I own the dali's for in our bedroom... Got both the blind tests correct. They do get better with a little "Run in" but not 100hrs. Highly recommended from me.
Hey Martin - happy Christmas. Your videos give me so much pleasure, especially when I'm immersed in tedious video editing of my own stuff and need a break! - I know, from experience how time-consuming it all is. One day I will give you a run-down of my gear and I'd love to show you a few videos too. Looking forward to keeping in touch in 2025! Kindest regards - Richard
Dalis have great tonality I thought. I just bought myself some PSB Alpha P3s for near field desktop use. I was so impressed by them I went and bought the larger P5s as well.
Love the shirt! I bought my Christmas present yesterday...a new 2 bedroom townhouse using my IRA money ( I couldn't get a mortgage because I didn't have enough income), so I probably won't be able to get any mew speakers for a while :)
A very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you, Martin. Thank you for another year of brilliantly made videos! Thanks to you I now own an S.M.S.L RAW-HA1amplifier, an FX Audio FX3 DAC, an Arylic S10+ streamer and yet another S.M.S.L SU-1 DAC! This has got to stop! I'm a pensioner, you know. How can I afford to keep up with these tempting goodies you parade before me every few days? I hope the guilt doesn't spoil your Christmas. Now where can I get a pair of those great sounding Cambridge Audio speakers?
Why are you looking at passive loudspeakers rather than near field monitors? I use Presonus Eris 4.5 for my computer and they sound amazing are powered so no amp necesary.
I gave myself a little Xmas present too, some used older Chario Hiper 1000 speakers with real wood veneer. Sound great natural detailed, great sound stage.
The better your equipment the more effect single components have in your chain. A good system is more sensitive to changes. I preferred the wharfedale over Dali over Cambridge. Never buy speakers from a company whose main business is electronics. Almost always lacklustre. Especially for Soundstage burn in is important. There is an imbalance in the sound that has to even out. At some point everything will fall into it's place.
Had the Dali Spektor 2 as my desktop speakers for a year. They were great! Could not quite compare to the Kef Q150 (my new desktop speakers) which produced an even greater soundstage for me.
The Oberon 1 is absolutely bloody fab one of my fav spoeakers ever, and way better than the Oberon 2 which is more expensive. I did a demo of the Spector vs the oberon 1 to see if it was worth the extra money, I thought the spector was a little bit more forward, but the Oberon was way more dynamic. The oberon played well in a big room the spector did not it struggled so got the oberon 1 as it suited the space i was gonna put it in better. But i was so surprised how good the specktor was given the money, I thought it was well buit too. Perfect for desktop/small room. Merry Xmas to you and thank you for this year of great vids.
Happy Christmas UTV! I recently went for a pair of JBL A170. Had them for two weeks, not a bad speaker, sound ok and easy to drive. After 2 weeks I put my Wharfedale 12.2 back into the system and the difference in detail was night and day. I returned the JBL’s the next day. I will be sticking with my 12.2, they have pretty much trumped the SX60 from Cambridge too for long listening sessions. To keep within my field I may look at a pair of Elac Debut 3 in the new year although they have been reputed to have a little roll off at the top.
Kind of curious how these compare to the Wharfedale 220 (which I have). Guessing the Wharfies have the edge as they are larger and pretty hard to beat in general. The Dalis will probably improve a bit with time tho, not so impressive in this sound test to me.
18 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา +1
What about Wharfedale 12.1 or Monitor audio bronze 50.
I have Spektor 1's on my desk and I'm VERY happy with the way they sound. Beautiful detail and bass way enough for near field listening. Merry Christmas!
Those woofers are almost the size of the midranges on my LS12 Cerwin Vega three ways--lol Ive tried a few of these little two ways and me having grown up in the old era where most all speakers had midranges, today theyre getting three way money from two way speakers - ALMOST NO ONE makes a three way speaker anymore. Two ways almost always struggle to make clean bass even at easy volume settings without the woofers sounding like theyre bottoming out unless you keep that bass control near to nothing - but my comments arent totally fair cause I was buying stereo gear back in the 70's and 80's when near everything had a midrange - nowadays they take a two way speaker throw in a super tweeter and call it a three way speaker and charge three way money - ugh!
I didn't have headphones to hand but I'll not let that stop me giving an opinion. They sound quite different but I didn't like either which is a pity as I have a hankering for a new pair of desktop loudspeakers and was hoping the Dali's would fit the bill.
