INTRODUCTION
ARENDAL, NOT a name many people know. Ask your friends about them and I'll bet most look at you with a bewildered stare. I first ran across the company around 3 years ago but at that time they weren't doing much in the US so I filed them away in the "check back at a later date" section of my product review list. I guess you can consider it a later date as I now have before me a 5.1 system consisting of the following.
2-1723 Tower S
1-1723 Center S
2-1723 Bookshelf S
1-1723 Subwoofer 2S
The entire 1723 line is physically smaller than the driver quantity and their size would suggest, it's clear Arendal is going for room friendly here. The S in the speaker name actually stands for "smaller" (relative to their flagship 1723 series). Each product in the S line is THX Ultra certified meaning rated for reference level volume in rooms up to 3,000 cubic feet at a 12-foot listening distance. Products that have achieved Ultra certification are seriously capable, an impressive accomplishment for speakers and subwoofers as small as these.
Arendal includes free shipping and a generous 60 day in-home trial. There is a 5 year warranty on electronics, 10 years for everything else.
FIRST IMPRESIONS
It's often said you don't get a second chance to make a first impression, start off on the wrong foot and it's difficult to make amends. Here's how my first interaction with Arendal went:
This story is from the April - May 2023 edition of Sound & Vision.
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This story is from the April - May 2023 edition of Sound & Vision.
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The Big Clean
Chances are you probably do not think about the state of your electronic devices too often. Oh, you might think about all the upgrades you would like to make; where you would put those new tower speakers, or how a second or third subwoofer would really tame those bass modes in your room, or how much more cinematic a larger screen would be. Sure, you think about that part of your system. But how often do you think about the well-being of your system?
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