linknet
100+ Head-Fier
Hi,
For me the update with Windows hasn't changed anything for the power switch problem...
Dali Headphones
- Thread starter emba4
- Start date
For me the update with Windows hasn't changed anything for the power switch problem...
The power switch problem is hardware. Not software.
I wrote to Dali and received no response. I have no local dealer. Got mine from Amazon.
I wrote to Dali and received no response. I have no local dealer. Got mine from Amazon.
anli
100+ Head-Fier
Thanks for the clarification! Very, very pity... By-by, my IO-4
bodziokrak
New Head-Fier
Brainwavz XL pads came to me, I advise against all such ideas, I do not know what is the cause, probably padmod, maybe a leak, maybe the sound is escaping backwards, the bass is gone, the sound is distorted. The headphones became very comfortable, but not at this cost.
behemothkat
500+ Head-Fier
Thanks for heads up! I have lack of ideas (I was supposing Socas must test if their padmod works well or not); did you try to compare (on someone’s other head or maybe using some small pillow) how different sound leakage with original pads and with mod+Brainwavz pads?
bodziokrak
New Head-Fier
I tried on a pillow, but it is similar when it comes to what I hear, but the original pads are made more solidly, hard plastic, there are two flanges sticking out around the speaker, and in the case of the extra one, it all escapes somewhere. I have technica mx50bt audio headphones, changed pads to oval leather ones, on many forums they recommend such a change for convenience and the sound does not lose anything. However, in this case, I only change the pad, without interfering with the construction of the headphones themselves. The weak point is definitely the padmod from a 3d printer, that's it.
behemothkat
500+ Head-Fier
I believe only thing you can do is to give your feedback to Socas. I hope they can investigate and improve their mod (and send you replacement after)..
I have no issues with Bluetooth, quite reliable. As for the distance, do you mean 4m of open space or with any obstacles/walls?
As for ANC, it depends on what you compare with. Check my post on that here.
ludaR
New Head-Fier
1 wall, no concrete. Actually the distance between my office and the coffee machine in the kitchen when I wanna quickly grab a coffee mid call
I tried same distance with B&W PX5 and the connection was incredibly stable. The Dali's do perform better than my Samsung galaxy buds.
MatthiasHe
New Head-Fier
I have the same on/off switch issue with my IO-6 from the very first batch (manuf. Sept/19), they are just on their way back to Dali for repair/exchange. Just out of curiosity after you wrote you took yours appart - can you give any hint how to open them with no damage from your experience? I was looking around and found no obvious way how they can be disassembled (visible / hidden screws, latches or anything). Also haven't found any tips on disassembly when searching the internet. Could be handy to know how to open if I run into any out of warranty defects in the future & I am also pretty sure the on/off switch issue would be easy to fix if there only would be a way to access the switch mechanism.
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ChrisGB
100+ Head-Fier
Edited Long post alert!
Having read countless online reviews and all 60 pages of this thread, including the very encouraging input and feedback from a Dali company representative, I decided to order the iO-6 and see how they went. I received them yesterday afternoon. The plan was to charge them up, install latest firmware and put them on an overnight burn in program, just loop a mixture of tracks and let them get on with it. Yeah right. Firmware flashed, I'll just check them out to make sure they fit OK and everything is working. 5 hours later I took them off
The boss reports that they only leak a tiny amount of sound.
So, first impressions are very positive. The feel is one of a quality item and Dali's decision to keep it simple and avoid a buttonfest is right up my street. Out of the box there was a little tightness to the fit, but after 5 hours, they where still comfortable enough to put them back on for another hour when I went to bed. The ear cups are a little small, they just catch the bottom of my earlobes on 53mm ears, but not at all uncomfortable and seal is fine. Sonically, they sounded a bit tight too, but this seemed to quickly diminish after an hour or so. Having used them now for at least 20 hours, the sound seems to have taken on more detail and better extension in the bass end, detail is superb. Connectivity was strong with the phone, earlier on, the phone I was listening from (Oneplus 6T with all EQ disabled), was two walls and a floor away. No drop outs at all.
Edit: I have identified the phone as being the sonic weak link in the setup, these headphones deserve better, so am rerwriting this post with with my views on these now I am listening on a Shanling M6. All source material is from Amazon music HD streamed through the Amazon App and communicated to the headphones ove AptX HD unless otherwise stated.
