Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Loudspeaker Review

Arendal Sound 1528 Introduction

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? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in today’s review.

Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Packing and Appearance

The 1528 Monitors arrived on a pallet double boxed with thick, high-durability cardboard. The speaker packing had a plywood board between the top and bottom boxes. If the box is dropped and hits a vertical end, the plywood would disperse the force of the drop over a large section of the packing, and that would do a lot to protect these speakers. The speakers and stands are packed with thick polyethylene foam blocks that protect every square inch of surface. Inside the foam, the speakers and stand are wrapped in a soft poly-cotton drawstring fabric sleeve to protect against scuffs and moisture. Some cotton inspection gloves are also included so that the speakers can be unpacked and set up without getting fingerprints on any surfaces. Tools and components for assembling the stand are all included and very logically packed. Overall, the packing is excellent and is befitting of their price. They are heavy, but the level of packing here should allow them to withstand fairly rugged shipping without incurring any damage.

  

Once unpacked and set up, the 1528 Monitors are some of the more stylish I have had the opportunity to review. They can be had in ‘basalt’ and ‘polar’ finishes which are versions of satin black and satin white respectively, and I received the ‘polar’ finish. While these are some standmount loudspeakers, they are very large for that class. The optional stands are fairly nice-looking powdered aluminum finish, and they have a base that connects to some very sturdy-looking outriggers with a single thick oblong column that supports the speakers (the stands in the images are prototypes, so the final stands might look a bit different, and a larger column in planned). The speakers have a gently curved front baffle which has a deeply inset ring around it that makes it look detached from the main enclosure. All of the drivers are surrounded by metallic trim rings which match the powdered aluminum stand. The woofers have a sleek concave shape and a gray satin luster and look very cool. The woofers do have included grilles that can be applied which are perforated gray discs, but the speakers do look much better without the grilles. The midrange driver and tweeter are built into a single assembly, and they are hidden behind a built-in grille that has a perforated pattern. The tweeter is sunk in a waveguide that is molded into the assembly.

 

Arendal knew that if they wanted to move upmarket, they needed something that looked the part, and they have acquitted themselves very well in this regard. These speakers look terrific; they are stylish without being over-styled. They will fit in nicely with most luxury decors, but they aren’t showy and won’t draw attention to themselves unless everything else in the room is totally dull. They look more expensive than they are. I believe that the appearance of these speakers itself will draw the attention of a lot of buyers. But looks aren’t everything; let’s see if these speakers have anything behind their pretty faces by looking under the hood…

Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Design Analysis

The 1528 Monitor 8 is an unusual loudspeaker in a number of different ways. It is a very large standmount loudspeaker designed for high output demands. At this point, readers might ask why not just get the 1528 Towers since it’s the same design but with two additional woofers in a floor-standing form-factor? Well, for one, the 1528 Tower 8s are massive and extremely heavy at 174 lbs. The 100 lbs. 1528 Monitors is still pretty rough, but 174 lbs. is brutal. The extra $4k cost of the towers might be pushing too far past some people’s initial budget as well. The 1528 Monitors will give up some headroom in bass compared to the towers, but I think most users will never push them hard enough to notice, especially if a subwoofer is in use. For those who don’t want to deal with the extra cost, size, and weight, the 1528 Monitor 8s look to do much the same thing as their floorstanding siblings. Buyers of the 1528 Monitor 8s also have the option of setting the optimal height of the speaker for their own listening position by using a speaker stand with the right elevation. The towers have a fairly high-mounted tweeter that may be too tall for those with lower-slung seating, especially if they are seated close to the speaker.

  

So how are the 1528 Monitor 8s trying to achieve their high-performance objectives? Let’s begin our examination of their design by talking about the top of the frequency band, the tweeters. Arendal uses a 1” magnesium-lithium dome tweeter mounted within a controlled directivity waveguide. I have only heard of one other manufacturer using magnesium-lithium, but supposedly it has a lower density and lighter weight than magnesium alone yet a higher tensile strength according to Arendal Sound. The waveguide should give it good directivity matching with the midrange driver as well as a consistent off-axis response. The tweeter motor uses an enormous neodymium magnet in its motor that is many times larger than typical neodymium tweeter magnets which are usually about the size of a nickel. That should give the 1528 tweeter a real boost in sensitivity. The tweeter dome is covered by a small grille that should offer protection to this doubtlessly expensive component.

