Arendal 1723 S THX 5.1 Speaker Package Review & Comments

After over a week of deliberating and debating whether either these or the originals will fit, I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a set of LCR and 2 x Surrounds.

I’ve already got 2 x sub 3s, hence my interest in these speakers.

I’ll continue with my XTZs for the surround backs and atmos duties for the time being, feeling pretty confident that Dirac will help sort out any tonal differences between the two.

I’m hoping these will be an upgrade on the XTZs rather than a sideways move.
 
After over a week of deliberating and debating whether either these or the originals will fit, I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a set of LCR and 2 x Surrounds.

I’ve already got 2 x sub 3s, hence my interest in these speakers.

I’ll continue with my XTZs for the surround backs and atmos duties for the time being, feeling pretty confident that Dirac will help sort out any tonal differences between the two.

I’m hoping these will be an upgrade on the XTZs rather than a sideways move.
Well done
I can near guarantee that these will be a upgrade to your XTZ's
Did you go large or small?
Give them the required 50hr run in period and you won't look back
I'll repeat what I have said many times other than going in-wall these are probably the last set of speakers I will ever need to buy
and yes Dirac will sort out the voice matching
 
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Well done
I can near guarantee that these will be a upgrade to your XTZ's
Did you go large or small?
Give them the required 50hr run in period and you won't look back
I'll repeat what I have said many times other than going in-wall these are probably the last set of speakers I will ever need to buy
and yes Dirac will sort out the voice matching

Cheers mate, I had to go small. As much as I would have liked the larger ones, they were just too big. I’ve put a really big emphasis on making everything disappear across the front of the room and just felt the larger ones would have been too difficult to hide (reflections, etc). Plus the surrounds wouldn’t have fitted in between my strategically placed acoustic panels.

I don’t think i’ll be missing out on anything though as my subs will take care of anything below 80hz and I only watch movies in my room anyway.

In terms of running them in, what would you suggest? A cd on repeat at lowish volumes for a couple of days?
 
Some suggest white noise for running in speakers
Personally I just watched movies at normal volume and didn't try and speed things up
Properly balanced levels was more important, revealing excellent surround panning and depth of soundstage
Of course acoustic treatment really helps with that as well
 
Cheers mate, I had to go small. As much as I would have liked the larger ones, they were just too big. I’ve put a really big emphasis on making everything disappear across the front of the room and just felt the larger ones would have been too difficult to hide (reflections, etc). Plus the surrounds wouldn’t have fitted in between my strategically placed acoustic panels.

I don’t think i’ll be missing out on anything though as my subs will take care of anything below 80hz and I only watch movies in my room anyway.

In terms of running them in, what would you suggest? A cd on repeat at lowish volumes for a couple of days?

I will be very interested to hear your opinions once you get them setup and ran in as I think you are one of the first to go from XTZ Cinema to small Arendals, Be very interesting to hear how they compare
 
For music, how would you compare the Arendal Sub 1 with the (similarly priced) competition? Any Arendal owners who would like to chime in, or somebody who went for another brand after testing the Sub 1 (why)?
 
HeGe-For stereo/music, no contest. Arendal is marvelous for that. As an accurate, agile, musical, easy to integrate I would stack it up against any except very expensive REL hooked up via high (speaker) level inputs..and that would include orchestral. and of course its hard for me to imagine needing multiple subs for stereo /music exclusively.

.I have the Arendal Sub 2, not 1, its >XTZ 1x12 (which I also have) but of course its about 60% more expensive. That said, it justifies that spread- Are 2 Arendal 2’s > 3 XTZ 1x12 ? I certainly would expect so. After all you would have four drivers vs 3, a totally sealed system vs Hybrid sealed/ported, 4000 vs 3000 peak watts, larger more robust cabinets, better build. For home theater,Is a single model 2 > 2 XTZ 1x12 ? Depends on your room ;If its so large or complicated or hard to correct with speaker placement, and AVR EQ, maybe-but for most I’d go with Arendal 2 and then you get benefit down the road to add another and really have world class sub setup. I would certainly expect the Arendal 1 to be at least as good as the XZT 1x12; and probably better due to larger cone, stronger cabinet ....for music alone cant imagine Arendal model 1 isn’t better than XTZ 1x12.
 
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HeGe-For stereo/music, no contest. Arendal is marvelous for that. As an accurate, agile, musical, easy to integrate I would stack it up against any except very expensive REL hooked up via high (speaker) level inputs..and that would include orchestral. and of course its hard for me to imagine needing multiple subs for stereo /music exclusively.

.I have the Arendal Sub 2, not 1, its >XTZ 1x12 (which I also have) but of course its about 60% more expensive.... (some information deleted by me) ... That said I would certainly expect the Arendal 1 to be at least as good as the XZT 1x12; and probably better due to larger cone, stronger cabinet ....for music alone cant imagine Arendal model 1 isn’t better than XTZ 1x12.
I purchased the Sub1 and I am extremely happy with it. What you said about how it performs with music was 100% accurate! I did watch some movies too, and in the new Tomb Rider (which was crap :) ) the explosions scared the shit out of wifey :)
In fact, the Sub1 sounded so well that I went on and upgraded my receiver to a Marantz SR7012 and purchased an OPPO UDP-203 to handle all my discs. I am in heaven now!
 

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