The control standard is a heavy duty hi-fi with a well matched room. The sonic signature at the listening position is pretty close to flat, just a 3db lift at 24-32Hz that adds weight to proceedings when things go that low, then -6db by 12Hz, but avoiding the corresponding 60Hz 1/4 wave suckout by way of end wall positioning.
The only other relevant reference would be a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania 1. I'll get that comparison out of the way first. The CA Melomania 1 are a good wireless in ear for the money, but being in ears, they are not really comparable in any meaningful terms to the iO6. The Melomania 1 are tuned bass heavy, which worked with my phone but does not work with the Shanling M6, unless you like that sort of thing. The level of detail is good, but absolutely pales next to the Dali product. Given the price difference, this is not surpising.
The overall sonic character of the Dali iO-6 seems to be quite even handed, a little more forward than neutral in the uper mid band perhaps, but never fatiguing or harsh (unless the music is). They sound like they could tend to sibilance, but so far, this has only happened on tracks where that sibilance is in the recording.
Listening notes:
Thinking the 'phones may be given to sibilance, first port of call for listening was Kate Bush: The Dreaming (24bit / 44.1kHz) The opening track: Sat in your lap sounded fast and light on it's feet. Very similar to the reference system in it's handling of the lower registers, it is a lean, lithe recording. The iO-6 push the vocals slightly further forward than I'm used to. The sibilance on Kate's voice in this recording is very slightly more audible than it would be in the ref system, but it's not out of place or uncomfortable. Suspended in gaffa again skips and bounces along. The iO-6 clearly avoids the temptation that many manufacturers fall into, by keeping the bass in proportion to the rest of the recording, there is room for the changes in the power and weight of the lower registers. The mid band detail is pretty similar to that on the ref system. I'm not hearing new things, but some things in the midrangeare are a tiny bit further forward giving a good sense of detail. The only thing that stands out as being lacking next to the ref system is the dynamic impact, the way the differing levels in loudness of the beats that drive the track along, are a little less obvious. This is not a bad reflection on the iO-6 though, more a property of comparing them to a system using a 120W amp to drive 92dB/W speakers.
While we are in the Kate Bush folder, it'd be rude not to try a bit of the Sensual World album (24bit / 44.1kHz) The vocals are generally a lot calmer on this recording. The title track opens in a wide and sumptuous sound, weight but with a delicate touch, the iO-6 convey this perfectly and draw you into the song. Moving on to "Never be mine", Kate's voice is projected beautifully, her exquisitely nuanced vocals handing over to Eberhard Weber's double bass and Trio Bugarka. Sorry, I lose objectivity here, the emotional hit is just too intense for critical listening. But thinking back on the experience, what stands out is the iO-6's ability to convey the subtle shading of the voices. These headphones prove they can do the important thing, get you drawn into the emotion of the piece.
Talking of emotion, lets go a bit less fluffy, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Murder Ballads. A serious change of requirements here, Stagger Lee (16bit / 44.1kHz) stumbles into life and picks up momentum as it rolls along. Caves voice is starkly etched and positively seething with anger throughout this track, it's an excellent performance and the iO-6 convey this really well, Conway Savage's stocatto piano stabs into the mix and the music bursts through with a viscerality that is unsettling. Imaging and resolution are pretty good. Comparing to the refenece system, the track has the ferocity well delivered, but it lacks the intimate holographic imaging that lifts Cave ahead of the music and puts him in a space right in the listeners face.
Moving to something tamer and more synthetic, I think someone mentioned Gorillaz: Dare earlier in the thread. Here, I felt the iO6 seemed to handle the lower registers well. The weight is sort of conveyed, but this is headphone land, so I can't feel my lungs and the furniture vibrating, the ears are well catered for though. I've listened to this track on a top selling pair of noise cancellers and on those, the bass was heavier, no deeper, but the track plodded along a bit by comparison. Bass is not seen to be any deeper on the ref system either, pretty much identical presentation.
Staying synthetic, how about some Orb? The Dream's opening title track (16bit / 44.1kHz) is a swirling mist of details forming itself into cohesive whole as it goes along. Here the very slightly forward nature of the upper mids draws plenty of the details out of the track that float in a big space around the solid foundation of the lower registers. It gets properly outside of your head here. The subtlety of the bottom end is nicely demonstrated in Vuja De, where an odd stab of low frequency in the song that occurs twice is resolved, subtly different each time. Again on Katskills, this subtle treatment of the bass allows it to all thunder along at pace, heavy and spaced out, as it where. What is cleary abundant here and elsewhere, is the detail and texture in the bass, really good resolution that some other headphones in this class miss completely.
