Overall verdict
“The Arendal 1610 is yet another home run from this company.”
“They sound big, like really big.”
“These are an impressively large sounding speaker and I expect no less from Arendal, especially with their mid to upper tier models.”
“Everything just sounded huge.”
“Everything that I ran through it sounded amazing.”
“In my smaller room, they are potentially too large, but also they are kind of awesome.”
Bass performance
“With these speakers, I totally didn’t need them.”
Referring to his subwoofers.
“I didn’t require a subwoofer for these speakers. And I wasn’t kidding.”
“Here, I’m just trying to add a subwoofer to a sound that’s already fully complete. I just don’t need it.”
“The 1610 sounds bigger. There’s more weight to everything. There’s more dynamic impact. There’s more oomph in the bass.”
“I had all the weight and all the impact down low as if I had a subwoofer connected to the 1528.”
“For me, in my space, the speaker is all I need.”
The reviewer makes clear that this applies to his relatively small listening room. He suggests considering a subwoofer in medium-to-large rooms.
Dynamics and impact
“The 1610 has the ability to go from quiet to loud really quick.”
“There’s clear separation, impact, and attack.”
“Music has a really nice physical quality to it.”
“There’s more dynamics. There’s more separation. There’s more texture.”
“Everything just sort of scales up and sounds better. It’s really cool.”
“Everything from the subways on upward just awesome. big scale, lots of texture, lots of dynamics.”
Detail, resolution and clarity
“I just start hearing more resolution, a bit more dynamic capability available here.”
“Little things within the recording are easier to follow.”
“Moving to the Arendal, particularly on the Roksan Caspian, and I can hear further into the recording.”
“Lots of detail, lots of clarity, lots of texture.”
“I had all that texture and detail and clarity and sharpness that I would ever want out of this speaker.”
Soundstage and immersion
“The sound stage itself feels more substantial.”
“It just feels more substantial and has more presence to the sound.”
“It’s just more enveloping.”
“There’s more of a sense of scale and more wrapped up into overall sound.”
“They sounded enormous.”
Comparisons with other speakers
Versus Emotiva XT1
“But then I move back to the Arendal and then suddenly there’s just more stuff.”
“There’s more dynamics. There’s more separation. There’s more texture.”
“Everything just sort of scales up and sounds better.”
“It just feels like it has more life on the Arendal.”
“The Arendal just shows you where all of that extra money goes.”
Versus Polk R500
“The 1610 sounds bigger.”
“There’s more weight to everything. There’s more dynamic impact. There’s more oomph in the bass.”
“Moving to the Arendal, particularly on the Roksan Caspian, and I can hear further into the recording.”
The reviewer acknowledges that the Polk R500 is easier to accommodate visually, while the 1610 delivers a larger and more impactful sound.
Versus 1528 Series
The reviewer did not conduct a direct A/B comparison with the 1528 Bookshelf 8, so his comments are subjective estimates based on other listening experiences.
“If you’re looking for bang for your buck, I think this gets you a good 80% or maybe 90 95% of the way there.”
“I don’t know that you would feel shortchanged just buying the 1610 and wondering whether or not you made the right choice.”
“I think you’d be perfectly happy with it.”
Value
“The Arendal just shows you where all of that extra money goes.”
“If you’re looking for bang for your buck, I think this gets you a good 80% or maybe 90 95% of the way there.”
“I think you’d be perfectly happy with it.”
“The Arendal 1610 is yet another home run from this company.”
Watch another review from 0102 Studio: 1528 Slim 8
