[streetbeat]

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports Bluetooth codec:
aptX HD - HD button needs to be activated
LDAC
Samsung Seamless Codec
and many more good technologies of the future, for example Wi‑Fi 7 or Galaxy AI.

I had serious intentions of buying the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the technologys implemented in the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra won.

Thanks, mate! I assume that aptX HD activation is done from developers menu, correct? Now I have hard times accepting the price tag I also potentially like Sony Xperia 1 V, but as a long-time Samsung user not sure if Sony eco-system would fit me. Anyway, thanks for insights

 

[polymathic]

iPhone 8 Plus (Audio Codec AAC) - dynamic sound. Not suitable for critical listening.

The AAC quality gets better with every iPhone iteration. There is quite a difference between my old iPhone 7 and my iPhone 15 Pro. I can't really tell a difference between AptxHD on my Pixel and AAC on my iPhone 15 Pro.

 

[Dalmonegrig]

I assume that aptX HD activation is done from developers menu, correct?

You encouraged me to double-check the information.
Most likely, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra does not support Bluetooth codec aptX HD. I was confused by the HD activation button in the Bluetooth developer options.
When playing a 24 bits/96 kHz track on the Dali iO-12, we get 16 bits/44.1 kHz, which corresponds to Bluetooth codec aptX. We transmit the same track via Bluetooth codec LDAC to the Sony WF-1000XM5 and get 24 bits/96 kHz in the Bluetooth developer parameters.
It's a shame that Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn't support Bluetooth codec aptX HD, it does support Bluetooth codec aptX.
I will correct the information so as not to mislead people.

 

[WDitters]

It's a shame that Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn't support Bluetooth codec aptX HD, it does support Bluetooth codec aptX.
I will correct the information so as not to mislead people.

Samsung has never supported APTX-HD in any of their smartphones. Only in custom ROMS from XDA-Developers there have been mods in the past that would allow for APTX-HD support to be unofficially added (and only in Qualcomm-based models)

 

[flippant1]

They are beautiful looking.

Also, just want to thank you and others here for your detailed posts which helped me make an informed decision when buying these headphones and the ML 5909 previously.

I am about to pull the trigger on the Dali IO-12. Sound is everything—almost. I am wondering if the Mark Levinson may be more comfortable. The huge earpads look like they may be too warm to wear for more than 30 minutes. Having both—which do you prefer?

 

[musingclouds]

I am about to pull the trigger on the Dali IO-12. Sound is everything—almost. I am wondering if the Mark Levinson may be more comfortable. The huge earpads look like they may be too warm to wear for more than 30 minutes. Having both—which do you prefer?

I tried the MLs and the Dalis. MLs are very comfortable, but if sound is everything and comfort is 1b, then the Dalis will be good. I also shied away from the 5909s due to poor after sale battery support via forum comments

 

[polymathic]

I am about to pull the trigger on the Dali IO-12. Sound is everything—almost. I am wondering if the Mark Levinson may be more comfortable. The huge earpads look like they may be too warm to wear for more than 30 minutes. Having both—which do you prefer?

I have both, and they both are very comfortable. The IO-12 are a little more comfortable than the 5909 for me, with a more secure fit too. No issue with warmth so far, but it's not been hot since I've had them.

 

[musingclouds]

So I tried the Dalis outside on the beach in Bali. As I suspected most over ears will be much too hot outside. Definitely cool weather or indoors only

 

[David67]

I am about to pull the trigger on the Dali IO-12. Sound is everything—almost. I am wondering if the Mark Levinson may be more comfortable. The huge earpads look like they may be too warm to wear for more than 30 minutes. Having both—which do you prefer?

Firstly, I'm a newbie regarding HEADPHONES SQ so take my comments with a pinch of salt ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE ON THIS FORUM. That said, I'm enjoying the DALI IO-12. The treble peaks on the ML 5909 were a problem initially though they seemed to have tamed after 18 months of owning them.

In terms of comfort, I might have a slight preference for the ML 5909 but that's not to imply the Dali's are uncomfortable.

Good review here.

https://the-ear.net/review-hardware/dali-io-12-on-the-move-and-in-the-home/

 

[jthomp72]

I am about to pull the trigger on the Dali IO-12. Sound is everything—almost. I am wondering if the Mark Levinson may be more comfortable. The huge earpads look like they may be too warm to wear for more than 30 minutes. Having both—which do you prefer?

