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Dali Oberon 5 Loudspeaker Review

Dali Oberon 5 Loudspeaker Review

When you’re looking to fall in love, being practical is the last thing on your mind. And so it goes when shopping for a new high-end component. Let’s face it: We all want to be smitten, but then reality enters the picture to remind us that there’s only so much room and so much money. Perhaps this is especially true of loudspeakers, which gobble up space and budgets in the blink of an eye. Enter the musical and, dare I say, practical Dali Oberon 5. It’s got both sides of the equation down pat. 

The Oberon 5 (O5) is the smaller of two floorstanders in Dali’s stereo/cinema Oberon series, and at $1099/pr., is considered the entry level within the sprawling range of Dali offerings. Oberon 5 is a three-driver, two-way system utilizing a 29mm soft-dome tweeter and dual 5.25″ mid/bass drivers. This bass-reflex design is moderately easy to drive at 88dB sensitivity and a 6-ohm nominal impedance. Quality amps in the 50Wpc-and-up range should be able to handle the O5’s demands with relative ease. 

Dali points out that key elements of its fancier Epicon series informed the design of Oberon. Chief among them was the inclusion of the firm’s unique SMC (Soft Magnetic Compound) technology, which uses a patented compound in the pole piece of its bass drivers. The result, says Dali, is an “agile, linear woofer with a significant reduction of distortion from mechanical loss.” Other top-notch features include a Dali signature technology—its wood-fiber cones that provide added rigidity and thus lower distortion in bass frequencies. Cabinets are of a robust MDF construction. Fit and finish is very, very good. Filling out the Oberon lineup are two bookshelf models, plus an on-wall and a center channel for multichannel and movie enthusiasts. 

Unlike large-footprint floorstanding loudspeakers that physically dominate a room, and displace square footage with nary a care in the world, the Oberon 5 is tasked with a pair of critical missions. The first is that it fit a variety of lifestyles, and sensibly integrate into a common room. In this respect, encountering the fetching Oberon 5 for the first time I was struck by how unobtrusive it turned out to be. Visually, the Oberon 5 is about as low impact as a floorstander is going to get. With its narrow front baffle and modest 32″ columnar height, my eye tended to look right past it into the room, the tiny footprint making it an ideal partner in space-challenged environments. Clearly aimed at the tastes of partners and spouses, Oberon is Dali’s first entry-level series to incorporate four premium finishes—black, dark walnut, light oak, and white, plus two fabric grille variations of black and gray.

The second and crucial element in the Oberon’s mission is, of course, performance. Regardless of speaker size there really are no excuses when it comes to sonics. And none are needed for the Oberon 5, which manages to assert itself sonically in ways both natural and authoritative. In general terms, the Oberon 5 struck a satisfyingly warmer tonal balance, offering good extension and well-focused detail. Musically it lit up the room from the first track with good timing and pace. Output was robust and even under pressure never suggested a need for coddling; in fact, most listeners will reach their limits before the O5 calls it quits. Drivers were nicely integrated with one another. Soundstaging and imaging were very good, as you’d expect from the rigid, uncolored Dali enclosures. Port artifacts were minimal, although this was somewhat dependent on output. As you might expect, the Oberon’s short overall height tends to lower the ambient ceiling in the room slightly, so listening height will be a factor. 

The Oberon’s midrange possessed a wealth of timbral cues. There was no confusing the identifying characteristics of orchestral instruments—their personalities were vividly on display. Ultimately color saturation in the lower mids couldn’t quite match the depth and contrast of the real thing (that is, live, unamplified acoustic music). 

To be fair, the Oberon 5 was nothing if not a game performer, but this was where the practical side and the performance side butted heads a bit. It’s just a tough to ask a pair of five-inch drivers to replicate the scale, the power, the resonance, and the sustain of a symphony orchestra at full tilt. But as I said, the O5 sure was game.