I agree, the speakers make a much bigger difference than any other component within the chain. The Spektors beat the Wharfedales by a distance. In the low register they are pretty close, but in the higher registers the Dalis sound crystal clear whereas the Wharfedales are a bit veiled and blurry. I have the Spektors set in my living room, and I use them only for playing classical music, because of their detail retreival. Award-winning speakers for a reason, and a perfect Christmas present...
How about a once a month special for second hand speakers that are still great that your viewers can actually still get, I'll start by suggesting the mission qx2.s open box for around £200 and maybe the last monitor audio radius 90,s for around £100 for desktop and still going for £399 New, merry Christmas from Peterlee
Hi Mart. I’ve had the Spector 2s for about a year and recently I bought the Wharfedale 12.1s. which I much prefer. In fact I also prefer my Diamond 9.1s to them also. I listen just over 3metres away. In my bedroom system I found the Spectors had too much bass for long listening sessions. The Diamonds on the other hand were not fatiguing at all. Sounds like I’m a Wharfedale fan!! I did offer you my Spectors for free but you must have missed that in the comments when you said you were hoping to get them soon.
Hi Marti, Merry Xmas. I have the Spector 2's and I'm 25 hours run time so far. What amp have you used in the test. And what amps based on your experience would be a good fit?
In the test I used the pioneer a-307r and on the desktop I used the SMSL raw-ha1. These speakers seem to work well with most amps. Probably better with amps over 40-50 watts per channel.
The recording of the Dali has woolly bass and recessed midrange. No idea what they actually sound like in person. The Cambridge recording sounds much more neutral/accurate. Even 10 or 20 hours of burn in is nonsense, 10 or 20 minutes maybe, it's your ears that burn in. If you don't like a speaker after one day send it back. What kind of speaker stands are those, they look nice.
Happy Christmas. I've got a pair of dali oberon 7s. Tried Fyne audio 501s. Oberon 5s. Q acoustics. Warfedale diamond 12.3s. The Dali 7s are the absolute dogs. They did take time to wear in. Once they did I was absolutely amazed. When they test these i dont think they run them long enough. I think speakers kind of ease in become kind of more elastic or whatever. Great videos. Thank you
i got those speakers.. not currently in my rotation though.. at moment using my mission m74's and bk gem 2 downstairs and boston acoustic A26 upstairs.. upstairs with technics 900mk2 and downstairs with Arcam Alpha 10... vintage and not quite so vintage.. my sub is in a small room by the way. you dont have to blast it.. but a sub just fills in that low end, even with floorstanders.. in fact you find yourself enjoying music at lower volumes cos yoyu are no longter trying to chase the bass..
As for running in I tried these speakers years ago and 10 hours running is nowhere near enough 🙂 If Dali say 100 hours you should heed their advice. Just leave them on quietly in a spare room if needed. Monitor Audio used to say 150 hours! I found treble sweetens and sound 'fills out' with tighter bass. So give them a chance...👍
I've had the Dali Spektor 2s,for over a year now ,once the had a run in ,they settled down to be sweet sounding little beauties..you'll enjoy them guaranteed ,they don't like bright amps ,but paired with the Yamaha range ..they are a superb listen .🙂
After speakers I’d say your source and source cable / connection (coax vs. optical vs. usb etc), make a big difference. I have a gustard r26 and a WiiM Ultra streamer. I’ve noticed that if I skip the WiiM and use the LAN connection directly on the R26 the sound is much more expensive sounding. USB from WiiM is good but nothing beats LAN connection. I’ve also tried silver interconnects one time and made a big sound difference not to the good…
I love the humour on this channel!
Love the shirt Martin, wishing you and your family the best this holiday season..
Merry Christmas Martin! Thanks for the creative and fun videos you put out!
Thank you very much, hope you have a great Christmas!
I own the dali's for in our bedroom... Got both the blind tests correct. They do get better with a little "Run in" but not 100hrs. Highly recommended from me.
Hey Martin - happy Christmas. Your videos give me so much pleasure, especially when I'm immersed in tedious video editing of my own stuff and need a break! - I know, from experience how time-consuming it all is. One day I will give you a run-down of my gear and I'd love to show you a few videos too. Looking forward to keeping in touch in 2025! Kindest regards - Richard
I always enjoy your reviews! Nice one!
Wharfedale sound sweet and lovely 😊
Dalis have great tonality I thought. I just bought myself some PSB Alpha P3s for near field desktop use. I was so impressed by them I went and bought the larger P5s as well.
