**The Official Arx owner's thread (A1, A1b, A2, A2b, A3, A5, etc.)** - Page 4

Agreed! For everyone elses sake please take your personal feud off-line. This is getting absurd.

ok...makes sense. So right now I'm breaking in my Arx A1b's using a cd with pink/white noise (can't recall which). In any case it has been breaking in for about 24hrs..and yea I do take a listen every now and then. I do hear audible differences from the base 'green' drivers to right now. They now have deeper bass. Still waiting for them to improve with the soundstage. Its ok but not near as good as the soundstage width and depth I heard from the Sierra's and perhaps they will never attain that soundstage effect...only time will tell.

One other thing, they sit about 26 in (measuring from the face of the speaker to back wall). Reading the Arx doc they suggest 36in or more. I may not be able to do that. Hope it doesn't affect the sound too much.

26" IMO is more than enough and would probably see zero benefit in bringing them out and extra 10". Most say just a few inches from the wall for a rear ported bookshelf.

AHAHAHAHAAHA....my point exactly. You "see through me"?? Lol. Thanks for that. Classic

Why the hell would I ask you at that point?? From what I've gathered you test speakers and may have helped John/Jon out or something. If you have the proof then post the graphs, etc. I haven't said you were wrong or that you're an idiot for believe in parameters being changed by "break-in". NEVER. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there with just as much or more knowledge about the subject that might disagree about OR have their own opinions. Or tell you their opinions on how you interpreted your information. Have I still stated you are incorrect in thinking the way you do....nope. Still haven't. And I wont, because I don't know the answer. That's the ENTIRE REASON for posting. Instead of creating a ruckus and looking like a jackass, you could have stated what you believe or have found based on your studies. Geez man, if you've helped him create/engineer these speakers...that was a perfect time to post your findings and provide your reasoning behind everything surrounding "speaker break-in" so that the issue can be known (especially in "your" thread).


Haha exactly. I've never seen a temper thrown over such a stupid issue that could have actually provided some useful insight and knowledge into the subject
Edited by ousooner2 - 1/9/13 at 1:41pm

Knock it off guys.

This will be the only warning...

Should be good to go then. 24hrs is more than enough time, just as long as you've played some content through them to get the woofers moving really good. Now just start relistening to your old favorite cds and movies, and make sure you come back later and post some your thoughts on how they sound.

I won't repeat what others have said. When I got my A1bs I found them a little tight or thin at first. They quickly smoothed out and added bass with a few hours of break-in. The A5s blew me away right out of the box. The bass got a little deeper with some break-in, but they needed less time than the A1b, at least to my ears. I think this is because there are 3 woofers sharing the load so there is little excursion needed to produce the bass at low listening levels. I don't play music loudly.

The distance from the front wall to the baffle on the A5 is less than 2 feet with no problems at all. I got the foam plugs but did not use them because the A5s sound so good without them. Don't worry as long as you can place the A5s at least a few inches from the wall.

Each speaker is indeed green and requires break in to hit stride. We can measure and hear it. They are all, however, 100% tested throughout production. Arx is built to identical standards as a number of better European brands.

I was curious to where are all the arx made.
Just wanted to give a little perspective to other american made speakers as to where the stand.

Lane, I believe, develops the Arx line of speakers domestically and then has them made in China according to his specifications.

Most US states defer to the Federal Government's FTC guidelines when it comes to being able to say a product is made inn the USA. In California though, every last little whatever has to be made in this country in order for that claim to be made and sold in CA.

Thanks Jon. So the drivers parameters are tested before assembly or does the speakers as a whole get tested. I assumed when you said the drivers are "green" awhile back on the TAI forum that ment right from assembly line to incabinet and out the door.

I'm still breaking them in...its been about 48 hrs now and they are still improving in the bass region. What I'm not hearing though is an improved soundstage. The width is ok (could be better) but the depth that is not deep. Again I'm comparing them to the Sierras-1's that I recently sent back due to being too forward. The Sierra's had a wonderful immense soundstage...the Arx A1bs are not there yet. However, the A1b is nice and neutral...exactly what I desire in a speaker. So 1 out of 2 requirements have been met.

