Received mine today and listening to them while I am writing this post. First impression: Bass like the B&O H95, but clarity and stage like ML5909 on Bluetooth HiFi mode. Best of both worlds! I'm very impressed actually.
Dali Headphones
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Reebonz
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Looks like Dali's got a real winner on their hands! How's the ANC?
polymathic
100+ Head-Fier
How is ANC compared to ML 5909?
Hi @polymathic and @Reebonz, I just tested the ANC without music while my girlfriend was driving on a German freeway (kind of a funny test, shout out to her!) with the windows up and radio on. I had the Bose QuietComfort, the ML 5909 and the Dali iO-12 with me and tested them side by side.
The clear winner was the Bose QuietComfort. It did the best job of blocking out the radio and almost all the noise from the road. In second place was the ML 5909, which was quite effective at blocking the lower frequenzies (e.g. road noise), but not as effective as the Bose at blocking radio noise. Last but not least was the Dali iO-12, which was surprisingly... well, ineffective or dare I say bad (?) for the price of 999 Euros. However, the ML 5909 and Bose had their problems with wind getting into the microphone and amplifying it a little in the headphones. Not the Dali iO-12, but maybe it has to do with the angel the wind hitting the integrated microphones.
That said, I don't think the Dali iO-12s are suitable for 'on the go' use. The headphones are quite large and don't sit as firmly on your head as the Bose, ML or B&O. And the extra case is huge, even bigger than the XM5's. And as I said, the ANC is good enough for home use, but I wouldn't personally take them on the train, plane, etc.
As for my personal user experience with the new Dali: I really like the voice feedback, but the little buttons on the side of the earcups still confuse me a bit. I keep pressing the wrong button. However, the large buttons on the flat side (where the Dali logo is lasered in) are really nice. I like the tactile feedback and the small increments to adjust the volume.
The Dali iO-12's transparency mode sounds quite realistic, but your own voices are still muffled. Still not at the level of the AirPods Max.
Having used the iO-12 for about 8 hours now, I have to say that the built-in bass EQ is quite nice, but it does muffle vocals a bit. I am not a hi-fi professional, and we certainly need more opinions on this, but I think you could say that the bass EQ bleeds well into the mids. This isn't bad when you're listening to electronic music without vocals, but I prefer the hi-fi EQ on most of the time. But it is still nice to be able to change the EQ quickly with just the click of a button... and maybe I feel that the mids have too much bass because the sound in hi-fi mode is sooo clear and sooo nice! The dynamics, the sound stage and clearity with fairly deep bass keeps me grabbing to the Dali rather to the ML 5909.
Any questions? Please let me know, I am more than happy to help.
The clear winner was the Bose QuietComfort. It did the best job of blocking out the radio and almost all the noise from the road. In second place was the ML 5909, which was quite effective at blocking the lower frequenzies (e.g. road noise), but not as effective as the Bose at blocking radio noise. Last but not least was the Dali iO-12, which was surprisingly... well, ineffective or dare I say bad (?) for the price of 999 Euros. However, the ML 5909 and Bose had their problems with wind getting into the microphone and amplifying it a little in the headphones. Not the Dali iO-12, but maybe it has to do with the angel the wind hitting the integrated microphones.
That said, I don't think the Dali iO-12s are suitable for 'on the go' use. The headphones are quite large and don't sit as firmly on your head as the Bose, ML or B&O. And the extra case is huge, even bigger than the XM5's. And as I said, the ANC is good enough for home use, but I wouldn't personally take them on the train, plane, etc.
As for my personal user experience with the new Dali: I really like the voice feedback, but the little buttons on the side of the earcups still confuse me a bit. I keep pressing the wrong button. However, the large buttons on the flat side (where the Dali logo is lasered in) are really nice. I like the tactile feedback and the small increments to adjust the volume.
The Dali iO-12's transparency mode sounds quite realistic, but your own voices are still muffled. Still not at the level of the AirPods Max.
Having used the iO-12 for about 8 hours now, I have to say that the built-in bass EQ is quite nice, but it does muffle vocals a bit. I am not a hi-fi professional, and we certainly need more opinions on this, but I think you could say that the bass EQ bleeds well into the mids. This isn't bad when you're listening to electronic music without vocals, but I prefer the hi-fi EQ on most of the time. But it is still nice to be able to change the EQ quickly with just the click of a button... and maybe I feel that the mids have too much bass because the sound in hi-fi mode is sooo clear and sooo nice! The dynamics, the sound stage and clearity with fairly deep bass keeps me grabbing to the Dali rather to the ML 5909.
Any questions? Please let me know, I am more than happy to help.
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angelom
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Hello Fabik,
One suggestion: I think is better if you starting a new Dali iO-12 thread with your first impressions because this is a very different headphone from the iO-4 or iO-6. Then you can posting a link here of the new thread for the people who visiting still this thread. Others people, like me, will posting impressions very soon too, and is better having those impressions in a special thread for this top of the line ANC headphone.
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Hi angelom, Thanks for the tip. This makes sense, I didn't know that.
Please follow the new thread for further discussions about the Dali iO-12: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-dali-io-12-anc-headphones-–-impressions-thread.970380/
Please follow the new thread for further discussions about the Dali iO-12: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-dali-io-12-anc-headphones-–-impressions-thread.970380/
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