Arendal Sound 1723 Monitor THX Loudspeaker Review

Over the past few years, Arendal Sound has been building a reputation as a loudspeaker manufacturer that makes high-performance but affordable home theater-centered speakers. They are a Norwegian company whose main market is Europe, but they ship worldwide, and they are set up to be easily purchased and shipped across the globe. They make THX-certified speakers that look nice enough to not be out of place in an upscale living room. Many of the speakers that have that level of performance married to that level of looks tend to cost a fortune. Arendal’s loudspeakers are not the least expensive out there, but they are shockingly low-priced considering what they promise to bring to the table. But the keyword there is ‘promise’ - it all seems to be too good to be true. In today’s review of Arendal’s 1723 Monitors, we look at what the ‘catch’ is or if there is a ‘catch.’ Are they every bit as good as Arendal purports? Let’s dig in to find out…

Packing and Appearance

  

Packing was good for the 1723 Monitors, but it needs to be since they all ship by parcel post from their warehouse in the Netherlands. They were packed in a sturdy cardboard box with edge protectors all around. They were sandwiched between two polyethylene pieces with another piece protecting the middle - a good idea for the shape of this speaker. Inside, the speaker was covered in a drawstring rayon sack to protect it against scuffing and moisture, a very elegant touch! Furthermore, they come shipped with cotton gloves to handle the speaker without leaving fingerprints on the finish. That is certainly going the extra mile and shows pride in their product.

 

Once uncovered, the 1723 Monitor is quite an attractive speaker of its type, that being a large stand-mount speaker. It had an unexpectedly fine gloss white finish over a front baffle with beveled edges and some sleek-looking drivers. The bass drivers had a clean, satiny luster, and the tweeter had a similarly silky sheen mounted in a brushed aluminum waveguide. There are included grilles that use magnetic adhesion, so there are no grille guides on the front baffle, which preserves a very clean look. The grilles have a light rounded shape so they look a bit nicer than just black fabric hung over a frame, although I think the speaker looks nicer without the grille. The rear-mounted binding post plate also had a brushed black aluminum finish with rhodium-plated binding posts and jumpers. Overall, it’s big but very classy-looking. The 1723 Monitor also comes in a matte white, matte black, and a gloss black finish. Not having seen the other finishes in person, I have to think that the gloss white would look the nicest, but given the stylistic sensibilities seen here, I am sure they all look very nice.

Design Analysis

The 1723 Monitors are a two-way MTM design using 8” woofers and a waveguide-loaded dome tweeter. The overall design, as well as the THX-Ultra certification, suggests a stand-mount speaker with a relatively high dynamic range as well as controlled dispersion. Let’s take a closer look at it to explain what it does to achieve its design goals, and let’s start from the top of the frequency band, the tweeter. The tweeter is a 1.1” synthetic soft dome loaded into a circular aluminum waveguide. The waveguide should help control dispersion by constricting the lower end of the tweeter’s band but also widening the high end. This is done so that the dispersion remains more consistent than what normally occurs for dome tweeters without a waveguide, which is a very wide dispersion at their lower end that ends up becoming narrow at the top of the tweeter’s frequency range. Arendal’s literature states that the tweeter uses a neodymium ring magnet, copper and aluminum shorting rings, ferrofluid cooling, as well as an aluminum heatsink and a damped rear chamber to mitigate resonances from backwave radiation. 

   

The two 8” woofers of the 1723 Monitors use long pulp fiber cones with an inverted dustcap and an nitrile-butyl rubber surround. Removing the driver from the cabinet, it looks to have a 1” diameter voice coil, a shielded motor, and venting done under the spider. Shielding can keep more of the magnetic flux within the motor assembly, but it isn’t seen much anymore since it was mostly used to prevent stray magnetic fields from interfering with the picture of CRT screens. The motor is hidden behind the shielding, but the driver is fairly heavy and solid, so I would guess it has a pretty hefty magnet. Arendal’s literature states that it uses an aluminum shorting ring, suspension optimized by FEA analysis, and copper-clad aluminum wiring for the voice coil. It looks like a capable driver, and two 8” cones have nearly the same surface area as a 12” cone, so the bass system of the 1723 Monitors should have a pretty serious dynamic range.

