Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Loudspeaker Review

[shadyJ]

​

The Arendal Sound new 1528 Monitor 8s are among the largest and most powerful standmount speakers available. However, size and power don’t necessarily equate to quality. Having reviewed many of Arendal’s loudspeakers in the past, I suspected that they weren't simply aiming to create a home theater powerhouse but rather a speaker that would excel in every aspect.

With the 1528 series, Arendal Sound is entering a new premium price category, meaning it must significantly surpass the already impressive 1723 series. But where was there to go from the 1723s, which were already massively overbuilt and overachieving? One clue lies in the 1528 Monitor’s weight—it comes in at a hefty 104 pounds/ea, compared to the 1723 Monitor THX, which weighs nearly 60 pounds. Additionally, the 1528 features enhanced styling and curvature, more in line with high-end loudspeakers.

But these are just surface-level changes. What’s under the hood of the 1528 Monitor, and how does it actually perform? It costs twice as much as the 1723 Monitor—does it offer double the value? And how does it compare to other speakers in this market segment? Read our full review to find out!

READ: ARENDAL SOUND 1528 MONITOR 8 REVIEW

 

[ryanosaur]

Very cool, @shadyJ ! As always, thank you!

I was eager to see a review for some of these new Arendals! It sure seems they don’t disappoint.

 

[Nondemo01]

Great review James as always! Maybe now the conspiracy theorists can find something else to conspire about! This review may have moved me off buying KEF Reference 1 Metas. (I know, they don't have the dynamic range I want but the WAF needs "white" and no subs. The KEF matches the decor. I had her accepting of Perlisten S7ts in white until they stopped making them = life/first world problems.) I have a fairly large 18'x20' living room and sit about 4m away so I guess Arendal is getting CC info for an audition! Great review James and AH! (p.s. start charging Gene by the pound er kilos.)

 

[Golfx]

Thank you James. I wish I was shopping again. Maybe I can convince some family or friends to buy these. That would possibly satisfy my need to own yet more quality stuff.

 

[Eppie]

Nice review Shady. I'm jealous that you get to listen to these first hand. Specs are pretty impressive and I like the styling too.

 

[Brian Smith]

James,

Would you mind commenting on what keeps this series a 4 instead of a 5 on the tweeter smoothness scale? Something tells me these speakers might come off sounding bright to some. Thanks.

 

[shadyJ]

James,

Would you mind commenting on what keeps this series a 4 instead of a 5 on the tweeter smoothness scale? Something tells me these speakers might come off sounding bright to some. Thanks.

I don't think they are bright, and I can't imagine anyone thinking that either, unless they were listening in a very weird position. I suppose I gave it a four instead of a five because the off-axis energy does pop off a bit in upper treble, so while it is very good, it isn't perfect. However, what is stopping it from being perfect is largely an academic quality that won't impact any real world listening situation. The off-axis flair occurs too high in frequency to affect any typical content or most people's hearing acuity for that matter.

Maybe the speakers were just so darn good overall that I was just searching for nits to pick!

 

[Jeroen]

Hi James, thanks for this great review. I love your thourough reviewing style and when your take a look at speakers that I'm interested in I always listen to the same tracks on my own system to recreate your situation ; )

I have the 1723s tower and combine them with the 1s subwoofer (closed the ports and use Dirac BC to integrate them).

My question is: looking at sound quality and your measurements: it seems to me that the biggest diff is the horizontal response is 1 DB smoother, the vertical is more linear and the bass is better with the 1528's. So say you sit at tweeter hight and you have treatment on your ceiling to dampen the vertical bounce of the 1723s, and as I you rock a good subwoofer, is there still a big diff in sound quality?

I applaud the styling, (over)build quality but I'm mostly interested in the SQ and doubt if the upgrade is worth it for me...

 

[shadyJ]

Hi James, thanks for this great review. I love your thourough reviewing style and when your take a look at speakers that I'm interested in I always listen to the same tracks on my own system to recreate your situation ; )

I have the 1723s tower and combine them with the 1s subwoofer (closed the ports and use Dirac BC to integrate them).

My question is: looking at sound quality and your measurements: it seems to me that the biggest diff is the horizontal response is 1 DB smoother, the vertical is more linear and the bass is better with the 1528's. So say you sit at tweeter hight and you have treatment on your ceiling to dampen the vertical bounce of the 1723s, and as I you rock a good subwoofer, is there still a big diff in sound quality?

I applaud the styling, (over)build quality but I'm mostly interested in the SQ and doubt if the upgrade is worth it for me...