 

Moving down to the midrange, the 1528 Monitor’s midrange uses a 5” carbon-graphene cone. This state-of-the-art material is very stiff yet extremely light and is perfect for this application of mid-range frequency reproduction. The massive midrange motor magnet is as large as the cone itself in diameter, and this will provide the voice coil a tremendous amount of force to react against. This will greatly increase the sensitivity of the driver. As with the tweeter, the midrange is also covered by a non-removable grille for protection and improved off-axis response according to Arendal Sound.

 

The bass is produced by a pair of 8” long throw drivers with aluminum cones. The cones are connected to a cast aluminum basket via some ribbed inverted surrounds. The motor magnet is a beefy 5 ⅛” diameter by 1” thick slug, and cooling is done through the pole piece with a bumped-out backplate. It’s a long-throw driver with excursion well beyond typical 8” bass drivers.

The lowest frequency band is produced by a massive rear-mounted, dual-flared port with a 4” diameter that takes a turn in the enclosure and reaches up to the upper woofer for an approximately 30” length. That is a larger port than what most subwoofers or tower speakers have, and the 1528 Monitor 8 should be capable of some serious low-frequency output. Arendal Sound does provide a port plug for those who want to run it in sealed mode, but I can’t think of a good reason to run it in a sealed configuration. All that does is eliminate a lot of low-frequency output, and a better way to accomplish that would be to simply EQ the speakers. Some might argue that sealing the speakers could help it integrate with subwoofers better, but the port is tuned so low that sealing it won’t affect anything at typical subwoofer crossover frequencies.

  

The crossover circuit is substantial to say the least, and it has to be separated on two boards for the amount of space needed. It uses nearly two-dozen components, and all components are of a very high quality. Many of the resistors have beefy heatsinks on them. The capacitors are all tight-tolerance film types, and the inductors are all air-core. The filter for the bass drivers uses a huge inductor. The crossover frequencies are 420Hz from bass driver to midrange, and 2.8kHz from midrange to tweeter.

The 1528 Monitor 8 has dual five-way, rhodium-plated copper binding posts. The tweeter and mid can be separately amplified from the bass drivers. Normally, I complain about home audio speakers that have the ability to be bi-amplified or bi-wired because that usually just causes more problems than it solves since normal home audio speakers can’t handle a ton of power anyway, but that isn’t the case here. The 1528 Monitors are specified to handle 700 watts of amplification, so if you have the spare amps lying around, they could give you more headroom if you don’t want to go out to buy a 700-watt bruiser.

  

As was said before, the enclosure is ridiculously over-built. It’s made from high-density fiberboard with a 3” thick front baffle and 1” thick side and rear panels. There is a lengthwise brace running up the side panels, and two horizontal braces dividing the enclosure by thirds. The interior has a layer of priming and paint, and this is done to stop moisture from getting into the wood and potentially swelling it. The interior surfaces are covered with a rubbery gel coating to damp panel resonances, and the interior is also filled with a polyfill type acoustic stuffing to help absorb acoustic energy. The trim-ring assembly around the tweeter and midrange is plastic, but the trim rings around the bass drivers are weighty chunks of cast aluminum. Likewise, the terminal plate for the binding posts is a thick sheet of anodized aluminum.

The front baffle has a slight curvature that Arendal’s literature claims helps to ‘time-align’ the drivers, but I doubt it has any audible benefit. The acoustic centers of the drivers are typically around the voice coils, and the coils of the bass drivers are further recessed from the tweeter, so mounting the tweeter and mid a bit further back might synchronize their output a bit more than if they were all lined up on a straight baffle. However, the offset is so slight it would only amount to less than a tenth of a millisecond of ‘delayed’ sound, and furthermore, it would only work for a single plane of listening height. In my opinion, physically time-aligning drivers has always been more of a speculative marketing gimmick than anything based on performance gains. The shape of the cabinet does make it look nicer, and that is more important to me than tiny performance gains that could barely be measured let alone heard.

