Dali Oberon 5
FOR Entertaining presentation; expressive dynamics AGAINST Tough competition
If you’re looking for the best subthousand pound floorstander, you now have a choice. That’s something we have lacked for much of the past decade, where the answer has been almost boringly predictable – the current generation Q Acoustics floorstander.
In Q Acoustics’ current range, that’s the 3050is. These are well built, beautifully balanced speakers that have vanquished every rival to stand in their way. But that stops now. In the Oberon 5, Dali has delivered a brilliant alternative, one that might even be a better buy – despite a £50 price premium and substantial size deficit.
Works like magic
There are no magic ingredients here, no cutting-edge technology to explain the Oberon 5s’ unusually talented nature. Just careful engineering and steady refinements of design ideas that Dali has pursued across its ranges for years, but in this case honed to get the best performance at this price. The Oberon 5s are compact two-way towers, standing just 83cm high and just over 16cm wide. The compact dimensions mean they will look right at home in most rooms, never dominating visually in the way the larger 3050is can. The MDF cabinet is nicely made and there are four finish options: black ash, white, dark walnut, or light oak.
There are a pair of 13cm mid/bass drivers and a larger-than-usual 29mm soft-dome tweeter. The mid/bass drivers use the company’s favoured wood fibre/ fine-grain paper-pulp cone, which is claimed to deliver the drive-unit holy grail of high rigidity with low resonance. Here, too, the engineers have worked hard on the motor system and suspension set-up to optimise detail, transparency and dynamics.
Go figure
The three drive units are linked through a single-wired two-way crossover, resulting in a sensitivity of 88db/w/m and nominal impedance of 6 ohms. These figures are fairly typical and shouldn’t present any issues for any good, price comparable amplifier.
Like most Dalis we’ve tried, these speakers don’t have a fussy nature. When it comes to positioning, the 5s like to be a little away from the back wall and firing straight ahead, rather than angled towards the listening position. The tweeter’s dispersion characteristics mean that the speakers will still produce a focused and layered soundstage when positioned this way.
As for partnering electronics, you’ll get out what you put in. The Oberons will sound perfectly acceptable with good budget electronics such as Marantz’s PM6006UK amplifier and partnering CD player, but feed them with something more ambitious, such as Rega’s Elex-r £950 amplifier or even Moon’s 240i £1990 and, say, a Cyrus CD i, and they will shine accordingly.
Making fun
Once given a few days to settle, these Dalis are terrific performers. They’re responsive, musical but, most of all, fun. We start with Radiohead’s In Rainbows and the Dalis sound right at home among the complex rhythms and dense production. But they bring out the emotion too, highlighting the haunting nature of Videotape or the uplifting change of gear in the instrumental break of 15 Step, where the shift in basslinecharacter changes the feel of the track. The Oberons have the dynamic subtlety, rhythmic precision and sheer musical transparency to make the most of such things and pull the listener into the musical experience.
They’re detailed too, revealing low-level instrumental strands with ease, but also managing to arrange all that information in a composed and organised way. The leading edges of notes are well defined, but not highlighted unnaturally. The sound simply flows in an organic and convincing manner.
Dali speakers are rarely shy when it comes to treble output. The brand doesn’t tend to play safe by dialing back treble in a bid to improve refinement.
“There are no magic ingredients here, no cutting-edge tech to explain the Oberon 5s’ talented nature. Just careful engineering and refinements to get the best performance at this price”
Instead, these speakers have a crisp highfrequency output with plenty of bite, but a smooth enough response to avoid sounding brittle with less than perfect recordings or poor partnering equipment.
This bold but still balanced treble output blends seamlessly with the speakers’ expressive midrange performance. The Oberons sound great with voices, squeezing the last drop of emotional impact from Nina Simone’s heart-breaking Strange Fruit. We move onto Prokofiev’s Romeo And
Juliet where the Dalis show-off their fine dynamic reach and ability to render lowlevel shifts with skill. They will play loud enough for most situations and in all but the largest of domestic settings. Despite being compact, those twin mid/bass drivers still deliver plenty in the way of low-frequency punch and authority.
Overall, these speakers manage to sound notably larger than they are. The Q Acoustics 3050is dig even deeper into the bass, but lack the expressiveness of these Dalis, particularly through the mid and higher frequencies.
Having an increased choice at this end of the market is a novel experience, and the ability to choose between the Q Acoustics 3050is and Dali Oberon really makes this a win-win situation. Both are superb. If you have a large room, the Q Acoustics edge it, while in most other circumstances the Dalis’ greater sense of fun gets our vote.