If you have the 1723 S Tower properly set up, that should sound pretty good, and, yes, while the 1528 spekers are technically better, I personally would not feel the need to upgrade. The 1723 S Towers are really good speakers. I do prefer their voicing over the full 1723 Towers, as a matter of fact. I do think that you are knee-capping the Towers by running them with a sealed port, however. That port is capable of a great deal of output. My guess is that the Towers have more clean headroom at port tuning than the 1S subwoofer. Dirac with Bass Control may be sophisticated enough to integrate open ported towers with the sub. But if everything sounds good and you have enough headroom for your tastes, perhaps it's not an issue.

 

[Jeroen]

If you have the 1723 S Tower properly set up, that should sound pretty good, and, yes, while the 1528 spekers are technically better, I personally would not feel the need to upgrade. The 1723 S Towers are really good speakers. I do prefer their voicing over the full 1723 Towers, as a matter of fact. I do think that you are knee-capping the Towers by running them with a sealed port, however. That port is capable of a great deal of output. My guess is that the Towers have more clean headroom at port tuning than the 1S subwoofer. Dirac with Bass Control may be sophisticated enough to integrate open ported towers with the sub. But if everything sounds good and you have enough headroom for your tastes, perhaps it's not an issue.

Thanks for that answer James, really appreciate it!!

Port tuning is 36 herz right?

So are you saying that the towers will go louder at 36 herz (and above) than the sub? Or are you saying that closing the port means that the speaker cannot get as loud across all frequency below the tweeter crossover?

And with louder do you mean the max volume of the speaker or the dynamic shifts? Because I mostly listen around 70db Max 80... Sometimes with movies like Dune It would be around 85db but even than I never felt wanting..

At the moment I have them crossed over at 80 herz and have the feeling I get a lot more bass than before. More impact, tighter and obviously lower.

Say I would open them, where would you set the crossover? 30 herz?

Jeroen.

 

[shadyJ]

Thanks for that answer James, really appreciate it!!

Port tuning is 36 herz right?

So are you saying that the towers will go louder at 36 herz (and above) than the sub? Or are you saying that closing the port means that the speaker cannot get as loud across all frequency below the tweeter crossover?

And with louder do you mean the max volume of the speaker or the dynamic shifts? Because I mostly listen around 70db Max 80... Sometimes with movies like Dune It would be around 85db but even than I never felt wanting..

At the moment I have them crossed over at 80 herz and have the feeling I get a lot more bass than before. More impact, tighter and obviously lower.

Say I would open them, where would you set the crossover? 30 herz?

Jeroen.

You have eight 6.5" woofers in the 1723 Towers vs a single 13" woofer. The woofers have twice the surface area producing bass as the sub, and that isn't even factoring in port output. Yes, the sub driver will have a longer throw, but that only really comes into play in deep bass. The sub will have more output below port tuning, but probably not anywhere else, assuming you are giving the speakers sufficient power. What is more, you are generating all bass below 80Hz at a single point in the room which maximizes room modes and puts you at complete mercy of the room's acoustics.

I would experiment with running the speakers full range along with the sub. That will give you more points of low-frequency emission which should help smooth out the low-frequency response, especially using Dirac. Those speakers should be able to produce pretty good bass, so I would use the sub to address room mode nulls that the speaker's placement aren't able to shore up.

 

[Jeroen]

You have eight 6.5" woofers in the 1723 Towers vs a single 13" woofer. The woofers have twice the surface area producing bass as the sub, and that isn't even factoring in port output. Yes, the sub driver will have a longer throw, but that only really comes into play in deep bass. The sub will have more output below port tuning, but probably not anywhere else, assuming you are giving the speakers sufficient power. What is more, you are generating all bass below 80Hz at a single point in the room which maximizes room modes and puts you at complete mercy of the room's acoustics.

I would experiment with running the speakers full range along with the sub. That will give you more points of low-frequency emission which should help smooth out the low-frequency response, especially using Dirac. Those speakers should be able to produce pretty good bass, so I would use the sub to address room mode nulls that the speaker's placement aren't able to shore up.

Sadly according to my knowledge, Dirac Live BC does not allow that. It always uses a crossover and thus rolls off the speakers at that point. Think you can't configure it to let the 3 work along side each-other.... Let me know if you know how to do this?

Talking about those room modes makes me realise that the sub is actually helping in that respect, I have quite big dips in the bass frequencies on the fronts around 40/50 herz and the sub is placed carefully to have a flat response from 20 - 80 herz, so it actually makes the whole freq curve nicely smooth.

So taking that into account I do think I made the most out of it...