Playing Katskills got me thinking about Talvin Singh's OK album 916bit / 44.1kHz). The opening of Traveller swirls around in a huge space before getting drawn into a tumbling decent to the bass area. As the track calms and moves into its second phase, the instrumental textures are finely etched against the moody backing. The opening of Mombasstic shows the extension into the lower registers to be excellent, the textural information and weight all present and correct, but again, we are in headphone land, so you don't get to experience the physical sensations that the opening of this track has on the body, the room, the furniture.
As we have moved east, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mustt Mustt (16bit / 44.1kHz) album springs to mind. Two tracks here are auditioning favourites of mine. Two tracks in particular, Tracery is something ethereal, it should just float like nothing is holding it down and through the iO-6 it really, really does. Fault lines opens with a delicately bent and reverberated string pluck, the nuances of which are often missed by many sound setups. Here, it is all resolved clearly and once we get into the track, again, the voicing of these headphones shows its class when the hefty synth bass is never overplayed, leaving room for the occasional really low frequency events to shine, but never at the expense of the beatifully presented vocals or fine synth details.
We may as well stay east a little longer, moving from the deeply digital, to the all analogue recording and mastering masterpiece, A meeting by the river, by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Ry Cooder (16bit / 44.1kHz) Strange one this, it's the first time I've ever heard it through headphones. Tonally, texturally, pace and nuance, it is all exquisite. However I think it maybe never was considered for headphones. The title track sees Cooder's guitar stay almost completely in my left ear, very little of it making its way into the right side at all. Ganges delta blues sees a little of the guitar's reverberation make it across to the right side, but its slightly odd to see a soundstage this skewed. Placement is very solid throughout though and the precussion is held in pance across the full spectrum, the bass drum being very realistic. Strings have a lovely metallic timbre.
A nice gentle breather for the ears over, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock (16bit / 44.1kHz) springs to mind. After the flood has a curious timing to it and it lilts along nicely with the vocals, which can be easily lost bogged down in the mix, but here they are nicely bought to the fore, just right above muscular, textured but subtle bass and accompanying instrumentation. New Grass floats along in a lovely way, vocals in this difficlut mix are just clear enough without escaping the whole. It is a beautifully rendered piece. This album is an oddly produced thing and to be fair, it is hard to really breathe much space into it. Here, the listening combo unpicks it pretty well, but the hifi rig exposes a deficiet here. It could easily be the player or bluetooth system or headphones holding back the space in this recording back. Not sure, still a lovely thing to listen to though.
Time for more lairy stuff, the treatment of vocals on the Laughing Stock album made me wonder how Massive Attack's Risingson (16bit / 44.1kHz) would present. On the home system, the vocal is projected out of the mix centrally almost inside the listeners face, it is uncanny, the mix swirling around a rock solid vocal. The iO-6 are presenting a similar effect, the vocal placing being ahead above and central of the listener, but not quite as focussed and with a little less of the huge width and depth of soundstage around it.
Alice Coltrane, Journey in Satchidananda (16bit / 44.1kHz) shows these cans to be well suited to the acoustic nature of Jazz. Harp and tampura textures nicely conveyed and the sax having a delicious amount of bite. Double bass sounding like, well a double bass! Again, that light and sophisticated touch in the lower frequencies paying off.
Moving to a simpler, more traditional recording Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet 924bit / 96kHz) shows off another side of these headphones, each instrument held nicely in their place. It's an old recording, but still sounds good through modern equipment. A slice of realism in a generally effect enhanced listening session, I worried that ultra HD uncoding and the iO-6 might throw an unkind level of revealing at this album, but it instead is just really enjoyably making the most of what is there, toe tapping compulsory!
Davis Sylvian is probably my favourite vocalist and these cans render every piece of his I've listened to with an excellent level of vibrancy and intimacy.
