1528 Tower 8 – Product of the Year 2024 – SoundStage!
"The Arendal 1528 Tower 8 is an outstanding loudspeaker with exceptional styling and build quality, capable of delivering clear, dynamic, spacious, full-range sound that reveals every detail in a recording. At its price, it represents an extraordinary value."
Cabinet and drivers, grilles and finishes
The 1528 series is a family of giant speakers, including the large Bookshelf 8 and the six-driver 1528 Center+ 8, the biggest center-channel speaker I’ve seen. Designed for high SPLs and deep bass, the Tower 8’s cabinet is 53″ tall, 11.5″ wide, and 21.5″ deep, weighing about 175 pounds with its thick HDF build, supports, and footers.
The Tower 8 features an arced, floating baffle for an attractive look and better vertical driver alignment. Its tweeter-over-midrange design improves vertical dispersion compared to the MTM configuration, offering consistent sound whether sitting or standing. Optimal listening height is 88–108cm at a 4m distance, though smaller models like the Monitor 8 or Bookshelf 8 suit tighter spaces.
Tweeter and midrange output can be adjusted via back-panel jumpers, while bass output adjusts indirectly through these changes. Crossover points are at 2800Hz (tweeter-midrange) and 420Hz (midrange-woofers), with sensitivity rated at 89.5dB and nominal impedance at 4 ohms.
Available in Basalt or Polar matte finishes, the Polar finish paired with my review unit looked elegant. Production units will feature silver magnetic grilles instead of white. Drivers include a 1.1″ lithium-magnesium dome tweeter with an elliptical waveguide, a 5″ carbon-fiber-and-graphene midrange, and four 8″ aluminum woofers with ridged cones. Port resonance is controlled by perforations on the tube, and a copper cap on the midrange and woofers minimizes distortion.
Cost cutting?
Matte finishes, contrary to assumptions, are harder to execute than high-gloss ones, as flaws can’t be polished out and must remain flawless throughout production, Gunvaldsen explained.
While Arendal designs its speakers in Norway, they’re manufactured in China, where production costs are lower. Gunvaldsen emphasized that this doesn’t mean lower quality, as Chinese manufacturing has improved significantly and is now often on par with other regions.
Arendal’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) model helps reduce costs by eliminating retailer markups, which could push a speaker like the Tower 8 to $20,000 or more through traditional channels. However, DTC has downsides, such as the inability to audition products in person or access dealer support. To mitigate this, Arendal includes taxes in the price, ensures smooth delivery, provides robust customer support, and offers a 10-year warranty and a 60-day return policy, both above industry standards.
Preliminary listening impressions
Before leaving for Norway, I set up the Tower 8 speakers and casually listened to Bruce Cockburn’s “Pacing the Cage” on the Marantz CD 50n. Even at moderate volume, the speakers delivered jaw-dropping performance, with natural sound across all frequencies, full bass, clear highs, and a perfectly centered, detailed vocal image. The sound was bold and commanding, even at low volumes. However, the soundstage felt compressed until I spaced the speakers 9′ apart, which widened it without affecting imaging.
I then streamed Cowboy Junkies’ “Misguided Angel” on Tidal. The Tower 8s nailed the sub-50Hz bass, reproducing 20Hz whoomphs perfectly balanced with Margo Timmins’s vocals, as producer Peter J. Moore intended. Next, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” showcased Stevie Nicks’s vocals, clear and slightly prominent but pleasingly so, while Mick Fleetwood’s drumming was powerful and startlingly deep. Both the Sonus Faber Sonetto V G2 and Estelon Aura handled “Dreams” well but couldn’t match the Tower 8s in low bass, given their smaller woofer-cone surface areas.
The cymbals in “Dreams” were slightly more prominent on the Tower 8s than on other speakers but didn’t feel overly bright. Adjustments via the jumpers weren’t needed in my room, but listeners who prefer less spirited highs can reduce them by 2dB. Boosting the highs, however, seems unnecessary.
Follow-up impressions
Before Norway, I had only positive impressions of the Tower 8 speaker. After returning, I challenged them with demanding music to find flaws but discovered even more reasons to praise them.
I tested Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball (2014 remastered, 24/44.1), known for challenging speakers with thick bass and midrange. The Tower 8s excelled, especially on “Orphan Girl,” delivering reference-class clarity, a spacious soundstage, and a powerful yet controlled bass drum. Harris’s voice emerged with stunning presence, demonstrating the speakers’ effortless, dynamic performance and expansive soundstage.
Next, I streamed Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy (16/44.1). On “Man in the Long Black Coat,” Dylan’s close-miked vocals remained clear even at high volumes, avoiding the distortion I’ve experienced with other speakers.
For further testing, I turned to Tracy Chapman’s Tracy Chapman (1988) and Van Morrison’s Poetic Champions Compose (1987). Morrison’s album confirmed the Tower 8s’ ability to create spacious soundstages with sharp imaging. On Chapman’s “Fast Car,” the speakers revealed deep bass and clear vocals but also exposed the recording’s compressed dynamic range and shallow drum depth—limitations other speakers only hinted at.
Caveats and conclusions
The Arendal 1528 Tower 8 is an outstanding loudspeaker with exceptional styling and build quality, capable of delivering clear, dynamic, spacious, full-range sound that reveals every detail in a recording. At its price, it represents an extraordinary value.
However, buyers should consider two key points. First, the Tower 8’s size demands a large space—rooms must accommodate the recommended 13′ listening distance. I plan to test them in a larger space to explore their full potential. Second, as a direct-to-consumer product, the Tower 8 can’t be auditioned before purchase. While Arendal’s 60-day return policy mitigates this, repackaging and shipping such heavy speakers would be inconvenient.
From what I saw on my visit to Arendal Sound and what I learned from the people at its helm, I believe the company is poised to make waves in the hi-fi world for the quality and value of its products and its bold DTC business model. Arendal took a big leap forward with its 1528 series, spearheaded by the Tower 8, and landed on both feet.
