DALI Oberon Vokal Center Speaker Review

[MZKM]

Reserved

 

[staticV3]

I’m sure I am not the only one who has noticed the trend of recommending speakers and headphones but only with EQ. I think this is a bit misleading because probably most people don’t use EQ.

The majority of people on ASR uses EQ:

Poll: do you use EQ/DSP, and if so what kind of system is it used on.

This is a question generated from another thread on this forum, and on that thread, it was implied that the majority of users here implement some type of equalization in their systems. For me the answer is no. It has been years since I moved off a desktop system foobar & EQ, to an AVR...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[pierre]

Can this speaker do a better job with an EQ?

Score is 3.2 which is not too bad for a small MTM. With an EQ it goes up to 5.7.
If you add a large subwoofer, the score would be 5.8 and with both EQ and Sub 7.7

The EQ is adding some bass and trying to flatten the PIR as expected.

EQ for Dali Oberon Vokal computed from ASR data
Preference Score 3.18 with EQ 5.73
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.26
Dated: 2023-12-21-13:06:31

Preamp: -3.0 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc    51 Hz Gain +3.00 dB Q 0.57
Filter  2: ON PK Fc   579 Hz Gain +2.98 dB Q 2.85
Filter  3: ON PK Fc   739 Hz Gain -1.70 dB Q 2.96
Filter  4: ON PK Fc  2862 Hz Gain +2.95 dB Q 2.99
Filter  5: ON PK Fc  3650 Hz Gain +1.79 dB Q 2.46
Filter  6: ON PK Fc  6818 Hz Gain -3.18 dB Q 0.33
Filter  7: ON PK Fc 12301 Hz Gain +1.86 dB Q 2.64

 

[DJBonoBobo]

View attachment 335930
That sad face

Also AFAIK somewhat brigh sound is a tailored feature of the brand

 

[AaronJ]

The majority of people on ASR uses EQ:

Poll: do you use EQ/DSP, and if so what kind of system is it used on.

This is a question generated from another thread on this forum, and on that thread, it was implied that the majority of users here implement some type of equalization in their systems. For me the answer is no. It has been years since I moved off a desktop system foobar & EQ, to an AVR...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The majority of people who responded to that poll use EQ but I sincerely doubt it applies to the majority of all people who visit ASR.

 

[GambaKufu]

The majority of people who responded to that poll use EQ but I sincerely doubt it applies to the majority of all people who visit ASR.

I'd be very surprised if the majority of people using an AVR didn't use some kind of EQ, the receiver is pretty insistent on it on initial setup. Hifi is likely a different story.

 

[Vacceo]

I found 21 passive center channel speakers that were announced in 2023. Link to my thread.

Most of those are MTM centers, which just goes to show what speaker manufacturers are making these days!

Of those, the center channels that are not MTM, of most interest are:

Manufacturer	Model	Price USD	Design	Type	Woofer Size	Midrange Size	Mfg
Kef	R2 Meta	1.4k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 5.25"	5"	Link
Kef	R6 Meta	2k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 6.5"	5"	Link
Philharmonic	HT Center	1.2k/each	3-way	center	Dual 6.5"	4"	Link

Excluding overpriced 3-ways...

I would like to see any of these centers measured!

You can include the Perlisten centers, both R and S. They are not MTM (strictly speaking at least) either.

 

[TuteTibiImperes]

I found 21 passive center channel speakers that were announced in 2023. Link to my thread.

Most of those are MTM centers, which just goes to show what speaker manufacturers are making these days!

Of those, the center channels that are not MTM, of most interest are:

Manufacturer	Model	Price USD	Design	Type	Woofer Size	Midrange Size	Mfg
Kef	R2 Meta	1.4k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 5.25"	5"	Link
Kef	R6 Meta	2k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 6.5"	5"	Link
Philharmonic	HT Center	1.2k/each	3-way	center	Dual 6.5"	4"	Link

Excluding overpriced 3-ways...

I would like to see any of these centers measured!

Martin Logan uses an MTM with their new MotionXT C100, but it’s interesting in that it’s a 2.5 way design to avoid comb filtering, I’d be interested in seeing how that works out in measurements.