Any suggestion on tweaks to improve soundstage?

Using NAD T748, BJC speaker wire, panasonic dvd (output via digital optical). This is the same setup I used for the Ascend Sierras, nothing has changed except the speakers.

I have found they sound best slightly toed inward toward you rather than radiating directly ahead.

Ok..during my lunch break I did a little experimenting.I think I found a sweet spot. Pulled the speakers further out into the living area about 34in from baffle face of speaker to wall. Doing so created a sense of soundstaging I have not heard before. I'm 9.5 ft from the speakers and they are 7.5ft apart. Like the isosceles triangle Rob Lane describes in his ARX manual (very nice manual BTW!). It is a precise sweet spot however, if you move forward a foot or back a foot, you lose the soundtage depth affect a bit. The Sierra's were not demanding in that regard. But you know for 1/3 the price the Arx A1b is beginning to sound very nice indeed!

In my experience with the sierra, is that they have good imaging but decent soundstage for the size of the speaker. I would consider the sierra to be in a dirctionsl side, where the speaker can be easily located. I personnslly like speaker that are harder to locate, meaning that the dissapear in the room. I guess thats what could be related to your finding about the sierra being forward.

I have mine about 3ft from the back wall and about 2ft from the side walls, with broadband treatments on each side and behind and their toed in so that if I sit in the sweet spot you can't see the sides of the speaker and they image perfectly.

I agree, I like a speaker that doesn't "show" its self kind of like it projects a "bubble" of sound and it sound what hard to pinpoint exactly where its coming from. But like said early theres probably no right or wrong way just personal preferences.

Just to clarify, "placement sensitive" in respect to boundaries. The A1b seems to like space. Unlike many other smaller bookshelf speakers these actually seem to perform better away from boundaries, especially if you don't plug the port. If the port is plugged they can be used closer to boundaries with little to no degradation. The soundstage is quite impressive if you let them "breath", but detail and dynamics is where they seem to shine the most. At the risk of tipping my hand... TAI is nuts for selling a pair of A1b's for only $300.

You need to make sure you spend some quality time with the A5s if Ryan brings them to that GTG if you go. Insane value, Zero regrets in purchasing them. If I knew ahead of time how good they were I would have though $1200 plus they would still be a value. But I don't want to give Jon any ideas

LOL grills off for sure. The speakers are too nice looking to cover them up.

We've been just sitting back listening to music today and i've never listened to him but Bruno Mars locked out of heaven Flac, sounds pretty nice on the A5s, full range with no subwoofer.

For image junkies, the design center is with the speakers toed roughly halfway between square to the room and pointed right at you. Toed in more brightens them and toed out more darkens the sound. When they're tonally balanced they're usually spatially most defined too. This assumes not wider than equilateral speaker placement.

As always, experiment.

I'm thinking about going with Dana for LCR over Arx LCR, I really like the finish of the Dana. Hoping you guys can help me out with some questions.

Is the Dana line better suited for music over movies? I would say I'm 90% Movie/Games, 10% Music.
Is the Dana line a step above the Arx?

Also, has anybody heard anything about the Arx A4? I haven't seen any updates on the TIA forum, and it seemed like it was close to release.
Edited by jfoul - 1/22/13 at 5:11am

Here's a review that might be able to answer some of your questions.


Yes. But I wouldn't summarily dismiss the Arx; they have surprisingly good sonic capabilities.

Output wise the Arx would have an edge on the Dana line. I think for a music system or mostly music system the Dana would be the way to go. Movies I think the Arx would be better, just from the few things i've read about the Dana and experience with the Arx.

The only thing so far about the A4 is that its using a pair of midranges from the A5 tower. Jon had said that he wanted it to be released by end of 1 quarter or begining of the 2nd quarter.

Thanks, the review was a good read.

I'll probably stick with the Arx then. I got excited when I saw the Dana B-Stock prices, and almost made the jump. I'll probably wait for the Arx A2b to be available to make my LCR purchase, and buy the A4 later.