(November 7, 2023) DALI has launched two new products to complement its delicious fleet of audio offerings. First up is a headphone design the company teased at CEDIA 2023. The new closed-back IO-12 joins the IO-4 and IO-6 headphones, both of which debuted in 2019. The far more ambitious IO-12 borrows elements from those models but introduces new electro-acoustics and a driver designed around the company's unique Soft Magnet Compound (SMC) material.
Priced at $1,300 MSRP, the IO-12 gives owners access to wireless performance through aptX Adaptive Bluetooth connectivity and a whopping 35 hours of battery life. Not surprisingly, you can take the IO-12 into noisy environments, like the cabin of an airplane, and engage Active Noise Cancellation for a quiet experience. And for those moments where a wired connection is desired, the IO-12 offers both USB-C and 3.5mm connection points. The onboard driver houses a 50mm diaphragm optimized to provide low loss, low distortion, minimal coloration, and accurate dynamics throughout the entire frequency range. The driver also includes a voice-coil former in the same shape and style as low-profile DALI speaker drivers to improve the structural integrity and lower distortion. Combined with DALI's SMC material to eliminate eddy currents and reduce hysteresis, the overall system is said to be more linear in its presentation.
Additional features include on-ear controls for calls and media, along with two distinct sound modes.
The Oberon Grand Vokal Center Channel resides on the opposite end of portability but offers lots of flexibility with a manageable size (7.9" H x 27.5" W x 12.2" D). It's a 2-way full-range design featuring two 7-inch SMC-based woofers and an oversized, ultra-lightweight 29mm soft dome tweeter. DALI says the speaker is intended to harmonize with its OBERON 5, OBERON 7, and OBERON 9 floorstanding speakers and is perfectly timbre-matched for OBERON 1 and OBERON 3 bookshelf speakers or the OBERON ON WALL used for surround effects.
The Oberon Grand Vokal is currently available and has an MSRP of $1,000.
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