The tweeter crosses over to the woofer at 1.5kHz, which is a very sensible crossover frequency going to an 8” cone for preserving smooth directivity, so long as the waveguide shape is well-conceived. The crossover slopes are all fourth-order, which is quite steep and surprising for a loudspeaker of this price point. These are electric-acoustic slopes, so they combine with the natural roll-off of the driver and are not purely electric slopes, at least for the tweeter. Arendal specifies their crossovers to use heavy-gauge air-core inductors, polypropylene capacitors, high-power resistors, thick PCBs, and twisted-pair multi-strand wiring, and, from taking a look at the crossover circuit, it is no joke; these are some beefy capacitors, inductors, and resistors. The 1723 Monitors allow the user to bi-amp/bi-wire them, but I have to question the need for bi-amping in this instance, even for a speaker as beefy as these. However, with a specified 400-watt RMS power-handling ability, there is a better case for bi-amping ability with these than many other home audio loudspeakers. The binding posts are plated look like nickel plating but are actually plated in rhodium, which was chosen for its conductivity, corrosion resistance, and hardness.

The enclosure has a very formidable construction that uses high-density fiberboard instead of medium-density fiberboard all around. I measured the front baffle at a 1” thickness and side panels to be ¾” thick. There is a window brace at the midsection of the cabinet. The cabinet is very generously stuffed with polyfill and the interior surfaces are lined with a soft, nearly gel-like substance that Arendal calls a “butyl-based differential mass damping layer” to dull internal pressure waves from resonating the cabinet. I thought that was going the extra mile, but Arendal also has the interior of the cabinet painted, although not with the gloss finish. The advantage to putting a layer of paint on the interior is that it is better protected against moisture affecting the wood of the cabinet. The 1723 Monitors do not come with feet attached, but they do come with some small adhesive rubber feet that the user can attach; I would recommend owners do so to preserve the finish on the bottom surface. Might as well keep it nice all over when you can. The grille uses magnetic adhesion but with very strong magnets, so it does not come off easily. The grilles need that strong adhesion since they use a perforated metal frame wrapped in black fabric. They really do protect the drivers from getting hit by foreign objects instead of just hiding the drivers with a sheet of fabric like most grilles. Arendal proudly boasts that there is very little plastic used in their speakers.

There are two 2” diameter ports mounted on the rear with 7” lengths. They are flared on both ends and come with port plugs for those who want to shut down port output. Killing port output will reduce bass headroom but it makes the phase response a lot more simple, and that can help the speakers integrate with subwoofers better. Another advantage of sealing ports would be for center channels where boundary gain can really boost bass output, and that excess bass can degrade speech intelligibility. However, unless you are getting excess bass from the speakers’ placement, I would advise users to run the 1723 Monitors with the ports open.  

The 1723 Monitors boast THX Ultra certification which means, among other things, it can hit THX Reference levels in a 3,000 cubic feet room with a 12-foot distance from the speakers. THX Reference level loudness is 105dB peaks with low distortion, so it takes some real firepower to achieve that at a 12-foot distance in a 3,000 cubic foot room. But THX loudspeaker certification is more than just dynamic range; it assesses frequency response, dispersion characteristics, electrical behavior, and time-domain behavior too. In other words, it has to be an all-around good performer. What is more, the qualities that THX looks for aren’t just to say whether a speaker is good or not but rather how well it will fit in the context of an overall THX system. What THX is looking for is predictable behavior so that the program content will sound very similar on any THX-certified system. THX is about ensuring that whatever the audience sees and hears is what the content creators intended. So if you have something that is stamped with THX certification, it is just one piece of a system that could faithfully reproduce the source material, if the chain of signal reproduction follows THX prescriptions from top to bottom.

To summarize this design, the 1723 Monitors are impeccably well-built for the price. There are no visible shortcuts made for manufacturing cost savings. They weigh in at 58lbs. per speaker, which is what you would expect from most tower speakers, yet they are just MTM monitors. Users will need a sturdy speaker stand to hold these things; Arendal makes some speaker stands for them, but at $600+ each, you might as well buy the 1723 Tower speakers which are only $400 more after that. I was so impressed by the build quality of the 1723 Monitors, in fact, that after I had unboxed them, I went back to refer to the product page to double-check the pricing. How are these only $1,200 to $1,250 per speaker (including shipping)!? Not that those prices are cheap, but if I had taken a look around the speaker without knowing its cost, I would have guessed that they would go for around $2,500 each. There is a lot of speaker here for the money, at least in terms of build quality. However, speakers are principally meant for sound reproduction, not craftsmanship, so let’s now give them a listen to see how all of these design attributes translate into sound...

Listening Sessions

In my 24’ by 13’ (approximately) listening room, I set up the speakers with a few feet of stand-off distances between the back wall and sidewall, and equal distance between speakers and listening position. I angled the speakers to have a slight toe-in toward the listening position. The listening distance from the speakers was about 9 feet. Amplification and processing were handled by a Pioneer Elite SC-55. No room correction equalization was used. No subwoofers were used unless otherwise noted.