Have a great Xmas to you and yours
Love the shirt! I bought my Christmas present yesterday...a new 2 bedroom townhouse using my IRA money ( I couldn't get a mortgage because I didn't have enough income), so I probably won't be able to get any mew speakers for a while :)
A very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you, Martin.
Thank you for another year of brilliantly made videos!
Thanks to you I now own an S.M.S.L RAW-HA1amplifier, an FX Audio FX3 DAC, an Arylic S10+ streamer and yet another S.M.S.L SU-1 DAC!
This has got to stop! I'm a pensioner, you know. How can I afford to keep up with these tempting goodies you parade before me every few days?
I hope the guilt doesn't spoil your Christmas. Now where can I get a pair of those great sounding Cambridge Audio speakers?
Why are you looking at passive loudspeakers rather than near field monitors? I use Presonus Eris 4.5 for my computer and they sound amazing are powered so no amp necesary.
I hope you can test the new Elac Debut 3 models, they seem to have very good reviews and i'm thinking on getting one of them.
Merry Xmas Mart, just watched Die Hard with my brother. It’s not Xmas until Hans Gruber falls from the Nakatomi Plaza
Yippee ki yay!
Peter Lyngdorf did a great job. Dali are some of the most beautiful speakers on the market.
Merry Christmas fella. Prosperous and Peaceful New Year 2025.
Both are nice speakers. But I think you always should use a subwoofer, 8" 100 watts and crossover at 80 hz.
I gave myself a little Xmas present too, some used older Chario Hiper 1000 speakers with real wood veneer. Sound great natural detailed, great sound stage.
The better your equipment the more effect single components have in your chain. A good system is more sensitive to changes. I preferred the wharfedale over Dali over Cambridge. Never buy speakers from a company whose main business is electronics. Almost always lacklustre. Especially for Soundstage burn in is important. There is an imbalance in the sound that has to even out. At some point everything will fall into it's place.
They are different, can't tell wich one I like better. Speakers and the room make most of the sound, is my opinion.
Hi Marti , those are great speakers had very good reviews . Have a great Xmas
Had the Dali Spektor 2 as my desktop speakers for a year. They were great! Could not quite compare to the Kef Q150 (my new desktop speakers) which produced an even greater soundstage for me.
The Oberon 1 is absolutely bloody fab one of my fav spoeakers ever, and way better than the Oberon 2 which is more expensive. I did a demo of the Spector vs the oberon 1 to see if it was worth the extra money, I thought the spector was a little bit more forward, but the Oberon was way more dynamic. The oberon played well in a big room the spector did not it struggled so got the oberon 1 as it suited the space i was gonna put it in better. But i was so surprised how good the specktor was given the money, I thought it was well buit too. Perfect for desktop/small room. Merry Xmas to you and thank you for this year of great vids.
You mean Oberon 3? I have the Oberon 3 and I think they sound fantastic.
Can you test the wharfedale Linton versus Dali spektor 2 with a subwoofer, please. Thanks
B Better. Merry Christmas 🎁
Nice speakers! Merry "Christmas" (not xmas) & Happy New Year!
Happy Christmas UTV! I recently went for a pair of JBL A170. Had them for two weeks, not a bad speaker, sound ok and easy to drive. After 2 weeks I put my Wharfedale 12.2 back into the system and the difference in detail was night and day. I returned the JBL’s the next day. I will be sticking with my 12.2, they have pretty much trumped the SX60 from Cambridge too for long listening sessions. To keep within my field I may look at a pair of Elac Debut 3 in the new year although they have been reputed to have a little roll off at the top.
Kind of curious how these compare to the Wharfedale 220 (which I have). Guessing the Wharfies have the edge as they are larger and pretty hard to beat in general. The Dalis will probably improve a bit with time tho, not so impressive in this sound test to me.
What about Wharfedale 12.1 or Monitor audio bronze 50.
I have Monitor Bronze Audio 50 paired with a Rotel A11 Tribute amp. The sound is impressive.
I have Spektor 1's on my desk and I'm VERY happy with the way they sound. Beautiful detail and bass way enough for near field listening. Merry Christmas!
Those woofers are almost the size of the midranges on my LS12 Cerwin Vega three ways--lol Ive tried a few of these little two ways and me having grown up in the old era where most all speakers had midranges, today theyre getting three way money from two way speakers - ALMOST NO ONE makes a three way speaker anymore. Two ways almost always struggle to make clean bass even at easy volume settings without the woofers sounding like theyre bottoming out unless you keep that bass control near to nothing - but my comments arent totally fair cause I was buying stereo gear back in the 70's and 80's when near everything had a midrange - nowadays they take a two way speaker throw in a super tweeter and call it a three way speaker and charge three way money - ugh!
