Ambassador Alejandro

HOW IS YOUR ROOM SET UP?

4.2 x 6.7 x 2.45
Dedicated room with 7.4.4 setup
Listening position in the middle of the room
Primary use movies

WHAT WAS YOUR GOAL WHEN LOOKING FOR NEW SPEAKERS AND SUBWOOFERS?

I was looking for speakers with enough power to deliver chest slam and good sound quality and big stage.

With my previous JBL HDI 1600 and 4500 I couldn’t get the chest slam.

WHERE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT US?

My journey with Arendal Sound started around 8 years ago when a friend of mine got an Arendal 3 Subwoofer. I liked it very much, and after that I got 2 Arendal 1 for my own setup. I had also tested the 1723 previously in another room with a different setup, but that time I didn’t manage to get used to them. In my new setup I decided to give them a second chance, getting them new. With much better room acoustics, Dirac, and more experience, I thought they could give me the kind of sound I was looking for in movies.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE ARENDAL SOUND?

Good quality, nice looking, warranty and found the kind of sound I was looking for.

YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE PRODUCTS?

I got the 1723 THX Monitors for the front stage and center. Very good stage in music. You can experiment a lot with EQ to change the kind of sound. They don’t fatigue after long listening sessions. Very good bass! The performance in movies. They can get louder and louder…. The bass performance giving pressure.

Like most home cinema fanatics, I have my go-to demo scenes that I always test with any new setup. With the 1723 THX, the ones that really stood out were the catacombs scene in John Wick 2 with all the shots, and the final scenes of 13 Hours Benghazi. I was looking for physical impact in those scenes and the 1723 delivered impressively together with my subs. The center speaker also stood out — it feels much deeper than the HDI 4500. Male voices sound better and more like a cinema.

Comparing the 1723 THX to my previous JBL HDI day to day, I have to be honest — the 1723 THX aren’t better in every aspect in my opinion. I had the HDI for 5 years and the horn+compression tweeter feel very different, specially in music. With the HDI I felt I had a wall of sound with a very open stage, allthough with less details in the scene. The 1723 have better instruments positioning, but the HDI felt wider although being smaller monitors. After Dirac Calibration the 1723 opened a bit, and I opened also the TOE In, but the HDI feel wider with brighter treble (typicall from JBL Horns) despite the changes. That makes the 1723 more suitable for some kind of music like rock, heavy…which can be fatiguing for long listening. In movies the bigger change besides the chest slam comes from the center speaker.

Since I already knew the speakers from before, there wasn’t a big surprise when unboxing this time — but the quality always makes itself felt when you open the box, and they feel massive too.

WHAT ELSE DOES YOUR SYSTEM CONSIST OF?

• Processor / AVR: Onkyo RZ70
• Amplifier: Rotel RMB 1095
• Source devices: Oppo 203
• Subwoofer: 1 Dayton Ultimax 18″ and 3 Dayton Ultimax 15″
• Other: Fully treated room acoustically with low RT60
• Display: JVC NZ500 and 115″ screen

HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH ARENDAL SOUND PRODUCTS?

Very happy, I purchased 4 1723 THX surrounds!

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

The moment that really sums up this journey came after calibrating the system and testing it with my usual demo scenes. That’s when I said: “OK! There it is, what I was looking for a very long time!!!”

Setup details