  

What is of far more audible consequence is how close Arendal has mounted the tweeter to the midrange in the 1528 Monitors. The tweeter and midrange driver have a very close proximity, and that is good for the angle of vertical dispersion. In other words, listeners will not need their ears to be at a precise height in order to get a good summation of sound between the midrange and tweeter. Many manufacturers don’t seem to be concerned about this, but the further the midrange is from the tweeter, the narrower of an vertical angle they will play nice together before phase cancellation starts to take chunks out of the response around the crossover frequency. So loudspeakers that don’t have the midrange closely mounted to the tweeter tend to only have their full and intended sound at a very specific listening height. That is fine if your seating height is just right, and you never change your posture, but how often is that the case?

The heavy-duty drivers, extravagant crossover circuit, monster port, and excessive cabinet all point to a loudspeaker that will get loud without sacrificing fidelity, but let’s now see if that is the case in some listening tests…

Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Listening Sessions

In my 24’ by 13’ (approximately) listening room, I set up the speakers a few feet off the back and side walls and with an equal distance between the speakers and the listening position. I angled the speakers to face the listening position. The listening distance from the speakers was about 9 feet. No room correction equalization was used. Processing was done by a Marantz 7705 and the amplification was a Monoprice Monolith 5x200 amplifier. No subwoofers were used unless noted otherwise.

Music Listening

To see what the 1528 Monitor 8s could do with a traditional recording, I found a lovely album titled “Bach Masses” which is a performance of J.S. Bach’s four Lutheran masses. These masses are seldom performed because they borrow so heavily from Bach’s cantatas, so when musicians look to play his music, they go to what is viewed as the original compositions instead of what is often viewed as self-plagiarism. That is a mistake because these pieces aren’t just Bach lazily re-using old material but rather reworkings that explore new possibilities and new avenues with existing compositions. The performers here are the celebrated choir/period instrumentalist group, The Sixteen, under direction of the group’s founder, Harry Christophers. It is released under their CORO label, and I streamed it from Qobuz in a 96kHz/24-bit resolution. This is a magnificent recording and performance of an oft-overlooked part of Bach’s oeuvre.

The Sixteen doesn’t have a massive choir, just two sopranos, two tenors, two altos, and two bass, so even though it was recorded in a church, the individual singers still imaged very well. Typically in these types of recordings, the singers occupy a vague center stage because of the acoustics of the church as well as the spread of so many performers, but here, I could hear exactly where the singers were. This wasn’t just the quality of the recording, the speakers had to be competent to convey this aspect as well, and the 1528 Monitor 8s were certainly able to. The pitches of the singer rose from right to left, so bass on right, tenor at center right, alto at center left, and soprano on the left side of the soundstage. The imaging and soundstage projected by the 1528 Monitor 8s was impeccable, and it helped to place me in a front-middle pew at the Church of St. Augustine in London where this was recorded. Voices and instruments sounded natural and tonally-even. This was a fluid performance that all came together beautifully, and it could be heard not just from the sound engineering in the mix but also from the fidelity of the loudspeakers. There is not much more to say when the reproduction is so faultless; the 1528 Monitors lacked nothing in this playback of “Bach Masses,” and I am sure that classical music enthusiasts will love what they have to offer.

 

For a closer look at a solitary human voice, I found a terrific new E.P. on Qobuz titled “You, The Passenger” by Ellie Gowers. Gowers is a UK-based folk singer who is finding success as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. She is joined by a bevy of other supporting players but these songs are deeply personal and very much her own self-expression. These well-recorded tracks are a lot simpler than something like the masses of Bach and thus allow us to hear the sound of an individual voice and individual instruments with more distinctness.