Music Listening

The best music for evaluating a sound system’s tonality has always been orchestral on account of its dense spectral makeup due to the mixture of so many different instruments. Since the sound of orchestral instruments is so ingrained in so many people, it’s easy to sense the tonal weighting of a reproduction of a performance. Toward this end, I found a sublime new recording of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor on Qobuz from the Pentatone label. This recording was performed by Les Musiciens du Louvre which is a period-instrumental ensemble conducted by Marc Minkowski and attempts to stay close to what might have originally been heard in the 1783 premier of this composition. There also are four lead singers as well as a choir, so there is a great deal of vocal work here as well. The production of this recording is impeccable and was presented in a 96kHz/24-bit resolution.

From the first notes onward, the 1723 Monitors gave this mass a full and vivid sound, Lead vocals were crystal clear and anchored firmly around the soundstage center, and the choral and instrumentalists surrounded them for an expansive soundstage that seemed to stretch out beyond the speakers’ placement. Instruments and voices had a natural tonality, and I did not detect any tonal imbalance. Bass extension seemed adequate for this recording, and bass drums had a weighty presence. When the lead vocalists sang and alternated with each other such as in track 8, ‘llg. Jesu Christe,’ their positions resided around the center but each singer had an audibly unique placement within the soundstage for precise imaging when called for. I noticed the same quality for solo instrumentalists. The dynamic range abilities of the 1723 Monitors, was, of course, more than adequate for this recording. ‘Mass in C Minor’ was exquisitely reproduced by these speakers, and surely any fan of classical music would be very happy with what they have to offer. It would be a mistake to think that these speakers are intended for movie content and are somehow less able with more delicate musical recordings such as this.

For something with a more singular emphasis on a human vocal, I found a marvelous recording by Oumou Sangare titled ‘Acoustic,’ an album of African Wassoulou music (which is a kind of folk music) that were composed and performed by the Malian Sangare, who sings lyrics in Bambara, one of the major languages of Mali. ‘Acoustic’ is a purely acoustic recording of the songs in her popular record ‘Mogoya’ which had many layers of studio production techniques for a slicker sound. ‘Acoustic’ is a very simple, stripped-down production in comparison: just Sangare and a few acoustic instruments, and her two backup singers. It gets a lot closer to her natural voice as well as the other instruments and singers with very little studio gloss. As a result, it sounds a bit rough but it does sound candid and direct. These are personal songs and the production gives them an intimacy that befits the subject matter. 

The first thing I noticed in ‘Acoustic’ is how richly textured the plucked strings sound. The detail in the instruments as well as Sangare’s voice was meticulously rendered, like one would hope for in an ‘unplugged’ album like this. Given the design of these speakers, I decided to try an inward, ‘time-intensity trading’ type of toe-in (described here and also discussed in this Audioholics Livestream video) which should help sharpen the imaging at various points in the album. This is not to say that the imaging wasn’t great before; in fact, it was very good with just a slight toe-in. However. The design suggested a more controlled directivity than most speakers, which should make it more eligible for a time-intensity trading positioning. The difference was intriguing. The soundstage narrowed considerably but the imaging became more precise, almost laser-like as aural positioning. Sangare as well as the instrumentation and her backup singers had pinpoint placement within the soundstage. I think the finer imaging and narrower soundstage suited an album of this nature better than the wider soundstage of a less extreme toe-in. The nice thing about speakers like this is they give you a choice in the width of the soundstage, as opposed to wide-directivity speakers that aren’t nearly as affected by toe-in. ‘Acoustic’ sounded quite beautiful on the 1723 Monitors, even though the subject matter is supposedly sad (I wouldn’t really know, not being a speaker of Bambara, although the songs did often have a melancholy about them). I am guessing not many people are looking at 1723 Monitors to listen to Wassoulou music, but music lovers who do end up with these speakers ought to give this album a listen.

One powerful and diverse music recording is the soundtrack to ‘Baraka,’ the 1992 wordless documentary for Imax and Omnimax screens. The music is principally by synth wizard Micheal Stearns but features a plethora of tracks by other artists including Dead Can Dance’s classic piece, ‘The Host of Seraphim.’ This music sounds big, and it was meant to sound big since the film was primarily intended for giant screen presentations. It is a globe-trotting movie and so is the music, with ethnic pieces from a variety of locales such as India, Nepal, the Andes, Thailand, and Japan. Hovering over all of the music from around the world is Stearns’ epic synth soundscapes that tie everything together and gives it a monumental scope. This music benefits from loud volumes, so a pair of THX Ultra certified speakers should be able to realize the scale of this score, but let’s see if the 1723 Monitors are up to the task.

