Arendal 1723 Tower S Upgrade??

[RotelDBA]

Hi,
I currently have Paradigm Reference Studio 100's V5 and the Studio CC590 V5 speakers. There is really nothing wrong with the speakers other than my wife hating the Rosenut finish on them, but I have been thinking about upgrading anyways.

My use would be somewhere around 90%/10% movies/music, respectively. I have been looking at a number of speakers, but the Arendal 1723 Tower S and 1723 Center S speakers have really caught my eye. The big drawback is that I cannot audition these speakers in person. They do have the 60 days buy and try

As much as I am liking what I hear and read about the Arendal's, my concern is that they would not really be an upgrade over what I have now other than improving the WAF (wife approval factor).

I understand that the room itself plays a huge part in how good speakers sound, but from a pure apples to apples in a bubble comparison, should the aforementioned Arendal's be considered an upgrade?

I would love to get input from anyone who has some sort of experience with the Paradigm's and the Arendal's whether it's through ownership, testing, hearing them in a store, etc.

Thank you in advance!

 

[shadyJ]

My hunch is that the Arendals would be a bit smoother, but it's hard to say. For older Paradigm speakers, sometimes they could keep their aluminum drivers under control, but sometimes not so much. I don't know where those Studios would fall in that spectrum.

 

[Eppie]

Sound Stage Network doesn't have measurements for the Studio 100 but they have the Studio 60 v5 (this is for the listening window):

Compare that to Arendal's measurements for the 1723S:

Arendal may be employing a little smoothing on their graph but both speakers are fairly neutral. The Studios have a little dip around 1.5k while the Arendals have a little hump at 1.8k. Hard to say how noticeable that would be in your room. The Studios still get pretty high praise in the Paradigm forum on AVS Forums and the subjective comments are that the Studios are fairly neutral compared to later Paradigm offerings which had more of a signature sound. The quoted FR specs on the Arendals are +/- 3dB while the Studio 100 is +/- 2dB and the sensitivity is 89dB for both.

So, judging by the numbers alone this may be more of a lateral move. James reviewed the Arendal Monitors here. Great dynamics but it's hard to say how the vertical and horizontal dispersion of the Studios compare. I have the Studio 20v5 and CC590 centre and I love the centre. That may be the one drawback to the Arendals. The centre is a MTM design while the CC590 is a 3 way which offers better off axis response.

I am surprised that your wife does not like the rosenut. I always found the rosenut finish beautiful. The curved metal grills on the Arendals do look pretty cool though and it's a more contemporary looking speaker. FWIW, I came very close to ordering a pair of 1723 Tower S speakers last year. I think it's a great product and while not a huge step up from the Studio 100 they should compare very well.

 

[McC]

While this review is on the 1723 S Monitors, and in a language I am unable to read, the measurements may offer some insight for you. The complete review can be found on the Arendal site under professional reviews/AudioReview. Apparently, outside links are not allowed here, so...

 

[RotelDBA]

My hunch is that the Arendals would be a bit smoother, but it's hard to say. For older Paradigm speakers, sometimes they could keep their aluminum drivers under control, but sometimes not so much. I don't know where those Studios would fall in that spectrum.

Thank you for the feedback, shadyJ!

 

[RotelDBA]

Sound Stage Network doesn't have measurements for the Studio 100 but they have the Studio 60 v5 (this is for the listening window):

Compare that to Arendal's measurements for the 1723S:

Arendal may be employing a little smoothing on their graph but both speakers are fairly neutral. The Studios have a little dip around 1.5k while the Arendals have a little hump at 1.8k. Hard to say how noticeable that would be in your room. The Studios still get pretty high praise in the Paradigm forum on AVS Forums and the subjective comments are that the Studios are fairly neutral compared to later Paradigm offerings which had more of a signature sound. The quoted FR specs on the Arendals are +/- 3dB while the Studio 100 is +/- 2dB and the sensitivity is 89dB for both.

So, judging by the numbers alone this may be more of a lateral move. James reviewed the Arendal Monitors here. Great dynamics but it's hard to say how the vertical and horizontal dispersion of the Studios compare. I have the Studio 20v5 and CC590 centre and I love the centre. That may be the one drawback to the Arendals. The centre is a MTM design while the CC590 is a 3 way which offers better off axis response.

