No Arendal 8 inch bookshelfs! What is the alternative?

[mohammad-addas]

Hello,

I recently purchased a pair of Arendal 1723 moniors (8 inch drivers) and want to upgrade the rest of the system to have all Arendal speakers (total of 7). I feel comfortable to have identical drivers for all 3 front speakers as a set, and identical drivers for the 4 back speakers as a set. Consequently, I was planning to get the 1723 center (8 inch) and four 1723 Monitor S (6.5 inch) for surround and back surround.

Becuase of some issues, I’m forced to use the 1723 monitors I have as surround speakers and buy two additional 1723 monitors for the front with the matching center speaker. For back surround, my preference is to have 8 inch speakers because of the new situation but geting the monitors is too much. I tried the 6.5 bookshelfes and returned them. I felt something is missing with them, maybe because they were sealed or maybe because they had 6.5 drivers or maybe both. So I think 8 inch ported bookshelfs are the best option but Arendal doesn’t make them.

My two options from what Arendal offers are the 1723 S monitiors (ported but 6.5 inch drivers) and the 1723 surrounds (8 inch driver but sealed). Which of the two is more suitable for my system? Will the perfromance of the 8 inch driver of the 1723 suttounds achieve higher coherence with the other speakers in the system? or the ported beaviour of the S monitors?

 

Addas

[arkmann]

Suggest trying the surrounds for the 4 back.  If it doesn’t sound right you can return and try the monitors.  Let us know what you choose and how it sounds.  Good luck!

[mohammad-addas]

Shipping is not free to my country. Also import taxes are non refundable so trying and returning is a very expensive experiment. I decided to go with 1723 Monitors for surrounds and 1723 Surrounds for back surround duties and I’m very happy with the outcome. The sound is perfect and real life sized. I don’t think I would be as satisfied if I went with four 1723 Surrounds.

Also, the new Dirac feature for room calibration (ART) can make use of the large surround monitors to improve the room acoustics. That is a bonus I might benefit from when it is time to upgrade my processor.

[arkmann]

Thanks for the heads up.  Interesting the difference in shipping, import fees and overall cost of the same equipment from country to country.  Glad to hear your system works for you.  Enjoy!