With music as massive as the movie, I wanted to get an Imax-level sound experience, so I turned to a powerful amplifier that I had on hand–the Parasound JC 5, a high-end amp rated at 600-watt RMS for a 4-ohm load. The resulting sound was very impressive. I did notice that the lower bass was a bit thin, but I reasoned that THX speakers like these usually have a 12dB/octave roll-off at 80Hz for tightly controlled subwoofer integration, and that kind of roll-off would yield a fair amount of boundary gain, especially with rear-ported speakers such as these, so I scooted the speakers close to the backwall giving them only a few inches of space back there. That did the trick nicely, and now the bass sound was as if subwoofers were in use. The 1723 Monitors had no trouble with this immense sound. They produced a tower-speaker-like range and authority. These speakers paired with this amp with this album could conjure up what I think most people would think of if they were told to imagine a THX experience. The speakers were not bothered by these elevated loudness levels, and they had a true big-screen dynamic range. In normal use, I would probably still use subwoofers with them for a bit more extension and also for the greater control of the in-room frequency response that subs can provide, but for those who need standmount speakers with serious dynamic range down to bass frequencies, the 1723 Monitors are an excellent solution. ‘Baraka’ sounded fantastic with these speakers; this album is a musical voyage I had taken many times before but this was the finest presentation I have yet heard. 

For something on the more raucous side of music, I found a great album by Machinecode called ‘Every Ones & Nothings.’ It’s difficult to classify the electronic music on this album, but I would describe it as very experimental dubstep, although that still doesn’t quite capture what is going on here. It is bass-heavy electronic music with a lot of atmospheric synths and bulky percussion rhythms. The sound isn’t especially fast in tempo, but, from the first track onwards, it is so thick that it feels as heavy as a ton of bricks. It should function as a good album with which to stress the 1723 Monitors. With all of the bass in ‘Every Ones & Nothings,’ it would also be a good album with which to get a sense of the bass response; could these speakers do justice to the copious bass in ‘Every Ones & Nothings’ or would a subwoofer be needed for the full effect? With a +/-3dB window of 34Hz, I would think that ought to be enough extension to capture the low-frequencies contained here, but a +/-3dB window doesn’t really describe the bass capability of a speaker very well in practice. ‘Every Ones & Nothings’ is certainly practice, so let’s see how the 1723 Monitors do... 

Firing up ‘Every Ones & Nothings,’ I was again impressed with the bass ability of these stand-mount speakers; if the 1723 Monitors were this powerful in bass frequencies, Arendal’s tower version of this speaker with an extra two 8” bass drivers must be pretty phenomenal. At higher volumes, the 1723 Monitors showed no signs of compression or distortion. All of the percussion and lead synths sounded clean and uninhibited. Switching back and forth between using a subwoofer and running the 1723 Monitors full-range, the sub did add a more tactile effect to the bass, and I have to attribute that to simply having more headroom below 50Hz. However, these speakers did a laudable job in bass, easily enough to give this type of music a strong low-frequency foundation as well as adding a nice punch to the kick drums. They were so adept in low-frequencies that I had to double-check the mode I was using since there were times when I wasn’t sure if I had left the subwoofers on or not. Again, to bring about this impactful bass sound, I did have to use boundary gain and move the speakers close to the back wall, but once that is done, the bass response was exceptional. Once again, I found that these are stand-mount speakers that can sound like tower speakers. ‘Every Ones & Nothings’ sounded sensational on the 1723 Monitors with or without subwoofers. If your jam is electronic music or pop music, these speakers can rock and can scale up to a high loudness level without breaking a sweat.

Movie Watching

One recent release that I watched with the 1723 Monitors was called ‘Psycho Goreman,’ which is not a huge studio release but looked to have a fun and engaging sound mix. The plot of the movie concerns a couple of children who uncover an evil creature of enormous power, but they also capture the means to control the monster. All kinds of bloody mayhem ensue, much as one would expect from a film with its title. Naturally, a film with that plot is very effects-heavy, and it also features an eccentric music score from the group Blitz//Berlin that has orchestral pieces, retro-synthwave pieces, and 80’s big-hair rock type music, so it looked like it would have a lively sound mix that would nicely exhibit a loudspeaker’s dynamic range. With the system in 2-channel mode, I set the volume level at a high point and alternated between using the 1723s full-range and bringing in a subwoofer to get a sense of the difference.