I didn't have headphones to hand but I'll not let that stop me giving an opinion. They sound quite different but I didn't like either which is a pity as I have a hankering for a new pair of desktop loudspeakers and was hoping the Dali's would fit the bill.
I agree, the speakers make a much bigger difference than any other component within the chain. The Spektors beat the Wharfedales by a distance. In the low register they are pretty close, but in the higher registers the Dalis sound crystal clear whereas the Wharfedales are a bit veiled and blurry. I have the Spektors set in my living room, and I use them only for playing classical music, because of their detail retreival. Award-winning speakers for a reason, and a perfect Christmas present...
Apart from the source and amplification. Garbage in garbage out.
How about a once a month special for second hand speakers that are still great that your viewers can actually still get, I'll start by suggesting the mission qx2.s open box for around £200 and maybe the last monitor audio radius 90,s for around £100 for desktop and still going for £399 New, merry Christmas from Peterlee
Hi Mart. I’ve had the Spector 2s for about a year and recently I bought the Wharfedale 12.1s. which I much prefer. In fact I also prefer my Diamond 9.1s to them also. I listen just over 3metres away. In my bedroom system I found the Spectors had too much bass for long listening sessions. The Diamonds on the other hand were not fatiguing at all. Sounds like I’m a Wharfedale fan!! I did offer you my Spectors for free but you must have missed that in the comments when you said you were hoping to get them soon.
Hi Marti, Merry Xmas. I have the Spector 2's and I'm 25 hours run time so far. What amp have you used in the test. And what amps based on your experience would be a good fit?
In the test I used the pioneer a-307r and on the desktop I used the SMSL raw-ha1. These speakers seem to work well with most amps. Probably better with amps over 40-50 watts per channel.
The recording of the Dali has woolly bass and recessed midrange. No idea what they actually sound like in person. The Cambridge recording sounds much more neutral/accurate. Even 10 or 20 hours of burn in is nonsense, 10 or 20 minutes maybe, it's your ears that burn in. If you don't like a speaker after one day send it back. What kind of speaker stands are those, they look nice.
B sounded better through my Linton's lol
Happy Christmas. I've got a pair of dali oberon 7s. Tried Fyne audio 501s. Oberon 5s. Q acoustics. Warfedale diamond 12.3s. The Dali 7s are the absolute dogs. They did take time to wear in. Once they did I was absolutely amazed. When they test these i dont think they run them long enough. I think speakers kind of ease in become kind of more elastic or whatever. Great videos. Thank you
i got those speakers.. not currently in my rotation though.. at moment using my mission m74's and bk gem 2 downstairs and boston acoustic A26 upstairs.. upstairs with technics 900mk2 and downstairs with Arcam Alpha 10... vintage and not quite so vintage..
my sub is in a small room by the way. you dont have to blast it.. but a sub just fills in that low end, even with floorstanders.. in fact you find yourself enjoying music at lower volumes cos yoyu are no longter trying to chase the bass..
As for running in I tried these speakers years ago and 10 hours running is nowhere near enough 🙂 If Dali say 100 hours you should heed their advice. Just leave them on quietly in a spare room if needed. Monitor Audio used to say 150 hours! I found treble sweetens and sound 'fills out' with tighter bass. So give them a chance...👍
Amp matching is the key. Find your favorite speaker, then find an amp that matches it.
That is terrible advice.
Just dont like the colour of the cone otherwise i would audition them.
I've had the Dali Spektor 2s,for over a year now ,once the had a run in ,they settled down to be sweet sounding little beauties..you'll enjoy them guaranteed ,they don't like bright amps ,but paired with the Yamaha range ..they are a superb listen .🙂
After speakers I’d say your source and source cable / connection (coax vs. optical vs. usb etc), make a big difference. I have a gustard r26 and a WiiM Ultra streamer. I’ve noticed that if I skip the WiiM and use the LAN connection directly on the R26 the sound is much more expensive sounding. USB from WiiM is good but nothing beats LAN connection. I’ve also tried silver interconnects one time and made a big sound difference not to the good…
I've personally never been able to tell the difference between optical, USB and coax.
Can you test the wharfedale Linton versus Dali spektor 2 with a subwoofer, please. Thanks