The first thing I noticed from the speakers’ reproduction is just how precisely Ellie’s voice imaged dead center in the soundstage. There was zero ambiguity in not only Ellie’s position but also that of the instrumentalists (most of which could be heard as near-field recordings). Ellie’s graceful voice and melodic singing was exquisitely rendered by the 1528 Monitor 8s, and it was as if the speakers transported her and her band into my living room. The studio mix can be heard trying to bring Ellie close to the listener instead of on a stage, and this intimate character was adroitly conveyed by the speakers. The tonal balance of Ellie’s vocals and her instrumentalists sounded spot on and neutral, with nothing standing out as too forward or too recessed. All the tracks sounded lively and clear, and I doubt that anyone could find anything to complain about with this presentation by the 1528 Monitors.

For a work that I was deeply familiar with, I threw on “Air I” by the late electronic music maestro Pete Namlook. This is a personal favorite of mine going back years, so when I recently discovered there was a 2021 remaster of this, I knew I had to sit down to give it a close listen with some serious speakers. “Air I” is considered a towering classic in the genre of electronic ambient for good reason. Originally released in 1993, it combines electronic soundscapes with atmospheric acoustic instruments and inventive sampling to achieve some darkly seductive moods. Namlook was incredibly prolific in his lifetime, and he has released many albums and tracks that are now considered classics, but “Air I” stands out even amidst a large body of artistic triumph.

One aspect of this remaster that I could notice right away was that the producers did not try to hide the analog nature of the original recording, and I was grateful that they did not try to ‘update’ the original medium. This isn’t to say anything sounded dated, even 30 years later, but rather the smooth analog sound was a key component to the character of this album. It’s possible that maybe some minor hiss was removed, but I never noticed any in the prior times I have listened to “Air I.” Soundstage is so important to this recording, with percussion and synths oscillating between left and right, and atmospherics laying down a broad soundscape as a backdrop for the sparse lead instruments. Everything sounded just right and in place on the 1528 Monitors. The magic of the spaced-out psychosphere of “Je Suis Triste Et Seul Ici” was fully intact. The 1528 Monitor 8s projected a wide and enveloping soundstage where the darkened world of this album wrapped around the listener. “Spiritual Invocation” sounded like listening in a planetarium, which is exactly what one would hope for. The beefy analog bassline and throbbing arpeggiation of the epic “Arc” had a tangible corporeality in the 1528 Monitor’s delivery, and the panoramic sweeps spread out well past the width of the speakers’ placement. The cosmic synths of “Mystical Appearance” stretched out around me and served as a perfect prelude to the shadowy tension of “Chaque Ligne De Ta Peau Fut Aimee.” Every track is a knock out on this album, and they all sounded stellar on the 1528 Monitor 8s, as good as I have ever heard. I can’t recommend “Air I” enough to anyone who is even vaguely interested in psychedelic electronic music, and wow does it sound fantastic on these new speakers from Arendal.

 

For something that could apply a bit more pressure on the speakers for a look at their limits, I queued up “These Heavens,” a new EP by gyrofield. gyrofield is an electronic music artist that has mostly done drum’n’bass music with a very idiosyncratic bent and a singular sound signature. “These Heavens” are more into the harder edge of her music, so the tempo is fast, the bass is fat, and the drums hit hard. It’s good stuff for playing loud, but it will expose the limits of speakers that can’t handle stress very well. A new album from gyrofield playing on new speakers from Arendal was definitely an experience that I was looking forward to.

The first track, “Lagrange,” was an intricately layered composition with a lot of twisting, swirling synths riding on top of a meaty bassline, and all of this detail was finely resolved by the 1528 Monitor 8s. It had the articulation of headphones, but the physicality of loudspeakers. I decided to really crank the volume on the next track to push the speakers, but I only confirmed what I already knew; these speakers could get louder than I could tolerate. I could have pushed them harder, but they are spec’d to handle more than my measly 300-watt per channel amp could produce, so even if I could drive them to some kind of distortion, I wouldn’t be sure if it was the speakers or my amp clipping. Regardless, I think my ears would clip before the speakers or amp. These speakers could punch hard and are undoubtedly the most powerful standmount speakers I have dealt with to date. At tremendous volume levels, the bass had a subwoofer-like grunt, and the mids and highs were crystal clear. Kick drums and low toms were given a tactile punch, and basslines could vibrate my seat. I could only imagine what the 1528 Towers could do. The last track, “Cold Cases,” had a brutal lead synth and some percussion breakdowns that shredded on these speakers, and it sounded great at a high level. “These Heavens” was another killer release from the always interesting gyrofield, and I was glad I first heard it on such capable loudspeakers. Those looking for something potent yet refined for electronic music have an outstanding choice in the 1528 Monitors.

