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1723 Monitors on my sub?

Keith Luken
Community Member

 

Been going round and round on 1723 Towers vs Monitors. I get the phenomenal build quality, but 111 pounds per Tower at my age is a bit intimating. Also since I have 2 18 inch subs, do I really benefit from the towers? I wish Arendale still made the 1723 Monitor stands as they look nice and help break up the weight. I could get the monitors and put them on speaker stands, or I was thinking why not put them on my subs? My subs are 24 inches tall and that should put the tweeter right at about 36 inches height.

 

1 – Has anyone put monitors on a sub? Any reason not to do it?

2 – With my 2 large subs what advantage would the towers bring to the table over the monitors, if any?

 

Thanks in advance!

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All replies (7)

Ken Tidd
Community Member

I have 1961 monitors on top of my subs with an isolator pad between the sub and the monitor.  I think they sound great, I also like the flexibility I have to move them around the top of the sub.  Towards the front or the back or toe them in slightly towards my listening position.

Ramón T.
Hero

I have the central 1723 above the subwoofer 2v and there is no problem. I have seen several settings that use the monitor above the sub. Notice the stability of both in this video.

Thomas Gunvaldsen
Customer Support

1. Absolutely, it works great!

2. Towers will have more bass output, depending on the crossover region and how loud you play, this would be the major difference. With that said, the Monitors have great capability in the bass as well and you can push them really hard even with crossover frequencies as low as 60Hz.

Neil H
Community Member

I have the Arendal 1723 Monitors used with only one sub. My choice is a 2.1 system, not used for home theatre. The location of my speakers dictate they are in the “plugged” configuration. My sub is crossed over at 80hz. My room is approximately 20″ X 11″. Unfortunately the speakers are on the long wall, not at the end of the room. For me, there is plenty of base in this configuration and I have no want for more. One thing in my experience that was new to my listening was bass fatigue, just like people talk about when they are referring to high frequency. Point being, too high of a volume on your sub (or other adjustments) can create so much pressure energy in the room it can make your ears actually hurt after a short time, creating listening fatigue. That is my experience and it is a horrible one. Point being, I don’t believe if your using subs you’ll need the extended base range of the floor standers. if no subs, buy the floor version, using subs, buy the monitors. The only issue I see here is where are the monitors going to be placed? If you need to buy stands (and they will have to be very sturdy as the Monitors are heavy) then you’ll need to decide if the actual price difference is relevant. I’m sure you can get the towers adjusted to the subs if you go that route as well. I would love to know what you decide to do, there’s no wrong way, just preference.

Neil H
Community Member

Sorry, one more thing. Keep in mind the subs may not have the best room integration with the room by putting the Monitors on top of them. Very often, the subs and speakers are not in the same location for the best bass output of your subs. Your subs may have greatly suffered output if placed in the wrong location. The room may dictate this depending on many factors. If your not sure of what I mean, watch videos on YouTube, “subwoofer crawl”.

Keith Luken
Community Member

I m sure my subs are not ideally placed now, but since this not a dedicated theater room I have made compromises. As much as I hate the idea of moving 112 point speakers I am leaning toward 1723 towers, sealed with 80hz cross over. Eventually when I go to a Dirac based processor I can try fully open and work on better sub integration.

Corey
Community Member

I would just put the monitors on the subs. I think the monitors look silly on skinny stands. I agree that Arendal should have never discontinued the 1723 monitor stands. That is one thing that originally had me interested in monitors over towers.

As monitors vs towers .. I’ve had both and sold my 1723 towers and switched to monitors for more flexibility in placement .. on top of subs or behind a screen in the future. If you are looking for pure output then I would go with the towers.

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