Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsIt ranges from bad to ok.
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023
I’m an audiophile and have a very good ear for frequencies and balance.
After seeing the reviews of how good the arena 9 sounded I thought I’d give it a shot. I wanted something sleek and that did not take up too much space. The size definitely came at a cost.
First off the good:
The highs are actually pretty good and clean, I’m running my system through a power conditioner and have zero buzzing which is also nice. I can push the system to its volume limit with zero distortion. It holds its clarity well.
The RGB lights are also really cool and add a nice ambience to your room.
Now the bad:
Remember when I said the size comes at a cost? The small drivers on the speakers make the kids awful. Completely off balance to the tweeters (which is for the highs). Because of this the system lacks presence like you would want making feel like you need to push the volume almost max just to get those frequencies to come through better. Even in a small room these speakers don’t seem to have that much headroom. The sub being only a 6in is also quite small and should probably be an 8-10” imo.
All this being said you will need to download the sonar software. This will give you the ability to adjust EQs, which is very needed. On the topic of EQs Steel series provides premade EQs for specific games such as Elden Ring, Rainbow Six, Apex, Overwatch etc.
These settings work ok but I still found tweaking e necessary especially in the mods to boost presence and the highs because they were screeching loud.
Finally while I glanced everything out as simply as I could I did find that while playing I did enjoy the sound and wasn’t as bothered by the shortcomings.
Playing music however, was terrible. These speakers are ok for movies and games, music sounds terrible. I tried EQing to make songs sound better, but I very song is mastered differently and these speakers don’t have a flat enough response to work with every song. Upon pushing the system to see how it responds, there was very clear ducking in the frequencies every time the sub hit which just ruins any musical experience. The problem is not with the power in my house as I can easily run a full Dolby Atmos reference system in it lol. Probably a limitation inside this arena 9 system.
-Is it worth it??
I’d say it depends on what you’re looking for and what you can afford. This system is great for people who want something small and looks good or someone who wants a very very easy set up plug in and go. If you’re an audiophile expecting a sweet sounding system, stay far away.
Price I feel like would be a big determining factor in decisions for people. Many people say this system is expensive… yes technically it is, but let me offer a different perspective. Building a true system for an audiophile will cost thousands of dollars. So if you don’t want to drop a ton of money or deal with running speaker wire everywhere, buying a sound processor, etc. then this is an affordable option. People who aren’t sensitive to frequencies and can’t tell the difference probably will enjoy this system a lot more. My girlfriend who isn’t in to sound thought it sounded great to her and couldn’t really tell what sounded bad.
As for me I may toy with it a little more, but ultimately may return it.