Arendal Sound 1723 1S & 1V Subwoofer Review

[kini]

Also the arendals have flatter response and increased low end

They also have lower group delay. Some mention that the SVS subs are harder to integrate with their speakers when it comes to music

 

[XaVierDK]

They also have lower group delay. Some mention that the SVS subs are harder to integrate with their speakers when it comes to music

That seems more like a problem with compensating for the delay from DSP, which is trivial with AVRs and room-correction, but might be difficult with music-only systems. Arendal might have somewhat lower delay in that regard than SVS, without knowing for sure.

 

[everettT]

They also have lower group delay. Some mention that the SVS subs are harder to integrate with their speakers when it comes to music

Are those the people that want a high pass on their mains?

 

[Pete T James]

When the review gives 4/5 for dynamic range what does this mean in terms of subwoofers? What does it need to get 5/5 and what difference would it make?

 

[shadyJ]

When the review gives 4/5 for dynamic range what does this mean in terms of subwoofers? What does it need to get 5/5 and what difference would it make?

It's more of a rating of the kind of output it can produce relative to its price class and size class. To get 5/5, it would have to equal the highest output subs in its segment. The Arendal subs do very well in terms of dynamic range, but there are other models that can get you more SPL for the dollar.

 

[Pete T James]

Ah ok cool, so it's nothing to do with the character of the sound. I have a small room but I want the house and techno kicks and bass to hit you in the chest and rumble your throat like a high end club system like Funktion One. A physical experience. My room is: 153 ft2 / 1260 ft3. A lot of things are tricky to get in the UK but it's relatively easy to get SVS, Arendal. I could import RSL or JTR (fortune) but then I guess I have no customer support or warranty. Perlisten are available but are also a fortune. Someone recommended 2x REL HT/1510 Predator Subwoofers. I do like to have XLRs if possible.

I was analyzing what I listen too and yeah most of the hard hitting low end is at 40-50hz. There is bass down to 10hz but by the time it reaches 30hz it's dropped to -36db.

I have a small room but I'm considering large to extreme subs - I'm not sure if that's wise but I don't want to be lacking anything either. I want it to play up to100db long term (or however much is necessary)although most of my sensible listening is 85db to 90db. I need it to be flat for studio work and prefer no latency or unnoticeable latency.

 

[shadyJ]

Ah ok cool, so it's nothing to do with the character of the sound. I have a small room but I want the house and techno kicks and bass to hit you in the chest and rumble your throat like a high end club system like Funktion One. A physical experience. My room is: 153 ft2 / 1260 ft3. A lot of things are tricky to get in the UK but it's relatively easy to get SVS, Arendal. I could import RSL or JTR (fortune) but then I guess I have no customer support or warranty. Perlisten are available but are also a fortune. Someone recommended 2x REL HT/1510 Predator Subwoofers. I do like to have XLRs if possible.

I was analyzing what I listen too and yeah most of the hard hitting low end is at 40-50hz. There is bass down to 10hz but by the time it reaches 30hz it's dropped to -36db.

I have a small room but I'm considering large to extreme subs - I'm not sure if that's wise but I don't want to be lacking anything either. I want it to play up to100db long term (or however much is necessary)although most of my sensible listening is 85db to 90db. I need it to be flat for studio work and prefer no latency or unnoticeable latency.

Firstly, the flatness of the response will have everything to do with the room and nothing to do with the subwoofer in practice. Room acoustics mangle low-frequency response. The best way to address this is to use multiple subs with placements that net the flattest response, and then use equalization to tame the peaks in the response.

Arendal and SVS are both good brands. The REL HT1510 is good too, and probably the only REL sub I would recommend for performance for the dollar.

 

[Pete T James]

I'm in the process of measuring my room and working out what I need to do to get my room sounding decent. I'm thinking of building 15cm bass traps but yes the sub region is still tricky. I don't know if I will have to resort to buying membrane traps or multiple subs.

Have you any thoughts on the size of sub / subs I should be looking at? I'm considering the SVS PB17-Ultra / SVS PB 5000 and 1723 S 2V or 1723 1V but i'm not sure if they are complete overkill and might end up sounding worse than a smaller cheaper sub in my room. Even the cheapest Arendal 1861 1V are 'certified large' when my room is only small. I don't want to go too small and regret it though or too big for no reason. I don't own a sub so I don't have much reference of what some of these 10 or 12 inch subs can do.

However maybe my intended listening levels and desired result is unusually extreme. Do I need huge subs to achieve a physical club sound at home? If I do end up needing 2 subs I The PB-17 and 1723 2V are really too expensive to get two of them.

Getting 2x 1961 Subwoofer 1V is very budget friendly but don't have the XLR. Same with the Rel HT1205 and I don't really like that the REL uses vinyl.

If I do have to buy 2 I think REL HT/1510 MKII or 1723 1V might be as much as I am willing to spend.

Have you ever tested or come across the Adam Sub 12 or Sub 15 or Neumann, Focal and Genelec subs?
They are easy for me to get in the UK. I might be able to get hold of the JL Audio E10 / E112 or Fathom 10 v2.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[everettT]

I'm in the process of measuring my room and working out what I need to do to get my room sounding decent. I'm thinking of building 15cm bass traps but yes the sub region is still tricky. I don't know if I will have to resort to buying membrane traps or multiple subs.

Have you any thoughts on the size of sub / subs I should be looking at? I'm considering the SVS PB17-Ultra / SVS PB 5000 and 1723 S 2V or 1723 1V but i'm not sure if they are complete overkill and might end up sounding worse than a smaller cheaper sub in my room. Even the cheapest Arendal 1861 1V are 'certified large' when my room is only small. I don't want to go too small and regret it though or too big for no reason. I don't own a sub so I don't have much reference of what some of these 10 or 12 inch subs can do.