So, a bit more listening and more thoughts. First up, I've tried the headphones plugged into a PC via the USB cable, allowing the headphone's on board DAC do its thing. Compared to the smartphone listening experience, the whole performance of these headphones takes a step up. The first thing that is evident is the slight prominence I felt in the upper mids had is much reduced compared to the phone as a front end, but the level of perceived detail increases too. Fine textures are better resolved, soundstage expands significantly and there is a general smoothness and portrayal of fine detail that impresses and also comes much closer to the ref system. Conversely, going from Bluetooth 5.0 / AptxHD to a Bluetooth 4.1 SBC source shows the benefits of the AptXHD, the lesser specified source showing a bit of a loss of fine detail, vibrancy and a smaller less airy soundstage. While on the subject of things connection, latency may well depend on your source. From the two wireless video sources I have tried, I didn't perceive any intrusive lag watching YouTube. The Bluetooth 5.0 / AptXHD setup seemed just a little more immediate perhaps? In view of the sound quality when wired, I was wondering if it was worth investing in a high quality Bluetooth connected media player, so I bought the Shanling M6 which is what I am mainly reviewing them with here.
I have now also tried them wired in passive mode being driven by the Shanling M6 and an Arcam headphone stage. Initially impressive for what appears to be an improved level of dynamicism, sustained listening proves them to sound a little ragged and coarse compared to the AptX HD or USB connected presentation.
Anyway, back to a little more music from the M6 via Bluetooth. A listen to Jon Hassell / Brian Eno: Fourth World Volume 1 Possible Musics shows finely resolved textures in abundance, while Ambient 4 has plenty of space around everything. Staying with Eno's back catalogue, but decidedly not ambient, King's Lead Hat synth solo is as spine tingling as it should be.
Driven by the M6 over Bluetooth these cans also comfortably reveal the sometimes subtle, sometimes not, differences between stream quality. 16bit/44.1kHz is noticably less airy and textured next to all 24bit streams. Spotify, BBC Sounds podcasts etc leave a lot to be desired in critical listening terms. Not a criticism of the headphones, but a demonstration of their resolving power.
I haven't yet had extended listening to much classical music, most of it is on vinyl. Also, ambient and atmospheric, I'll come back tomorrow and report, along with noise cancelling etc. Hope my input has helped someone decide if these headphones are for them.
Active Noise Cancelling: They don't have the spooky ability of Sony WH 1000 XM3, but they do reduce noise. Lower frequency noises are well supressed, I fired up an old and noisy electric fan heater and the headphones completely eliminated the hum and woosh from that. Sitting on the settee with the boss watching TV, the passive noise isolation is very good, ANC adds to the isolation and I found listening at even quite low levels, background intrusion from the TV was inaudible. ANC has a small but definite effect on the overall sound, not keen on it, but it would definitely come in handy with a louder ambient background, train or plane travel for example.
As I said at the start, generally an even handed and revealing treatment of all sorts of music. That I am comparing a relativly low cost DAP and a £350 set of headphones against a system that costs ten or more times what this pairing does and finding very, very little shortfall is impressive. Then there is the apples to oranges nature of such a comparison. No matter how good a headphone, it will never have the physicality of a powerful amp and big speaker setup. The main thing though, is that the music comes through and is very much enjoyed. Nice one Dali.
Having read countless online reviews and all 60 pages of this thread, including the very encouraging input and feedback from a Dali company representative, I decided to order the iO-6 and see how they went. I received them yesterday afternoon. The plan was to charge them up, install latest firmware and put them on an overnight burn in program, just loop a mixture of tracks and let them get on with it. Yeah right. Firmware flashed, I'll just check them out to make sure they fit OK and everything is working. 5 hours later I took them off
The boss reports that they only leak a tiny amount of sound.So, first impressions are very positive. The feel is one of a quality item and Dali's decision to keep it simple and avoid a buttonfest is right up my street. Out of the box there was a little tightness to the fit, but after 5 hours, they where still comfortable enough to put them back on for another hour when I went to bed. The ear cups are a little small, they just catch the bottom of my earlobes on 53mm ears, but not at all uncomfortable and seal is fine. Sonically, they sounded a bit tight too, but this seemed to quickly diminish after an hour or so. Having used them now for at least 20 hours, the sound seems to have taken on more detail and better extension in the bass end, detail is superb. Connectivity was strong with the phone, earlier on, the phone I was listening from (Oneplus 6T with all EQ disabled), was two walls and a floor away. No drop outs at all.