I actually found that the huge earpads on the Dali’s made them quite comfortable on. There’s far less pressure on the headband than other headphones, such as the PX8 or for me personally, the H95’s. Truthfully the Dali’s were the most comfy pair I’ve owned, minus the fact that the weight can be a bit much for very very extended periods of time. Now take this with the grain of salt that I have a large head so

 

[angelom]

I have both, and they both are very comfortable. The IO-12 are a little more comfortable than the 5909 for me, with a more secure fit too. No issue with warmth so far, but it's not been hot since I've had them.

This is exactly the situation for me with the 5909 and iO-12, the iO-12 being a little more comfortable. BUT one aspect that I love about the iO-12 after 4,5 months is that the iO-12 is the only ANC headphone that the moment when I putting on my head I never need adjusting the position of the headphone/earcups later.

About using the iO-12 in more warm temperatures, this is always more a personal aspect for every person. For me, until now, I using the iO-12 with max of 25 degrees celsius for more than 3 hours with not one problem of getting hot or sweating ears. My ears getting little warm, of course, and this is normal, but nothing serious/uncomfortable at all. The heat and sweating, for me, is a BIG problem with the Sony XM3, XM4, Bose QC35, QC35II and AirPods Max after 15-40 minutes (times depending of the model, the more bad being the XM3 even in very more low temperatures).

 

[flippant1]

I recently received the Dali iO-12 and would like to share my experiences with you and look forward to a lively exchange about the headphones. I've already written about the headphones elsewhere, but I'd like to repeat my comments here (thanks @angelom for the tip).

My first impression with these gems: 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.

The next day I 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.

Beeping- I hear occasional beeps on my new IO-12s. It happens when someone passes my Ring doorbell long with the Ring chime, but sometimes it happens without any provocation - any idea why?​

 

[flippant1]

I recently received the Dali iO-12 and would like to share my experiences with you and look forward to a lively exchange about the headphones. I've already written about the headphones elsewhere, but I'd like to repeat my comments here (thanks @angelom for the tip).

My first impression with these gems: 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.

The next day I 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.

Great Bluetooth 5.2 Range with New Dali IO-12. Just Beautiful Sound!
I received them two and a half hours ago, and they haven't left my head. They sound great. I am a Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD-5 user, and the sound quality may not be as good, but it is the same warmish, neutral, fun sound as the Utopia. I love everything about them except my ears get warm, though not warm enough to take these off. Everything is a compromise, but it's a small one. I listen to a lot of Classic Rock and Acoustic Classic Rock, and these were made to order.
I wore them when I went into my basement with my phone in the living room. I went about 40 feet away to the opposite end of the house in an area I can't even reach with Wiffi, and the connection doesn't even crackle. So this is the honeymoon. It never ended with my other gear - a pause when I had a bout with Tinnitus, but I'm back and loving it.
In comparison, my AirPod Maxs lose the wifi connection when I am in another room with a bearing wall between. So, I'm wondering what the best method of burn-in would be. I thought I'd connect the accompanying. My niggling cons to these cans are no autosensing when I take them off, and they can get a little arm over my ears over hours of listening.

 

[angelom]

One more video from Dali with interesting comments about ANC, the controversial decision of NOT having an app, and more.

 

[angelom]

One more video from Dali with interesting comments about ANC, the controversial decision of NOT having an app, and more.

About the comments in the video about ANC and how much strong ANC is necessary, this is making me thinking about the Solitaire T's similar ANC performance of the iO-12's.

The ST's ANC performance is little better than the iO-12's but only because the ST is offering little better passive isolation (but is little less comfortable than the iO-12 for me), this is meaning that both companies deciding not sacrificing much sound quality in ANC mode (both ST and iO-12 have only a little bass boost, but very adequate for still giving very good sound quality, in ANC mode -- this is very different from the big bass boost of the 5909 when in ANC mode, for example).

Is interesting that the Focal Bathys, in difference with the ST and iO-12, don't have the option of ANC Off (ANC is always On either in 'soft' or 'silent' modes in Bathys) like Bose models from last few years that don't having real ANC Off mode, but I think Bose achieving better results than Focal when speaking about some hiss problems that several people reporting with the Bathys) probably resulting from always having ANC On, and in this aspect both the ST and iO-12 doing really VERY good job, maybe better R&D in this aspect (or maybe because both T+A and Dali are using ANC Sony chips and Focal isn't?).