Movie Watching

I had pretty much given up the Alien franchise as creatively dead after the last two convoluted entries, “”Prometheus” and “Covenant,” so I wasn’t very interested in seeing the newest addition, “Alien Romulus,” since I had expected more of the same, especially with a title that references Roman mythology. However, word of mouth spread that it is a back-to-the-roots stripped-down horror movie that more closely resembles the first one, so I decided to give it a chance with the 1528 Monitors in-house. I figured at the very least it ought to sound good since the Alien movies always had terrific sound design, even at their lowest moments (re: “Aliens vs. Predator”). It should be a good opportunity to show what the speakers can do for a big-budget sci-fi sound mix.

“Alien Romulus” wasn’t as bad as I had feared; in fact, I quite enjoyed it, even though it was a flawed submission into the franchise. The 1528 Monitor 8s were able to give it a truly big screen sound. Demanding low frequencies come in early with an opening scene depicting a spaceship salvaging a mysterious package from a deep space debris field. The speakers could reproduce the near infrasonic bass of the scene without a hiccup. A bit later, a spaceship’s launch from a planetary surface into the atmosphere thundered on the speakers, and the 1528 Monitor 8s gave the scene an effortless presentation. These are standmount speakers that truly do not need the assistance of a subwoofer. Subsequent monster mayhem had a positively visceral force projected by the Arendal speakers. While the plot feels awfully familiar, the action set pieces did have an inventiveness that made for a gripping viewing experience. Much of the action took place aboard a ruined and decomposing space station, and the mounting destruction that it went through enabled the 1528 Monitor 8s to violently shake my room. The music score by Benjamin Wllfisch was a kind of gothic neoclassical with some electronic punctuation, and it bellowed with an alarming clarity on the speakers. Dialogue intelligibility was always clear, even amidst all the yelling against so much carnage. While a movie like this probably uses surround channels extensively in the surround sound mix, I did not miss them with the 1528 Monitors as a stereo pair. I felt immersed in the action, and the sound of the on-screen events was convincingly reproduced, even when the movie started to feel far-fetched. It was a fun watch, and I hope that further alien movies will stick to tighter and more self-contained stories like this one instead of the sprawling self-importance of Ridley Scott’s sequels.

 

A movie that piqued my interest after seeing the preview was “Dream Scenario,” a 2023 fantasy movie starring Nicholas Cage. Cage stars as a middle-aged tenured biology professor with a dull life who suddenly starts appearing in other people’s dreams. That quickly makes him a celebrity which gives him purpose and brings him joy, but things take a turn for the worse when the dreams he appears in start turning into nightmares. It looked like it could be a fun movie with a surreal sound mix that might be a great exhibition of the 1528 Monitor’s abilities.

While “Dream Scenario” didn’t really push the limits of what the 1528 Monitor 8s can do, the speakers did bring a dynamism to moments where the movie dove into the fantastical. The movie opens with a crashing sound that startled me preceded by a near-infrasonic drone that signified a dream setting. Another dream scene took place in an auditorium during an earthquake where the whole building was shaking, and the speakers gave that scene some reality by managing to make my room shudder a bit as well. Most of the dream scenarios in the movie were implied rather than shown, although we do get glimpses at moments when our mild-mannered protagonist becomes a monstrous dream figure, and the 1528 Monitor 8s delivered a real jolt in those instances. Outside of the dream scenes, the movie was largely dialogue driven, and the speakers reproduced the spoken word with crystal clarity. “Dream Scenario” was largely a comedy about the effects of a meek person appearing in the dreams in other people's dreams rather than the dreams themselves, so it wasn’t a rowdy or boisterous sound mix, but it still gave the sound system moments to shine. I got some big laughs out of the movie, and I can strongly recommend it to anyone looking for something outside of the standard Hollywood formula movies.

Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Measurements

The Arendal 1528 Monitor 8 was measured in free-air at a height of 2.5 feet at a 1-meter distance from the microphone, with the microphone raised to an 4.5’ elevation that was level with and aimed at the tweeter center. The measurements were gated at 4 milliseconds. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 800 Hz, and accuracy is completely lost below 400 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/24 octave resolution.

 

 

The above graphs depict the Arendal 1528 Monitor’s direct-axis and horizontal dispersion out to a 90-degree angle in five-degree increments. Information on how to interpret these graphs can be read in this article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II.

The measured response here is quite good, especially at and near on-axis. The on-axis response has a very tight window, barely deviating outside of a 2dB range except for a small peak in upper treble that would be inaudible. As we move off-axis, the responses get a little wavy, but they don’t deviate from the neutral on-axis response by a huge amount. The tweeter is very well-controlled as is the midrange driver. With such a flat on-axis response, this speaker is best used toed-in to face the listening position. Such an angle will yield a very accurate sound. This is the most neutral loudspeaker produced by Arendal that I have dealt with so far. Not much else to say here except that this is an excellent effort by Arendal that befits their highest tier offering.

 

The above polar map shows the same information as the preceding graphs but depicts it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, polar maps use color to portray amplitude, and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s dispersion behavior more easily. More information about interpreting this graph can be read in this article: Understanding Loudspeaker Measurements Part II.

In the above graph, we get a look at how well directivity is controlled by the 1528 Monitors. The dispersion is kept pretty consistent out to a 60-degree angle. What is unusual about this consistency is that it happens across the entire range out past 22kHz yet this speaker uses a dome tweeter. Dome tweeters usually start narrowing their response well below 22khz; most begin to tighten dispersion below 10kHz. Arendal uses the waveguide to keep the dispersion broad out to such a high frequency. This can be counter-intuitive to some people since they usually think of waveguides as a tool to restrict dispersion instead of broadening it. However, the acoustics of a waveguide can enable the tweeter to project energy out at a wider angle if the waveguide’s geometry has been carefully shaped. The dispersion pattern shown here should make it so the speaker has a very consistent sound over a wide area. It also makes it easy for auto-EQ systems like Audyssey to conform the in-room response to its target. Altogether, this is another great result from Arendal Sound.

 

The above graph shows the 1528 Monitor 8s low-frequency response captured using ground plane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground at a 2-meter distance in a wide-open area). The response here is fairly typical except for how deep in frequency it digs. We see overdamped port output in order to secure a tapered response down to port tuning below which the response begins to decline at a much faster rate. This should yield a pretty strong in-room response without over-boosting the bass which is what might happen if they went for a flat response down to port tuning. Of course, every room is different, so it may still produce elevated bass in a small room or somewhat recessed bass in a large room. In my own room, which does not get a lot of low-frequency gain, I had a strong response down to 20Hz. These are easily the deepest digging stand-mount speakers I have dealt with to date. They really do not need a sub at all. These would work great as surrounds in a Dirac ART system for home theaters that benefits from all channels being full-range. These are truly full-range.

 

The above graph shows the electrical behavior of the Arendal 1528 Monitor. Arendal specifies these to be 4-ohm nominal speakers, and my own measurements confirm this. The minima occurs just below 4 ohms and a bit below 300Hz. The phase angle isn’t rough, so this is not a tough 4-ohm load though, and users won’t need a heavy-duty amplifier unless they want to extract all of the dynamic range out of them. We can see from the minima in the low-frequency saddle dip that the port tuning is just above 20Hz. We can also see from the evenness of the saddle peaks that the resonant frequency of the bass drivers is well-matched with that of the enclosure. If I had to guess, I would say that Arendal had an enclosure size and tuning frequency in mind and then designed the drivers around that instead of vice versa.