Edit: I have identified the phone as being the sonic weak link in the setup, these headphones deserve better, so am rerwriting this post with with my views on these now I am listening on a Shanling M6. All source material is from Amazon music HD streamed through the Amazon App and communicated to the headphones ove AptX HD unless otherwise stated.
The control standard is a heavy duty hi-fi with a well matched room. The sonic signature at the listening position is pretty close to flat, just a 3db lift at 24-32Hz that adds weight to proceedings when things go that low, then -6db by 12Hz, but avoiding the corresponding 60Hz 1/4 wave suckout by way of end wall positioning.
The only other relevant reference would be a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania 1. I'll get that comparison out of the way first. The CA Melomania 1 are a good wireless in ear for the money, but being in ears, they are not really comparable in any meaningful terms to the iO6. The Melomania 1 are tuned bass heavy, which worked with my phone but does not work with the Shanling M6, unless you like that sort of thing. The level of detail is good, but absolutely pales next to the Dali product. Given the price difference, this is not surpising.
The overall sonic character of the Dali iO-6 seems to be quite even handed, a little more forward than neutral in the uper mid band perhaps, but never fatiguing or harsh (unless the music is). They sound like they could tend to sibilance, but so far, this has only happened on tracks where that sibilance is in the recording.
Listening notes:
Thinking the 'phones may be given to sibilance, first port of call for listening was Kate Bush: The Dreaming (24bit / 44.1kHz) The opening track: Sat in your lap sounded fast and light on it's feet. Very similar to the reference system in it's handling of the lower registers, it is a lean, lithe recording. The iO-6 push the vocals slightly further forward than I'm used to. The sibilance on Kate's voice in this recording is very slightly more audible than it would be in the ref system, but it's not out of place or uncomfortable. Suspended in gaffa again skips and bounces along. The iO-6 clearly avoids the temptation that many manufacturers fall into, by keeping the bass in proportion to the rest of the recording, there is room for the changes in the power and weight of the lower registers. The mid band detail is pretty similar to that on the ref system. I'm not hearing new things, but some things in the midrangeare are a tiny bit further forward giving a good sense of detail. The only thing that stands out as being lacking next to the ref system is the dynamic impact, the way the differing levels in loudness of the beats that drive the track along, are a little less obvious. This is not a bad reflection on the iO-6 though, more a property of comparing them to a system using a 120W amp to drive 92dB/W speakers.
While we are in the Kate Bush folder, it'd be rude not to try a bit of the Sensual World album (24bit / 44.1kHz) The vocals are generally a lot calmer on this recording. The title track opens in a wide and sumptuous sound, weight but with a delicate touch, the iO-6 convey this perfectly and draw you into the song. Moving on to "Never be mine", Kate's voice is projected beautifully, her exquisitely nuanced vocals handing over to Eberhard Weber's double bass and Trio Bugarka. Sorry, I lose objectivity here, the emotional hit is just too intense for critical listening. But thinking back on the experience, what stands out is the iO-6's ability to convey the subtle shading of the voices. These headphones prove they can do the important thing, get you drawn into the emotion of the piece.
Talking of emotion, lets go a bit less fluffy, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Murder Ballads. A serious change of requirements here, Stagger Lee (16bit / 44.1kHz) stumbles into life and picks up momentum as it rolls along. Caves voice is starkly etched and positively seething with anger throughout this track, it's an excellent performance and the iO-6 convey this really well, Conway Savage's stocatto piano stabs into the mix and the music bursts through with a viscerality that is unsettling. Imaging and resolution are pretty good. Comparing to the refenece system, the track has the ferocity well delivered, but it lacks the intimate holographic imaging that lifts Cave ahead of the music and puts him in a space right in the listeners face.
Moving to something tamer and more synthetic, I think someone mentioned Gorillaz: Dare earlier in the thread. Here, I felt the iO6 seemed to handle the lower registers well. The weight is sort of conveyed, but this is headphone land, so I can't feel my lungs and the furniture vibrating, the ears are well catered for though. I've listened to this track on a top selling pair of noise cancellers and on those, the bass was heavier, no deeper, but the track plodded along a bit by comparison. Bass is not seen to be any deeper on the ref system either, pretty much identical presentation.