 The high frequencies were smooth, although a bit dry and perhaps a tad shaded. In my view the softer extension represented a savvy approach by the Dali team, and one that I consider defensible in a price segment where premium tweeters and elite crossover parts are earmarked for pricier models. This choice is an important one for me. If I’m listening to soprano Renée Fleming, violinist Itzhak Perlman, or trumpet player Lew Soloff, I’d much rather hear a slightly rolled-off top-end that’s smooth and soothing than an overheated, aggressive, and edgy one. In a not-unrelated vein, transient attack was very good. The bow on the violin string, the tick of a guitar pick, the rattle off a snare drum shared a natural sound fully consistent with a live performance.

Singers were reproduced with a pleasing flesh-on-the-bone physicality, and accompanied with lively presence, clean transitions between lower and upper vocal registers, and respectable imaging. Holly Cole’s “Heart of Saturday Night” and Shelby Lynne’s “Just A Little Lovin’” were smoothly and naturally rendered, and comfortably situated in the pocket of the mix, but not to the point that might be considered recessed or lacking in energy. Male vocalists followed suit—Harry Connick, Jr.’s rendition of “Drifting,” a tune that is orchestrated with a halo of strings, evinced a delicacy and low-level intimacy that spoke to the Dali’s transparency. Sensitive listeners, who are fans of bass-baritones (Bryn Terfel, Thomas Quasthoff, or even Tom Waits) will note a reduction of the complete resonant body of the performer and the weight projected from chest and diaphragm. It is, however, a relatively minor deduction and in my experience doesn’t detract from the altogether positive listening experience of the Oberon 5.

Low-frequency response flirted with the 40Hz range, as advertised, and was surprisingly weighty with solid midbass dynamic punch and better than expected pitch definition. Oberon 5 won’t quite venture into the bottom octave or yield the expansive resonance and decay structure of the real thing, but there was enough oomph in the midbass to imply some of that grandeur. Thus, on bass player extraordinaire Renaud Garcia-Fons’ album The Marcevol Concert, I got the basic sense of the full performance envelope of the tight, tuneful bass without feeling short-changed. 

If rock/pop level output is an essential (and why not?), the O5 is prepared to party with the best of them. In spite of its demure looks, it will generate some real dance floor slam and head-banging pressure levels. It is possible to excite the port so that on a catchy dance track like Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” lower-frequency grip loosens and electric bass lines or kick drum or tom-tom figures begin to trail the beat somewhat. However, at more or less reasonable levels the O5 maintains its composure and cleanly delineates every cue, from the pump and drive of a 50Hz synth beat to a bass drum’s impact to the rolling cascade of a row of timpani. 

 I probably don’t need to add that there will be no confusing the O5 for a Wilson WAMM? Okay, that’s $1100 bucks versus $700k plus, but I can recall that only a few short years ago, a speaker like the Oberon 5 would be utterly handcuffed, lacking in midrange dynamic energy and a little bloodless. What was interesting to me was hearing how times and technology have changed—how this short, slender-baffle design produced such dynamic and deeply affecting musicality. Thus, as I listened to Vaughan-Williams’ The Wasps Overture and Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare,” the Oberon launched air into the room with enough output and extension and dynamic thrust to surprise. Quite an achievement I’d say.

Dali loudspeakers have never failed to impress and excite me regardless of configuration or price point. I recall the grandeur of the imposing MegaLine flagship that I heard at REG’s home years ago, or more down-to-earth models like the Rubicon series equipped with its impressive hybrid ribbon/soft-dome tweeter module. It could be, however, that Dali’s most remarkable feat has been stretching the sonic limits in the small floorstander category. In the Oberon 5, I found an economical yet formidable speaker that makes few concessions and permits you to walk the fine line of everyday practicality while still allowing your audiophile heart to lead the way.

Specs & Pricing

 

Type: Two-way, bass-reflex loudspeaker
Drivers: 29mm/1.14″ dome tweeter, two 5.25″ mid/bass
Frequency response: 39Hz–26kHz
Sensitivity: 88dB
Nominal impedance: 6 ohms
Dimensions 6.4″ x 32.7″ x 11.2″ 
Weight: 23.8 lbs.
Price: $1099/pr.

DALI 
Allé 1
9610 Nørager
Denmark
dali-speakers.com

THE LENBROOK GROUP (U.S. Distribution)
633 Granite Court
Pickering, Ontario
Canada, L1W 3K1
(905) 831-6333
lenbrook.com

Tags: DALI

Neil Gader

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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