I am surprised that your wife does not like the rosenut. I always found the rosenut finish beautiful. The curved metal grills on the Arendals do look pretty cool though and it's a more contemporary looking speaker. FWIW, I came very close to ordering a pair of 1723 Tower S speakers last year. I think it's a great product and while not a huge step up from the Studio 100 they should compare very well.

@Eppie, thank you for the information and feedback! The two speakers do look like they are very comparable. I agree, always found the Rosenut finish beautiful as well. My wife does not seem to like any of the wood finishes. I do think that the Arendal's look great as well. And, I think I am in agreement with you that it seems like if I were to go with the Arendal's that it would be more of a lateral move.

 

[RotelDBA]

While this review is on the 1723 S Monitors, and in a language I am unable to read, the measurements may offer some insight for you. The complete review can be found on the Arendal site under professional reviews/AudioReview. Apparently, outside links are not allowed here, so...

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Thank you for the information, @McC!

 

[Pogre]

Great info on the Paradigms Eppie!

FWIW, I came very close to ordering a pair of 1723 Tower S speakers last year.

I don't think I knew you were close to pulling the trigger on those. I would have been the little devil on your shoulder for that decision!

 

[Pogre]

While this review is on the 1723 S Monitors, and in a language I am unable to read, the measurements may offer some insight for you. The complete review can be found on the Arendal site under professional reviews/AudioReview. Apparently, outside links are not allowed here, so...

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And some useful info on the Arendals!

As for posting links I think that's just a forum feature for new-ish members until you reach a certain number of posts. I think it does that with posting images too.

 

[Eppie]

Great info on the Paradigms Eppie!


I don't think I knew you were close to pulling the trigger on those. I would have been the little devil on your shoulder for that decision!

For or against?

 

[Pogre]

For or against?

Oh, for. I love spending other peoples' money!

 

[Eppie]

Oh, for. I love spending other peoples' money!

Haha! Don't we all. As my equipment fund grows I get more tempted, but the Paradigms I have are already pretty good for the room. Looking at this logically, my main focus should be on the room: treating the right side wall and maybe the back wall. My first REW measurement showed a really nasty hump around 400 Hz. New speakers will likely suffer from the same issues, so I need to find the time to tweak the room more and once I can get my current setup flatter then new speakers would make some sense. We're also booked for 3 weeks in Portugal and I have to pay my share of the travel expenses. Couple more years of lock downs and I might have had the funds for some Revels or Legacies. Gotta travel while our health is still good though.

 

[Pogre]

Haha! Don't we all. As my equipment fund grows I get more tempted, but the Paradigms I have are already pretty good for the room. Looking at this logically, my main focus should be on the room: treating the right side wall and maybe the back wall. My first REW measurement showed a really nasty hump around 400 Hz. New speakers will likely suffer from the same issues, so I need to find the time to tweak the room more and once I can get my current setup flatter then new speakers would make some sense. We're also booked for 3 weeks in Portugal and I have to pay my share of the travel expenses. Couple more years of lock downs and I might have had the funds for some Revels or Legacies. Gotta travel while our health is still good though.

I appreciate your approach to the hobby and should take a page from your book next. Like you I have some nice speakers and I'm set for subs. I've done what I can with DSP/PEQ so my next logical step would be to start figuring out what I'd need to treat my room. I've been telling myself the next time I get the upgrade bug that's really the direction to go if I really wanna up the wow factor.

 

[Eppie]

I appreciate your approach to the hobby and should take a page from your book next. Like you I have some nice speakers and I'm set for subs. I've done what I can with DSP/PEQ so my next logical step would be to start figuring out what I'd need to treat my room. I've been telling myself the next time I get the upgrade bug that's really the direction to go if I really wanna up the wow factor.

Yeah, we've both read enough articles and seen enough videos to know how important the physical space is but, damn, I do like my shiny new toys too!

 

[RotelDBA]

Thank you all for your input! Like I mentioned there is really nothing wrong with my speakers other than the WAF as the speakers I have do sound great. I really liked the idea of the shiny new toys with the potential of getting better sound and I have been reading and hearing great things about the Arendal's. My room has been mostly treated with a few smaller areas left to take care of, but that being said I am also in the middle if trying to upgrade/replace my processor if Monoprice ever emails me to let me know that the HTP-1 is back in stock. I'll wait until all of that is done...then come back to looking at potentially upgrading my speakers... .

Thank you all again for the great information, input, and laughs!