Staying synthetic, how about some Orb? The Dream's opening title track (16bit / 44.1kHz) is a swirling mist of details forming itself into cohesive whole as it goes along. Here the very slightly forward nature of the upper mids draws plenty of the details out of the track that float in a big space around the solid foundation of the lower registers. It gets properly outside of your head here. The subtlety of the bottom end is nicely demonstrated in Vuja De, where an odd stab of low frequency in the song that occurs twice is resolved, subtly different each time. Again on Katskills, this subtle treatment of the bass allows it to all thunder along at pace, heavy and spaced out, as it where. What is cleary abundant here and elsewhere, is the detail and texture in the bass, really good resolution that some other headphones in this class miss completely.
Playing Katskills got me thinking about Talvin Singh's OK album 916bit / 44.1kHz). The opening of Traveller swirls around in a huge space before getting drawn into a tumbling decent to the bass area. As the track calms and moves into its second phase, the instrumental textures are finely etched against the moody backing. The opening of Mombasstic shows the extension into the lower registers to be excellent, the textural information and weight all present and correct, but again, we are in headphone land, so you don't get to experience the physical sensations that the opening of this track has on the body, the room, the furniture.
As we have moved east, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mustt Mustt (16bit / 44.1kHz) album springs to mind. Two tracks here are auditioning favourites of mine. Two tracks in particular, Tracery is something ethereal, it should just float like nothing is holding it down and through the iO-6 it really, really does. Fault lines opens with a delicately bent and reverberated string pluck, the nuances of which are often missed by many sound setups. Here, it is all resolved clearly and once we get into the track, again, the voicing of these headphones shows its class when the hefty synth bass is never overplayed, leaving room for the occasional really low frequency events to shine, but never at the expense of the beatifully presented vocals or fine synth details.
We may as well stay east a little longer, moving from the deeply digital, to the all analogue recording and mastering masterpiece, A meeting by the river, by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Ry Cooder (16bit / 44.1kHz) Strange one this, it's the first time I've ever heard it through headphones. Tonally, texturally, pace and nuance, it is all exquisite. However I think it maybe never was considered for headphones. The title track sees Cooder's guitar stay almost completely in my left ear, very little of it making its way into the right side at all. Ganges delta blues sees a little of the guitar's reverberation make it across to the right side, but its slightly odd to see a soundstage this skewed. Placement is very solid throughout though and the precussion is held in pance across the full spectrum, the bass drum being very realistic. Strings have a lovely metallic timbre.
A nice gentle breather for the ears over, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock (16bit / 44.1kHz) springs to mind. After the flood has a curious timing to it and it lilts along nicely with the vocals, which can be easily lost bogged down in the mix, but here they are nicely bought to the fore, just right above muscular, textured but subtle bass and accompanying instrumentation. New Grass floats along in a lovely way, vocals in this difficlut mix are just clear enough without escaping the whole. It is a beautifully rendered piece. This album is an oddly produced thing and to be fair, it is hard to really breathe much space into it. Here, the listening combo unpicks it pretty well, but the hifi rig exposes a deficiet here. It could easily be the player or bluetooth system or headphones holding back the space in this recording back. Not sure, still a lovely thing to listen to though.
Time for more lairy stuff, the treatment of vocals on the Laughing Stock album made me wonder how Massive Attack's Risingson (16bit / 44.1kHz) would present. On the home system, the vocal is projected out of the mix centrally almost inside the listeners face, it is uncanny, the mix swirling around a rock solid vocal. The iO-6 are presenting a similar effect, the vocal placing being ahead above and central of the listener, but not quite as focussed and with a little less of the huge width and depth of soundstage around it.
Alice Coltrane, Journey in Satchidananda (16bit / 44.1kHz) shows these cans to be well suited to the acoustic nature of Jazz. Harp and tampura textures nicely conveyed and the sax having a delicious amount of bite. Double bass sounding like, well a double bass! Again, that light and sophisticated touch in the lower frequencies paying off.
Moving to a simpler, more traditional recording Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet 924bit / 96kHz) shows off another side of these headphones, each instrument held nicely in their place. It's an old recording, but still sounds good through modern equipment. A slice of realism in a generally effect enhanced listening session, I worried that ultra HD uncoding and the iO-6 might throw an unkind level of revealing at this album, but it instead is just really enjoyably making the most of what is there, toe tapping compulsory!
