Want a new speaker setup without filling your living room with black boxes, dangling cables, and enough shelf furniture to open a specialist audio shop? Then Dali’s new speaker might be worthy of your shortlist.
The company’s new Vega premium all-in-one wireless speaker system promises serious Hi-Fi performance from a single enclosure, bringing the fight straight to established rivals like the Naim Mu-so 2, Ruark Audio R410, or Cambridge Audio Evo One.
Like its rivals, the Vega is a real looker, clad in real wood veneer, with anodised aluminium, woven fabric grilles, and a large weighted volume wheel that looks delightfully satisfying in its tactility.
The Vega has reportedly been in development for five years, with Dali researching how people listen to music at home before building it. The result is a system designed to stay switched on permanently rather than feeling like traditional Hi-Fi kit that only gets powered up for “proper listening sessions”.
Inside the real wood veneer and fabric-covered cabinet are ten custom-built drivers, including 25mm soft dome tweeters and back-to-back bass midrange drivers designed to reduce cabinet resonance. Power comes from a 400W amplification setup spread across eight 50W channels.
Dali is also heavily pushing its new Adaptive Stereo Enhancement technology – or ASE for short – which aims to create a much wider soundstage from a single speaker than you’d normally expect. The system dynamically adjusts audio processing in real time depending on the incoming signal, with the goal of making one box sound far larger than it physically is.
Placement flexibility seems to be a huge part of the pitch too. The Vega can sit horizontally on furniture or mount vertically or horizontally on a wall. DALI says its Adaptive Orientation Adjustment system automatically tweaks stereo mapping and tuning depending on how the speaker is positioned, while additional placement settings help optimise performance near walls or in corners.
Streaming is handled via the BluOS platform, bringing support for multi-room playback along with Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, and Bluetooth. You also get HDMI ARC, optical, RCA, USB audio, and a subwoofer output.
There are a few thoughtful touches beyond the audio hardware, too. Five preset buttons offer quick access to favourite playlists or radio stations, while an OLED display automatically rotates depending on the speaker’s orientation.
The Dali Vega launches in September in Dark Oak and Natural Oak finishes, priced at £2599 / $4500 / AU$4499. We’ve yet to try it out for ourselves and are reserving judgement until we do, but from everything we’ve seen so far, our hopes are high.
Read the full article here
