Полочная акустика — Arendal Sound Bookshelf 8

The Bookshelf 8 is a large three-way stand-mount loudspeaker in the 1528 series of Arendal Sound, the Norwegian company whose series are named after dates in the history of the town of Arendal, 1528 being the year the town was first mentioned in a customs account. It is an unusually large bookshelf speaker designed for deep bass without a subwoofer, and Arendal sells it directly to customers with a 60-day home audition period.

Key specs that matter

Drivers are a 28 mm tweeter, a 5-inch midrange and an 8-inch aluminium cone woofer, crossed over at 420 Hz and 2800 Hz. Anechoic response is 28 Hz to 20 kHz at -6 dB, with F3 at 37 Hz and linearity within 2 dB from 42 Hz to 20 kHz. Sensitivity is 84 dB at 2.83 V/1 m, nominal impedance is 4 ohms, and amplifiers of up to 500 W are recommended. The cabinet measures 55.5 x 29.0 x 36.8 cm and weighs 30 kg.

Engineering and use context

The cabinet uses 25 mm HDF panels with a vertical brace running its full length plus horizontal bracing, and the whole interior is lined with 4 mm butyl sheets. The baffle is laminated from thin HDF layers pressed together, 86 mm thick in total. Tweeter and midrange sit in the Røst Reference Acoustic Core, an elliptical waveguide that places them as close together as possible, with a lens in front of the tweeter and the assembly bolted to a thick threaded steel plate. The woofer cone has a prism structure and inverted surround, and its motor uses aluminium and copper shorting rings to even out inductance. Air-core inductors appear in all three crossover sections, polypropylene capacitors in the tweeter and midrange paths, 4th-order slopes between tweeter and midrange and 3rd-order slopes between midrange and woofer, with no ferrous parts in the signal path. Jumpers set the midrange and treble levels to +2, 0 or -2 dB. A port plug switches the cabinet between ported and sealed operation, sealed being intended for placement near a wall or corner. The baffle angles all drivers toward a listening spot 4 m away at a height of 88 to 108 cm.

Pairing

Its rhodium-plated solid copper binding posts come in pairs, so removing the jumper lets the speaker be bi-wired or bi-amped. The speaker needs a capable amplifier, and its weight calls for rigid stands. Arendal's 1528 centre and matching subwoofers complete a home cinema system.

Alternatives

Arendal's 1723 Bookshelf S THX belongs to the 1723 S THX series and is the more compact stand-mount choice.