Davis Sylvian is probably my favourite vocalist and these cans render every piece of his I've listened to with an excellent level of vibrancy and intimacy.
So, a bit more listening and more thoughts. First up, I've tried the headphones plugged into a PC via the USB cable, allowing the headphone's on board DAC do its thing. Compared to the smartphone listening experience, the whole performance of these headphones takes a step up. The first thing that is evident is the slight prominence I felt in the upper mids had is much reduced compared to the phone as a front end, but the level of perceived detail increases too. Fine textures are better resolved, soundstage expands significantly and there is a general smoothness and portrayal of fine detail that impresses and also comes much closer to the ref system. Conversely, going from Bluetooth 5.0 / AptxHD to a Bluetooth 4.1 SBC source shows the benefits of the AptXHD, the lesser specified source showing a bit of a loss of fine detail, vibrancy and a smaller less airy soundstage. While on the subject of things connection, latency may well depend on your source. From the two wireless video sources I have tried, I didn't perceive any intrusive lag watching YouTube. The Bluetooth 5.0 / AptXHD setup seemed just a little more immediate perhaps? In view of the sound quality when wired, I was wondering if it was worth investing in a high quality Bluetooth connected media player, so I bought the Shanling M6 which is what I am mainly reviewing them with here.
I have now also tried them wired in passive mode being driven by the Shanling M6 and an Arcam headphone stage. Initially impressive for what appears to be an improved level of dynamicism, sustained listening proves them to sound a little ragged and coarse compared to the AptX HD or USB connected presentation.
Anyway, back to a little more music from the M6 via Bluetooth. A listen to Jon Hassell / Brian Eno: Fourth World Volume 1 Possible Musics shows finely resolved textures in abundance, while Ambient 4 has plenty of space around everything. Staying with Eno's back catalogue, but decidedly not ambient, King's Lead Hat synth solo is as spine tingling as it should be.
Driven by the M6 over Bluetooth these cans also comfortably reveal the sometimes subtle, sometimes not, differences between stream quality. 16bit/44.1kHz is noticably less airy and textured next to all 24bit streams. Spotify, BBC Sounds podcasts etc leave a lot to be desired in critical listening terms. Not a criticism of the headphones, but a demonstration of their resolving power.
I haven't yet had extended listening to much classical music, most of it is on vinyl. Also, ambient and atmospheric, I'll come back tomorrow and report, along with noise cancelling etc. Hope my input has helped someone decide if these headphones are for them.
Active Noise Cancelling: They don't have the spooky ability of Sony WH 1000 XM3, but they do reduce noise. Lower frequency noises are well supressed, I fired up an old and noisy electric fan heater and the headphones completely eliminated the hum and woosh from that. Sitting on the settee with the boss watching TV, the passive noise isolation is very good, ANC adds to the isolation and I found listening at even quite low levels, background intrusion from the TV was inaudible. ANC has a small but definite effect on the overall sound, not keen on it, but it would definitely come in handy with a louder ambient background, train or plane travel for example.
As I said at the start, generally an even handed and revealing treatment of all sorts of music. That I am comparing a relativly low cost DAP and a £350 set of headphones against a system that costs ten or more times what this pairing does and finding very, very little shortfall is impressive. Then there is the apples to oranges nature of such a comparison. No matter how good a headphone, it will never have the physicality of a powerful amp and big speaker setup. The main thing though, is that the music comes through and is very much enjoyed. Nice one Dali.
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I enjoyed them a lot with my Meizu dongle at work, but wirelessly they're tuned in-house and they sounded real nice. On a side note, these don't just depend on the source files when wired, I believe you might also have to research a bit to find the best wired sinergy: with my Modi 3/Magni 3 they sounded way too crammed and a bit boomy, imo less enjoyable than wireless or the somewhat shy Meizu dongle.
ChrisGB
100+ Head-Fier
The more I think about it, the more I see the phone as being the weak link in the testing. I'm looking into a half decent DAP to try out with bluetooth.
Edit: I've now got the Shanling M6 and the DAP and headphones suit each other beautifully over AptX HD.
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ChrisGB
100+ Head-Fier
Go to the Dali Website iO-6 page, click on downloads and go to firmware update. Link downloads instructions, firmware updater, file and release notes.
https://www.dali-speakers.com/headphones/io-6/
https://www.dali-speakers.com/headphones/io-6/
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