I measured sensitivity to be 87dB for 1 meter at 2.83v. This is 2dB higher than Arendal’s own sensitivity for those conditions. Arendal must have rated these very conservatively because 2dB is not an insignificant difference. These speakers are a tad insensitive due to the extraordinarily low frequency extension. However, they still have tremendous dynamic range if you provide enough amplification. They are specified to handle 700 watts. With a typical receiver amp, they will probably get loud enough for common living room systems, but if you really want them to sing, provide an outboard amp with plenty of power for them.

Arendal Sound 1528 Monitor 8 Conclusion

Before bringing this review to an end, I will briefly go over the strengths and weaknesses of the product under evaluation, and, as always, I will start with the weaknesses. Arendal’s 1528 Monitor 8 is a very strong product, but it has some qualities that precludes it from being an option for some situations, to wit: its size and weight versus its form factor. It’s the largest and heaviest stand-mount speaker I have come across. It is such a large and heavy speaker that it almost defeats the point of being a standmount speaker. The advantage of standmount speakers is the ease of physical management and placement flexibility over floor-standing speakers. While the 1528 Monitor 8 is going to be easier to handle than its 176lbs 1528 tower brother, it is still a very difficult speaker to handle due to its 100lbs weight. Even though it is a standmount speaker, it can’t really be called a bookshelf speaker since very few bookshelves could accommodate it. It occupies an odd space among its line-up: its intent is to offer a floor-standing speaker level of full-range power without being a floor-standing speaker. Technically it does that, but it isn’t really any easier or less space-consuming than a normal floor-standing speaker. In fact, it is only a bit less heavy than the Arendal 1723 THX Tower that I recently reviewed which I thought was a hulking behemoth of a tower. Only with respect to the 1528 Tower 8 should the 1528 Monitor 8 be considered more manageable.

One other small caveat that I should add is that the stands that Arendal provides for the 1528 Monitor 8s as an optional accessory are a bit tall and wide so should only be used in larger rooms or longer listening distances (Arendal tells me that they offer a perfect summation at a 4m listening distance with a 90cm ear height). The 1528 Monitor 8s can be used for closer proximity listening and in fact would excel at that, but users will want to place them on stands that puts the midrange driver at about ear height. That would be a short stand indeed, maybe only 12” high for most listening heights. The 1528 Monitor 8s might be overkill to be used in  small to medium sized rooms, but they would still work perfectly fine in those scenarios. On this point, it’s worth mentioning that the 1528 Monitors are a great alternative to the 1528 Towers for those with lower seating since the towers also have the tweeter mounted quite high. That makes the tower unsuited for close proximity listening positions as well as lower listening positions unless you are at a fairly long distance from the speakers. With a standmount speaker like the 1528 Monitor 8s, you can determine the height of the tweeter/midrange by simply using a stand with the desired height. The tweeters on the 1528 Monitors are set at a 28” height from the bottom, so for my listening position, which sets my ears at about a 40” height, I would want about a 12” stand. 

There isn’t really much else to complain about with the 1528 Monitor 8s. If their size and weight are not an issue for you, it’s all good news. Let’s start our reportage of the good news with their sound quality. These speakers are very accurate, and they maintain that accuracy over a wide angle on both the horizontal and vertical axes. That means they aren’t very fussy about placement, although for the best sound, I would advise the user to angle the speaker to face the listening position directly. A toe-in to face the user gives the most neutral sound from top to bottom of the frequency range. Speaking of frequency range, the low-frequency extension of the 1528 Monitor 8s dig nearly all the way down to the limits of human audibility with true 20Hz extension. Only a few tower speakers can achieve this, let alone standmount speakers. The 1528 Monitors really do not need the assistance of a subwoofer unless you require massive infrasonic bass. They also have a very wide dynamic range and will get louder than most people would ever need so long as enough amplification is supplied. They aren’t the most sensitive loudspeakers around, but they can handle tons of power, so they are not at all short on dynamics. They could handle a large room or a dedicated home theater with no problem.

