When you design a bookshelf for more bass extension, you are giving up sensitivity--and usually SPL capability. You don't gain all of that back by putting a high pass on it. A high pass can certainly help delay the onset of distortion and compression in the upper bass/lower midrange in some cases, but it doesn't redesign the speaker.

When the design objective for a small speaker is high output/low distortion when used with a sub, the ceiling of potential will be raised when it's not designed to go very low in the first place.

 

[tw 2022]

It doesn't usually work that way though. When you design a bookshelf for more bass extension, you are giving up sensitivity--and usually SPL capability. You don't gain all of that back by putting a high pass on it. A high pass can certainly help delay the onset of distortion and compression in the upper bass/lower midrange in some cases, but it doesn't redesign the speaker.

When the design objective for a small speaker is high output/low distortion when used with a sub, the ceiling of potential will be raised when it's not designed to go very low in the first place.

The emotiva b1 is an example of not trying to get low bass in exchange for the ability to get a bit louder...

 

[Laika2]

I have owned this center for a few years, two in fact in two different setups. The Room is the issue with MTM's. my main room is narrow, no seat is more than 7.5 degrees off access. I would have to extend further than my 3 seat couch to hit audible lobbing territory. That would put person 4 on the floor, a foot from a side wall, directly in line of of the whole right or left side speakers (7.1.4) which is going to throw the whole image, bed layer and atmos dominating the left or right side speakers. Bass is very reinforced close to my walls, not even at all, add in the fact the whole image is blown as you are so far off center that on side or the other is gong to be louder than the other depending on what side floor you want to sit on next to the couch.

In my case, lobbing or combing is the least of my worries due to the above and would not even be the main factor for blown sound.

Wide rooms, I get the worries,narrow rooms where seats are not very far off center is not a issue.

I have been through about 20 centers in my life, mostly 3 ways, at least 8 of them were more than double/triple the price of this unit. The 1723 THX center blows all but one away but one (a 3 way), and that one sounded quite different, some may have a preference between the two, for me either was is great but since it's a full Arendal setup (other than sub) the other speaker does not mix well (I still have it)

The point is MTM's are a issue, BUT only once you hit the off access point where things become audible, in my room 7.5 degrees either way, (15 degree spread over the seats is not audible. Check the charts, see at what degree things start falling apart and check and see if any of the seats you care about are in the zone.

I still maintain that in many rooms the MTM issue when outside the off access window s going to sound like crap for many of our rooms to such a extent that combing is the least of the issues. My sub alone with the way bass piles up near walls I expect would make any combing inaudible, not in a beneficial way, the bass will be so thick and uneven it's going to sound like total crap masking any other lesser audible issues. Combing over that level of muddy bass is not going to be heard, the seat would be way worse than that. It's a bad seat period that should never be used due to endless issues far more serious than a MTM outside the zone issue.

Once again, disclaimer, this thought only concerns narrow rooms and the dispersion pattern.

FOR me the question is not is a MTM a bad idea, the question is "Is it a bad idea for your room?"

PS: First post, long time lurker, that odd fun power cord war last month and the conclusions told me to register as I was in the right place.

 

[solderdude]

Weird that on the speaker itself they print 8Ω but the spec sheet and Amir's measurements show 4Ω

 

[abdo123]

I can't for the life of me understand why MTM's are still being manufactured.

Why not? Just place them vertically and you get a cheap point source with high sensitivity.

 

[thewas]

Why not? Just place them vertically and you get a cheap point source with high sensitivity.

And usually some directivity problems in one axis so not really an ideal point source...
Nowadays MTM can of course be done also close to ideal like for example PerListen shows but such solutions are usually rare and not cheap.

 

[uwotm8]

First off thanks for the review @amirm . Inevitably we are going to get a bunch of members who will say the Kef or Genelec or Revel model this or that is a better performer at $2500. Based on your measurements it probably wouldn’t be my first choice, but I can’t deny this looks to be a really solid option. Also, kudos to Arendal for sending them in. It takes guts to open themselves up to a review here. I don‘t know much about them, but everything I read about the brand points to some smart engineering. They just went up as a company a notch in my book. Really nice speakers.

I would prefer KEF just for its look - Arendal is too much "DIY Peerless 8" MTM speaker"
BTW such Peerless drivers are priced around 20 euro for SDS and 50-60 for HDS; some people kinda expect more from $2.5k passive speakers

 

[voodooless]

I would prefer KEF just for its look - Arendal is too much "DIY Peerless 8" MTM speaker"
BTW such Peerless drivers are priced around 20 euro for SDS and 50-60 for HDS; some people kinda expect more from $2.5k passive speakers

While the visible part of the frame looks like a HDS driver (SDS is stamped steel), the backside is clearly different:

vs

It's not the same driver. I guess the HDS would also exhibit a lower distortion

 

[Beave]

I don't see much resemblance at all between the Arendal driver and Peerless drivers.

 

[TNT]

I can't for the life of me understand why MTM's are still being manufactured.

I think its simply because "people" thinks it looks cool.

//

 

[rvsixer]

Weird that on the speaker itself they print 8Ω but the spec sheet and Amir's measurements show 4Ω

Actually (unfortunately) very common practice in the speaker industry as Amir's speaker testing has shown.
Most all "8 ohm" rating speakers are actually 4 ohm, see time ~21:10-21:42 (love the 8 ohm fantasy reference):

 

[RickS]

Actually (unfortunately) very common practice in the speaker industry as Amir's speaker testing has shown.
Most all "8 ohm" rating speakers are actually 4 ohm, see time ~21:10-21:42 (love the 8 ohm fantasy reference):

Pretty sure @solderdude was referring to the driver being 8 ohms. The speaker spec is 4 ohms as you might expect from a couple of 8 ohm drivers in parallel.

 

[rvsixer]

Pretty sure @solderdude was referring to the driver being 8 ohms. The speaker spec is 4 ohms as you might expect from a couple of 8 ohm drivers in parallel.

Now that I look at it again I think you are right, 8 ohm referred to the driver(s) not the speaker as a whole. And I missed the 4 ohm on the spec sheet.
So indeed nothing weird going on...

 

[Robbo99999]

It doesn't usually work that way though. When you design a bookshelf for more bass extension, you are giving up sensitivity--and usually SPL capability. You don't gain all of that back by putting a high pass on it. A high pass can certainly help delay the onset of distortion and compression in the upper bass/lower midrange in some cases, but it doesn't redesign the speaker.

When the design objective for a small speaker is high output/low distortion when used with a sub, the ceiling of potential will be raised when it's not designed to go very low in the first place.

I'm sure there are plenty of bookshelves with low distortion above 100Hz (at 86dB & 96dB), fortunately or unfortunately I don't have time right now to dig up the examples from Amir's reviews, but I'm sure I've seen plenty. (And 96dB for one speaker at 1m is loud enough right & the limit of Amir's distortion measurements.)

 

[tw 2022]

Folks, this speaker has some of the best sounds I have heard in such a small form factor. Do not discount it easily.

it's getting to the point that some folks are starting to read *too much* into the objective readings (and dare i say: not understanding them enough to make the connection) rather than using a combination of objective / subjective info....