‘Psycho Goreman’ ended up being a hoot, and the sound mix was a big part of it. The evil creature’s voice was heavily processed to sound as demonic as possible, so it had a lot of emphasis on bass and sounded like an amped up version of Darth Vader. There were a variety of creatures throughout the movie, and they had wildly different voices, but they were all understandable, at least when speaking in English, so that is a good sign of how well the 1723 Monitors can reproduce dialogue clearly. The many effects sounds of the movie were unconstrained by the dynamic range of traditional sound systems and so were furiously belted out by the speakers for the kind of cinematic sound promised by THX Ultra certification. The orchestral elements of the music score sounded big, which gave the movie a more epic feel even though it was not a big-budget feature.

Switching between letting the speakers run full-range and handing the lower bass of the subwoofers, the 1723 Monitors were very capable on their own, but the addition of subwoofers did give a stronger foundation to the bass sounds. The supernaturally baritone voice of the creature had a more palpable presence when the subs were on, although the speakers alone did capture enough of the menace that they were quite competent in conveying the magnitude of power held by the creature. Similarly, the effects sounds had a bit more punch with the subs active. Nonetheless, ‘Psycho Goreman’ was a blast to watch and hear on the 1723 Monitors, and with speakers this capable, subwoofers are not essential for enjoying a movie like this.

Another movie that I caught with the 1723 Monitors was the 2019 science fiction film ‘Ad Astra.’ Since it was a much more serious movie with a far larger budget than ‘Psycho Goreman,’ it should have a tamer and more polished sound mix. Nonetheless, the sound mix for ‘Ad Astra’ should be an interesting one as much of the movie takes place in outer space. For those who have not seen it yet like myself until now, the story centers around an astronaut who takes on a mission to the outer edges of our solar system to find out what happened to his father who mysteriously disappeared in a voyage to that region many years ago. As a modern major studio-produced film, the sound mix was sure to have the best sound engineering that money can buy, especially as it was natively mixed in Dolby Atmos, and it is complemented by an orchestral/electronic score from the highly-sought-after composer Max Richter. In other words, this movie should sound great - at least on a great sound system.

I watched ‘Ad Astra’ at a high loudness level and was surprised at how many action scenes it had. From the trailer, I assumed it would have been on the talkier side of science fiction, but it turned out to have its fair share of crisis moments and big effects scenes. It all sounded vibrant on the 1723 Monitors. The movie started out with a bang on the ‘International Space Antenna’ where the sound of action in space was vividly relayed through the physical transmission of energy through the spacesuits. The audience hears what the characters hear (except for the music), and in this sense, the movie stuck to a more realistic sound design. The effects noises were still very potent, and the sound mix had an array of scenes with a wide dynamic range. The intensity of the sound was brought to life by the 1723 Monitors, and I found this more realistic type of sound design to be more immersive than the typical, fantasy sound schemes that Hollywood usually resort to for these types of films. Of course, it helps to have a speaker that can scale with the dynamic range of the sound mix, and the 1723 Monitors were very capable in that regard. Replaying a handful of scenes with subwoofers in use, the subs did make a real contribution in some scenes with very deep bass like the rocket launches, but the 1723 Monitors managed to catch almost all but the deepest bass. As I mentioned before, the 1723 Monitors can reproduce deep bass, but they don’t do so with the force of a deeply tuned subwoofer. However, what they manage is very respectable, especially for stand-mount speakers, and they don’t need the addition of a subwoofer to make a large-scale movie into a powerful aural experience. 

Arendal Sound 1723 Monitor THX Loudspeaker Measurements & Conclusion

The Arendal 1723 Monitors were measured in free-air at a height of 7.5 feet at a 2-meter distance from the microphone, and the measurements were gated at a 10-millisecond delay. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 250 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 110 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/12 octave resolution.

 

The above graph shows the direct-axis frequency response and other curves that describe the speakers’ amplitude response in a number of ways. For more information about the meaning of these curves, please refer to our article Understanding Loudspeaker Measurements Part 1. While this measured response isn’t quite as perfect as what is shown on Arendal’s product page, it still is quite good nonetheless. The on-axis response exhibits a slight treble elevation from 2.5kHz to 10kHz, and this might make the speaker sound a bit bright if listened to at a dead-ahead angle. We can see from the ‘listening window’ curve, which is a much more important curve in determining the character of the speaker’s sound, that slight treble brightness does get ameliorated not far from the on-axis angle, so, on the whole, I wouldn’t expect this speaker to be bright. Indeed, that wasn’t my experience in listening to the 1723 Monitors, but I didn’t listen to them right on-axis. Another feature of this graph that we can see is a small crossover dip at 1.5kHz which might add a slight recess to some sound in that region, but it won’t have a dramatic effect on the sound relative to a speaker with a flat response there. The ‘early reflections’ curve is very nicely flat, which means that much of the off-axis sound should have a very neutral character overall as well as the resultant acoustic reflections. Abetting that flat ‘early reflections’ curve is a very smooth early reflections directivity index, and that indicates that the 1723 Monitors have very good directivity control and would be very predictably equalized for those who want to change the tonal balance of the sound.  