Outside of their sound quality, the most impressive aspect of the 1528 Monitor 8s is their build quality. Anyone who has read this review up to this point will know how overbuilt these things are. There is simply no comparably priced loudspeaker that approaches them in this department. To get speakers of a comparable build quality, one would need to be looking at Perlisten, Focal Sopra series, B&W 800 series, or Dali Epikore series, and those are all far more expensive. The penalty is the tremendous weight, but in return you get a loudspeaker that is built like a boulder. You truly get luxury-class build quality without luxury-class pricing. The enclosures are totally inert, and these go way beyond addressing cabinet resonances or vibrating panels. They have a sense of solidity which makes them feel like they could last a lifetime. The excellent packing belies this point; the 1528 Monitors are presented as high-end items by the meticulous packing which will also help to protect it through rough handling during shipping.

 

They look stylish without being over-the-top. The curved front baffle, aluminum drivers and trim rings, and sleek midrange/tweeter assembly all come together to add up to a nice looking speaker. The powdered aluminum terminal plate and rhodium-plated copper binding posts exude luxury as well. They would easily fit in with upscale interior decors, especially those with a modernist design.

On top of the products themselves, Arendal Sound provides top-notch customer support. Getting in contact with a live person is easy with Arendal should you have the need to do so. Buyers get a 60-day risk-free audition with the 1528s, so if you decide that you don’t want them for any reason, Arendal will arrange for return and will even cover return shipping fees - not a small sum for such large and heavy speakers. Those who do opt to keep them will get a 10-year warranty. Something else worth mentioning is that the center speaker of the 1528 series looks every bit as good as the left/right fronts, which is seldom the case for many manufacturers in this class of speakers. Many manufacturers just phone in a horizontal MTM design with so many loudspeaker series, even higher-priced ones, but 1528 Centers look to be seriously good designs that have benefited from a lot of thought and effort. 

So what are competing speakers in this class? In truth, there aren’t that many large, high-powered standmount speakers in its price range; massive standmount speakers tend to be the purview of the super-expensive high-end. However, there are some larger, high-powered standmount speakers that are roughly the same price range. There is the RBH 821-SF/R, a $6k/pair 2-way MTM design with a large AMT tweeter. RBH’s design should have a narrower and possibly more controlled vertical directivity as well as higher sensitivity, but it won’t dig as deep in bass nor will it be as overbuilt. Wharfedale has the Super Lintons at $5.4k/pair which have higher sensitivity, but again, will not dig as deep nor will they have the build quality of the 1528 Monitor 8s. They also have no corresponding center speaker. The $5k/pair JBL L100 Classic certainly fits this mold, and they will have much higher sensitivity. Again, they won’t dig as deep nor will they match the robust cabinetry of the 1528, plus they don’t have a corresponding center speaker. The Perlisten R5m Monitors are large standmount speakers that cost about the same as the 1528 Monitors. Perlisten has top notch built quality as well as sound quality, but it will not dig as deep as the Arendal speakers. Perlisten does offer a good center speaker for that product line. There is also the JTR Noesis 210RM speakers which are sure to be built like a tank and have a terrific sound if they keep in line with our prior experiences with JTR, but they are meant purely for dedicated home theater spaces and so do not compete head-on with the 1528 Monitors. However, they are a large and high-performance stand mount speaker of about the same pricing, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

At the beginning of this review, I asked how Arendal could top the mighty 1723 Monitors which were an already overbuilt and high-performance speaker that didn’t have a high-end price. The 1528 Monitor 8s give a satisfying answer to that question; yeah, they cost a lot more, but you do get a lot more speaker for your money, which is pretty extraordinary since the 1723s were a lot of speaker to begin with. They make for an incredibly strong contender in their class. If you can handle their size and weight, you can not go wrong with the 1528 Monitor 8s. Arendal has set a new standard in this segment, and we will see how the rest of the loudspeaker industry reacts to it: will they ignore what the 1528s bring to the table or will they try to match or exceed the exceptional value that Arendal has presented in these speakers.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value