Advice on system upgrade ( or downgrade ? ). Dali vs KEF

[Soulone]

Hi,

I currently have a pair of Dali Oberon 7 speakers in a room approximately 28 sqm (4m x 7m), with the speakers placed along the longer side. Previously, I owned a pair of Phonar Veritas M3 bookshelf speakers.

I also have a subwoofer (XTZ 12.17 Edge) dedicated solely to movies.

While I’m generally satisfied with the sound, I can’t help but wonder if I enjoyed the music a bit more with the Phonar bookshelf speakers. These thoughts are purely subjective, of course.

I chose the Oberon 7 over the 5 because I felt the bass on the Oberon 5 was too weak when I auditioned them in-store (although the room there was significantly larger).

Now, I find myself considering an upgrade—though I don't necessarily feel the need to, as the Dali speakers are only 5 years old.

I've been contemplating two options:

1. KEF R3 Meta – Returning to bookshelf speakers, since towers might not be necessary for my room size. I sit about 3.5 meters away from the speakers.
2. KEF Q7 Meta

Both stereo and movies running with Dirac eq. Also, due to the room specs, speakers need to be placed quite close to the wall....

Thoughts ? And again, is not that I dislike the Dalis, just wondering if the change would make any sense...

Thanks!

 

[AnalogSteph]

The Oberon 7's specs say it's a 2-way (not 2.5-way) with two stacked 7" woofers, is that actually correct? If so, its vertical directivity would stink, even with the relatively low XO at 2.3 kHz. The horizontal dispersion matching between the woofers and tweeter wouldn't be super great either but probably still decent enough as XO remains decently low for that (think Elac DBR-62 or thereabouts). I'm not exactly impressed.

I sit about 3.5 meters away from the speakers.

That's a fair distance to be honest. You should be very concerned with even dispersion, and it doesn't need to be wide either, perhaps quite the contrary.

The Q7 Meta looks like it would be a good start. It's reasonably big, and at 440 Hz the crossover to the two 6.5" woofers is going to be a lot less of an issue than for the Dali. That being said, the R3 Meta is no slouch, has smooth ER and sound power indicating good performance in diffuse field, would lend itself well to placement near the wall with its shelved bass and I would expect better build and crosover parts quality. It should still beat the 2-way Phonar any day of the week.

Also, due to the room specs, speakers need to be placed quite close to the wall....

That's not actually a problem since you have room EQ. If anything, it would improve bass level handling.

How far away are you sitting from the wall on the other side?

 

[Soulone]

How far away are you sitting from the wall on the other side?

First of all, thanks for your feedback!!!

From the side wall I'm about 2-2,2m...