 

 

The above graphs depict the 1723 Monitor’s lateral responses out to 90 degrees in five-degree increments. More information about how to interpret these graphs can be read in this article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II. In these graphs, we get a better look at what exactly is occurring at off-axis angles. Here we see the 1723 Monitor’s superbly controlled directivity. The waveguide is really putting in work in maintaining a consistent dispersion out past 10kHz. There is an off-axis bump past 10kHz, but that isn’t likely to be a significantly audible artifact except perhaps for an elevated ambient sensation for those whose hearing still senses that frequency range. If we look closely, we can see the elevated on-axis treble settle down fairly quickly as we move off-axis. The small crossover dip stays pretty steady across all angles, which isn’t quite like some speakers where the crossover dip can get worse at further off-axis angles.

 

Expanding the view from the previous graph, the above graph takes a close look at the on-axis response and compares it to the 15 and 30-degree angle responses. The on-axis angle has a slightly elevated treble response, while the 15-degree angle is very nicely flat, and the 30-degree angle is very slightly recessed in the treble region. The angle at which you hear the direct sound from the speaker will play a major role in the overall tonality that you experience, and with the 1723 Monitors, you can adjust their tonality simply by angling the speaker for a different direct response. While this is true of most speakers, the directivity of the 1723 Monitors enables the user to temper the response using angle positioning with a better degree of control since the changes only affect the tweeter’s range, but it does so smoothly throughout the tweeter’s frequency band. So the toe-in angle acts like a tone control on the tweeter. If you want a brighter, more forward sound, aim the speaker directly at the listening position. If you want a neutral, more balanced sound, give the speakers a 15-degree angle aim at the listening position. If you want a warmer and more mellow sound, use a 30-degree or greater aim at the listening position. The magnificently flat response at 15-degrees also makes these a superb candidate for the above-mentioned time-intensity trading positioning on account of their controlled directivity.

 

The above polar map graphs show the same information that the preceding graphs do but depict it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, these polar maps use color to portray amplitude and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s behavior more easily. For more information about the meaning of these graphs, we again refer the reader to Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II.

From the polar map of the 1723 Monitors, we again see some very nice directivity control. Output rapidly falls off outside of a 50-degree angle, but it is fairly uniform up to then. One significant feature is the dark red center blotch which indicates a steady output range of nearly 90dB; it holds a relatively stable pattern within a 30-degree angle meaning that this speaker will have the most consistent sound within that angle. Outside of 30-degrees, it is OK until 50-degrees, but I think few listeners will be seated that far off-axis.

 

The above graph shows the 1723 Monitor’s response behavior along its vertical axis where zero degrees is directly in front of the tweeter, negative degree values are below the tweeter, and positive degree values are above the tweeter. It should be said here that the vertical response isn’t nearly as critical as the horizontal response, so an imperfect vertical dispersion is much less of a problem. The vertical dispersion is good and is pretty much what I would expect to see from an MTM design such as this. Off-axis cancellation starts taking a bite out of the bass driver’s frequency band, and lobing patterns develop from the woofers fighting each other as their respective distance from the microphone becomes unequal. One unusual and counter-intuitive aspect of the vertical axis is that the tweeter’s dispersion widens as frequencies increase. Normally the opposite occurs, although many waveguides can sustain a wider dispersion out to higher frequencies. However, I don’t recall seeing this before. It is an interesting feature but a largely academic one, since such high frequencies do not reflect as easily as midrange frequencies, and therefore the audible consequence is likely nill. The overall lesson of this graph is that it’s best to be listening to these speakers within a 15-degree vertical angle of the tweeter, but that is almost certainly how these speakers will be set up anyway.

 

The above graph shows the vertical response pattern of the 1723 Monitor in a polar map. I don’t normally include this graph in reviews, but since the 1723 Monitor will have identical performance on a vertical plane to the 1723 Center in a horizontal plane, I thought it would be good to include it to illustrate the performance of the 1723 Center’s horizontal dispersion pattern. The MTM design of the 1723 Monitor/Center makes a lobing pattern along the axis of the woofers inevitable at off-axis angles. As discussed above, the woofer cancellation starts to take a toll on the response up to the 1.5kHz crossover point at about a 20-degree angle. So if the user is going to have a 1723 Center speaker, they should be seated within 20 degrees on either side of the on-axis angle for a full sound. (Audioholics has discussed the matter of MTM center speaker designs at length in these articles: Vertical vs Horizontal Center Speaker Designs, Vertical vs Horizontal Center Speaker Designs - An Alternate Perspective, and Center Channel Speaker Design Additional Considerations).