 

[Vacceo]

There is an active version of this speaker. It would be quite cool to compare to the passive version to see what has been changed.

 

[AVKS]

I’m sure I am not the only one who has noticed the trend of recommending speakers and headphones but only with EQ. I think this is a bit misleading because probably most people don’t use EQ. Perhaps it might be better to not recommend a product based on the measurements, but summarize that it took well to EQ? People can then look back to the review for the specifics.

Such recommendations have been made for many years, and the natural corollary of the caveat is that it is not recommended without EQ. Not sure where the issue lies.

 

[NTK]

The majority of people who responded to that poll use EQ but I sincerely doubt it applies to the majority of all people who visit ASR.

I therefore hope part of the education the "majority" people learn here at ASR is to learn how to apply EQ (and tone control). More importantly, IMHO, is to encourage gear manufacturers to put the functionality into their devices, like what Wiim is doing.

 

[dzerig]

I debated not doing it but ultimately sitting on-axis from this speaker, it really sounds good with that bit of EQ.

Well I was impressed the review allowed subjective impressions to weigh in. I find subjective impressions very useful so long as the reviewer is consistent in their biases.

 

[Dalprad]

Thanks to the sender member and Amir.
I am surprised to see good results from inexpensive model range. It is lowest model in range, if I remember correctly.
Can we extrapolate these results to Oberon bookshelves and floorstanding ones?

I have the Oberon 1 bookshelves and they are a bit bright. I like the intelligibility of lyrics and vocals that comes along with that, but on some music it's a little much. Overall I like them. I also own the Revel M 106, which are NOT bright, but have a very nice sound across the whole frequency range.

 

[rynberg]

I found 21 passive center channel speakers that were announced in 2023. Link to my thread.

Most of those are MTM centers, which just goes to show what speaker manufacturers are making these days!

Of those, the center channels that are not MTM, of most interest are:

Manufacturer	Model	Price USD	Design	Type	Woofer Size	Midrange Size	Mfg
Kef	R2 Meta	1.4k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 5.25"	5"	Link
Kef	R6 Meta	2k/each	3-way coaxial	center	Dual 6.5"	5"	Link
Philharmonic	HT Center	1.2k/each	3-way	center	Dual 6.5"	4"	Link

Excluding overpriced 3-ways...

I would like to see any of these centers measured!

Erin has measured the R2c (not Meta)...it's a bit meh. https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/kef_r2c/

 

[sweetchaos]

Erin has measured the R2c (not Meta)...it's a bit meh. https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/kef_r2c/

Let’s compare the Kef vs Dali then:

Dali Oberon Vokal:

• Directivity
  • Horizontal directivity is (-20.0°, 20.0°) between 1kHz and 10kHz. Angle computed for +/-6dB.
  • Vertical directivity is (-40.0°, 50.0°) between 1kHz and 10kHz. Angle computed for +/-6dB.

Kef R2C:

• Directivity
  • Horizontal directivity is (-50.0°, 50.0°) between 1kHz and 10kHz. Angle computed for +/-6dB.
  • Vertical directivity is (-50.0°, 50.0°) between 1kHz and 10kHz. Angle computed for +/-6dB.

Which is better for a center channel?
Ignoring price of course.

 

[Brab]

I believe centre speakers are primarily for dialogue. Would the treble brightness you refer to aid speech intelligibility and be deliberate?

 

[amirm]

I believe centre speakers are primarily for dialogue. Would the treble brightness you refer to aid speech intelligibility and be deliberate?

Not for home theater. The center anchors the sound to the screen so gets everything pushed into it including effects. As such, it needs to be even more capable than left and right.

 

[Robbo99999]

I just can't really get by the fact that MTM creates such poor horizontal directivity. I think other types of speaker would be better suited to a centre channel.

 

[MarcT]

Nice! I've got a bug to buy a set of Dali Oberon 9 because I'm a sucker for big floor standers, so can somebody send Amir a set to measure?

 

[amirm]

I just can't really get by the fact that MTM creates such poor horizontal directivity. I think other types of speaker would be better suited to a centre channel.

Needs to be three-way which raises costs in this category that is very cost sensitive.