However maybe my intended listening levels and desired result is unusually extreme. Do I need huge subs to achieve a physical club sound at home? If I do end up needing 2 subs I The PB-17 and 1723 2V are really too expensive to get two of them.

Getting 2x 1961 Subwoofer 1V is very budget friendly but don't have the XLR. Same with the Rel HT1205 and I don't really like that the REL uses vinyl.

If I do have to buy 2 I think REL HT/1510 MKII or 1723 1V might be as much as I am willing to spend.

Have you ever tested or come across the Adam Sub 12 or Sub 15 or Neumann, Focal and Genelec subs?
They are easy for me to get in the UK. I might be able to get hold of the JL Audio E10 / E112 or Fathom 10 v2.

Thanks,
Pete

Unless you have Genelec or Neumann speakers, I'd avoid their subs as price vs performance doesn't make sense for most with home theater. Focal wouldn't be a consideration either. The SVS or Arendal would be my first considerations at the price points you're looking at.

 

[Pete T James]

Unless you have Genelec or Neumann speakers, I'd avoid their subs as price vs performance doesn't make sense for most with home theater. Focal wouldn't be a consideration either. The SVS or Arendal would be my first considerations at the price points you're looking at.

Yes if I did want to upgrade my monitoring setup to Genelec or Neumann - that would be the only reason for getting them as they do seem overpriced. Adams seem quite competitive though and focal aren't too bad.

Do you think i'm going to get more physically intense bass from a 1x 1723 V2 or 2 x 1723 1Vs (or would the be similar?). I don't think i'd be willing to spend £5400 / $7255 on a pair of V2s. At least not yet.

 

[everettT]

Yes if I did want to upgrade my monitoring setup to Genelec or Neumann - that would be the only reason for getting them as they do seem overpriced. Adams seem quite competitive though and focal aren't too bad.

Do you think i'm going to get more physically intense bass from a 1x 1723 V2 or 2 x 1723 1Vs (or would the be similar?). I don't think i'd be willing to spend £5400 / $7255 on a pair of V2s. At least not yet.

More subs = smoothed bass. I'd go for the 2 1723V1s if it were me.

 

[shadyJ]

If you want an even, linear response, get multiple subs. I would go for the more affordable ported subs from SVS or Arendal. 1723 1v or 1961 1v, or PB-2000 Pro or PB-3000. Get multiples, and get a measurement microphone to find out where they work best. Forget the studio subs from Genelec or Neumann, they don't dig deep and are not a good value for the performance.

 

[Pete T James]

If you want an even, linear response, get multiple subs. I would go for the more affordable ported subs from SVS or Arendal. 1723 1v or 1961 1v, or PB-2000 Pro or PB-3000. Get multiples, and get a measurement microphone to find out where they work best. Forget the studio subs from Genelec or Neumann, they don't dig deep and are not a good value for the performance.

I've got the measurement mic on the way. Arendal recommended I get the 1723 1S over the 1V claiming it's response would be more accurate / tight (I guess you would highly debate this) and it's easier to position optimally in a small room due to its size.

My listening position will mostly be a fixed position but I guess I could move on the horizontal plane 1m-1.5m and vertical plane when standing up vs sitting down.

I have a question about distortion in subwoofers. When looking at CEA-2010 it become apparent that subs have a huge a mount of distortion in the low end which is far from ideal in studio use. However, this is a test designed to push the sub to very high SPLs isn't it so it may not be at all representative during normal use. Bigger subs seem to perform better in this test.

Is there a simple way to work out what the distortion levels would be in % at lower listening levels say 85db or 95db?

What are the cleanest subs you've measured?

In the 2V review it's noted to have 'massive mid bass punch' which sounds exactly what i'm looking for. This isn't stated in the 1723 1S & 1V Subwoofer reviews though so perhaps the 2V would be better for me?

 

[shadyJ]

I've got the measurement mic on the way. Arendal recommended I get the 1723 1S over the 1V claiming it's response would be more accurate / tight (I guess you would highly debate this) and it's easier to position optimally in a small room due to its size.

My listening position will mostly be a fixed position but I guess I could move on the horizontal plane 1m-1.5m and vertical plane when standing up vs sitting down.

I have a question about distortion in subwoofers. When looking at CEA-2010 it become apparent that subs have a huge a mount of distortion in the low end which is far from ideal in studio use. However, this is a test designed to push the sub to very high SPLs isn't it so it may not be at all representative during normal use. Bigger subs seem to perform better in this test.

Is there a simple way to work out what the distortion levels would be in % at lower listening levels say 85db or 95db?

What are the cleanest subs you've measured?

In the 2V review it's noted to have 'massive mid bass punch' which sounds exactly what i'm looking for. This isn't stated in the 1723 1S & 1V Subwoofer reviews though so perhaps the 2V would be better for me?

Most subs don't run into high distortion until the last 6 dB of headroom or so. The graph to refer to this is the long-term compression test graph versus the THD graph. Once the driver starts to leave its range of linear excursion, nonlinear output stacks up fast. Within their intended bandwidth, most subs are fairly clean up to that point. This is one of the reasons why I think many people saying brand X subwoofer is cleaner than brand Y don't understand what they are talking about.

As for clean subs, some of the subs that kept the lowest distortion out to the highest output level were Perlisten and JTR. The SVS PB16-Ultra did very good too, as did the Definitive Technology D15.

As for the Arendal 1723 1V vs 2V, the 2V is essentially two 1V subs stuffed into one enclosure. The difference between them is more quantitative than qualitative. If you want the most accurate bass, get a multi-sub system over a single sub system every day all day.