 

The above graphs show the 1723 Monitor’s low-frequency responses that I captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground in a wide-open area). The 1723 Monitors come with port plugs so the user can configure the speaker for a sealed response. The ported low-frequency response of the 1723 Monitors is very good and flat down to 60Hz. The response does taper off a bit down to port tuning which looks to occur just above 30Hz. Room gain will shore up the deep bass, so, in any normal-sized room, users will get a significant boost in bass. On the whole, the ported response is very deep for a stand-mount speaker. We normally see this kind of extension in tower speakers. One thing to note is that we seem to get a deeper extension than the graph shown on Arendal’s product page for the 1723 Monitor. Port output seems to be pulled down about 10Hz deeper in my measurements compared to what Arendal shows. Low-frequency responses can vary quite a bit per measurement technique, so this discrepancy wouldn’t be surprising on its own. However, when we see what the electrical performance is like below, we see that this difference is more than just an acoustic anomaly of the measurement technique.

The sealed response is fairly textbook below 80Hz, and that is exactly the kind of slope recommended by THX. Of course, users do give up headroom by sealing the ports, but it does make it easier to blend the speakers in with the subs, especially if it needs to be done manually. In most circumstances, however, I would recommend these speakers be operated with ports open.

 

The above graphs show the electrical behavior of the 1723 Monitors. Most of the impedance response hovers just above 5 ohms, and the shape of our measurements generally follows what Arendal posts on their product page - except for one thing. The dip in the low-frequency saddle shows us where the port tuning frequency is, and in our measurement, it is about 10Hz lower than what Arendal shows. Port tuning looks to be about 30Hz by our measurement, whereas Arendal shows port tuning to be about 40Hz. The difference in our respective low-frequency measurements also corresponds to the differences in the impedance response. Somehow, I have a lower tuned speaker than what Arendal displays. It might be argued that since there are two ports, if I had forgotten to remove one of the port plugs, this is what would be the expected difference, but that isn’t what has occurred. I also have measurements for a single-ported configuration which show an even lower port tuning frequency. The above measurements are for when both ports are open (I don’t recommend using the 1723 Monitors with only a single port plugged, and Arendal doesn’t support such a configuration either). It isn’t a big deal because either measurement set shows a good performing speaker, the only difference being some low-frequency extension. The measured electrical load is not an especially tough one, and pretty much any decent AVR or amplifier should be able to handle this load.

I measured sensitivity at 89.9dB for 2.83v at 1m. Arendal states 89dB for 2.83v at 1m, and that is a pretty close agreement. These are relatively high sensitivity speakers, and that is not surprising seeing as how they use two 8” bass drivers with big motors and a tweeter loaded into such a substantial waveguide in a large ported enclosure. That would be a recipe for a high sensitivity loudspeaker. The 1723 Monitors don’t need a beefy amplifier to get loud, although they can take the current of a beefy amp to get even louder if you happen to have one handy.

Conclusion

Those who have read this review up to this point will know that my opinion of the Arendal 1723 monitor is very favorable. They would be right, of course. Before we get into the summary of why I feel that way, let’s go over the pros and cons of the product under review, and, as is my custom, let’s start with the cons. That will be a short list.

 

What is likely to be the biggest ‘con’ of the 1723 Monitors for many people is their size. As was discussed before, they are stand-mount speakers, but they are fairly large ones. At nearly 60 lbs. each, they need some sturdy stands too. Arendal Sound makes a pedestal-like stand shown in the pic here suitable for the task. However, to criticize them for their size would also undermine one of their strengths, which can’t be had in a small loudspeaker. You can not get the kind of audio performance that this speaker provides from a small enclosure, so the size is a necessary trade-off. In this light, they can’t really be criticized for their size. However, the size does rule them out for a number of speaker shoppers.

Another con of the 1723 monitors is that owners who want a matching horizontal center will have to use the 1723 Center speaker, but, as discussed before, the MTM design leads to a narrower horizontal dispersion when laid on its side, so users will want to be sure that listeners are seated within 20 degrees of the on-axis angle for the best sound. In most situations, that will probably be the case, but if you have a wide seating area that isn’t very far from the speakers, those who are off to the side will end up in an area where some of the midrange frequencies are heavily recessed. It might not be fair to hold that against the 1723 Monitors which are the subject of this review and not the 1723 Center, but it’s worth keeping in mind for certain setups. It’s a nitpick, but I will list it anyway to counterbalance the long list of these speakers’ strengths.

With the cons out of the way, let’s talk about the pros. First and foremost is the sound; the 1723 Monitors offer superb sound quality. They are very linear, they have a tremendous dynamic range, and they have terrifically controlled dispersion. The frequency response is nicely flat; I recommend a 15-degree toe-in for the best response, especially for an inward toe-in so that the speaker’s aim crosses in front of the main listening position for some time-intensity trading magic. That will get you very accurate tonality as well as a very precise soundstage. They can get loud without running into distortion, as one would expect from a THX Ultra certified speaker of its design. If you like to rock hard, these can accommodate your tastes. They also have unusually low bass extension for a stand-mount speaker; as I said before, a 30Hz extension is what I would expect from a tower speaker, not a stand-mount speaker. If you need speakers that can output serious bass but don’t have floor space for a subwoofer or tower speakers, the 1723 Monitors are a terrific choice.

One nifty aspect of the 1723 Monitor design is the versatility for a range of applications. They would be great for a dedicated home theater environment, or just a living room home theater, or a pure two-channel system, or a two-channel system with subwoofers. Being a high-fidelity stand-mount speaker with serious bass ability makes them a great choice for any of these applications. It also helps that they are not demanding of a heavy-duty amplifier; with an impedance minima of 5 ohms and a near 90dB sensitivity, they don’t present a very taxing load for any competently engineered amplifier, although a more powerful amp helps them to fulfill their potential dynamic range, of course.

Another very impressive attribute of the 1723 Monitors is the build quality. The massive HDF cabinet is as solid as a rock, and there is near-obsessive attention to detail: interior enclosure painting, interior lining with butyl damping, rhodium-plated binding posts, a sunk backplate for flush-mounted binding posts, brushed aluminum backplate and waveguide, the very generous amount of stuffing that fills the enclosure, the large crossover circuit with beefy components, hulking driver motors, heavy-duty grille magnets, among other features. Let’s not forget the rayon satchel or the included cotton gloves for handling the speakers without fingerprints.

Another important aspect of the build quality is the fine finish, which brings us to the looks of the 1723 Monitors; they may be large but they do look quite nice. The pristine gloss finish is very much worth the $100 upcharge, but I would guess that the matte finishes are very nice also, although I have not seen those in person. The beveled edges and simple driver design give them a clean look that can help take the edge off for those who prefer not to have such large speakers. They should fit in well in a wide variety of decors on account of their sleek aesthetic.  

All of these design cues add up to a stylish yet high-performance loudspeaker with superlative build quality. At $1,200 to $1,250 each (includes shipping), it isn't a cheap speaker, but you do get an astonishing amount of speaker for the cost. As I said before, I had to double-check the price when I unpacked the 1723 Monitors, because these seem like they should cost considerably more than they do. Most other speakers in this price range have to give something up to stay focused on a narrower set of strengths, so they will have a balance of build quality, sound quality, dynamic range, and a nice appearance, with the scale tipped toward a couple of those attributes at the expense of some others. Somehow Arendal manages to hit all of those attributes at a high level for an extremely reasonable cost.

One of the ways in which they accomplish so much for the money is by having the speakers manufactured in China, of course, but for those who think that Chinese-manufactured goods are subpar, they ought to see the craftsmanship of this speaker. It is superb. Another way they hit this cost is by cutting out the middlemen and going for a serious manufacturer direct business model where they don't even have distributors in other continents. Everything you buy from them comes right from their warehouse in the Netherlands no matter where you are in the world. As was said before, this creates a more cumbersome shipping process, but it does save on cost.

Arendal Sound has a well-thought-out plan for shipping, warranty and returns. Their speakers come with a 10-year warranty which is virtually unheard of for loudspeakers. Their product pricing structure includes shipping and they will handle all shipping costs on their end for any warranty issues. They allow for a 60-day at-home trial period in which the buyer can return the speaker for a full refund. The buyer still has to pay for shipping fees, though Arendal Sound covers part of this expense too. They also uphold this generous return policy for European customers too, and that is a mark of confidence in their own products; they are not expecting many returns. Indeed, by all indications, Arendal has been very successful in the European market. Based on what I have seen in the 1723 Monitors, I believe that if North Americans discover what Europeans have already been shown with these speakers, Arendal will have similar success here. Highly recommended!

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value