Dali Opticon 8

amazon Dali Opticon 8 reviews

Dali Opticon 8 is a pair of loudspeakers that play very well in the large listening room, create deep and powerful bass, and the same sound stage dominates the same price range. Equipped with a 3.5-way frequency division with five drivers, the Opticon 8 inherits the full range of top-of-the-line Epicon technology such as a hybrid tweeter, fiberglass woofer, and SMC linear magnet. That makes the Opticon 8 easy to subdue listeners with rich, low distortion frequency bands, music spaces like the “live” stage.

External design and cabinet structure

The Dali Opticon series was officially introduced around September 2015 with all seven speakers for stereo set-ups and home theater hi-end. Manufactured 100% in Denmark, the Opticon 8 midrange speaker is equipped with two of Dali’s most advanced technologies, the SMC linear magnet, and the hybrid tweeter. Therefore, the experts and the press did not hide the surprise of performance and sound characteristics found only in the much higher product line. To develop the Opticon family with outstanding performances, Dali has to rely on the “in-house” production capacity of almost all its components and research and development laboratories.

The Opticon 8 is the largest loudspeaker design with many differences compared to the rest. The design of the Opticon 8 is slim in Nordic style: simplicity, power, and distinctiveness. The top edge of the concave surface to minimize diffraction and high gloss finish. Optimize the drivers’ operation; the front of the cabinet is made of 25mm MDF and sandwiched with the main walls. Instead of just circular holes and direct drivers on the face, Dali chose more complex machining methods; they used CNC milling machines in the shape of the petals, cutting edges along the drivers. The back of the diaphragm is released quickly. This solution minimizes gas noise in the narrow grooves between the front of the enclosure and the driver’s metal rim. In addition, a cushioned rubber seal helps drivers isolate vibration from the speaker box.

Compared with other designs in the Dali Opticon series, the Opticon 8 enclosure has a special open box construction, which can be considered a standalone module. Inside the Opticon 8 cabinet is divided into three independent modules:

• A woofer module 1 and a hybrid tweeter
• A separate driver hub
• A woofer module 2
• A frequency converter

Thus, with the completely closed-loop hybrid tweeter, almost all of the Opticon 8’s subwoofer units have their own operating space. The isolation of the mid-range enclosure will help the sonic speaker perform a more stable midrange, avoiding disturbing effects from the two woofer speakers and reducing the number of vibration pedals inside the speaker box.

Dali Opticon 8 has two vent holes corresponding to the position of the two woofers; the sides of the enclosure are joined together by a “V” groove, using medium density MDF boards. Most manufacturers choose high-density HDF or MDF to build the enclosure to avoid vibration resonance. However, these materials will “swallow” more energy. Dali’s philosophy is “low loss” – optimal energy input, so they chose MDF with average compression density. Thanks to the internal cavity-independent structure, the Opticon 8 retains a remarkably low level of resonance despite using medium-density MDF material.

Equipped with the highest technology of Dali

The Opticon 8 has the widest range in this series, covering 38-32,000Hz, using 3.5-channel audio with a total of 5 drivers. The Opticon hybrid tweeter family owns the technology inherited from the top Epicon line, combining a ribbon driver and a silk dome tweeter. A 28mm diameter silk dome treadmill serves as the main demonstration, reproducing the range from 2.3-20kHz. This driver has an ultra-thin silk membrane, a large ferrite magnet cluster, a voice coil covered by a layer of a liquid magnetic medium that helps heat and stabilizes the membrane during high-frequency operation. Dali has a ribbon tweeter that operates at 10kHz and optimally in the 14-30kHz range to improve the dynamic range of the sonic field and increase the high gain.

Laminated wood in combination with linear magnet systems is two parallel technologies that Dali equips for high-end midrange woofer and woofers. The Dali Opticon 8 features two 8-inch woofers and a 6.5-inch midrange, all three of which use a combination of paper and wood fibers. Specifically, the substrate is made from extremely thin paper and reinforces the wood fibers on the surface to increase the stability of the diaphragm but retain lightweight. Mass production of this type of speaker Dali has invested in specialized technologies and machines with extremely low tolerances, ensuring maximum matching of one pair of drivers.

To optimize the dynamic range of the woofer driver, Dali uses the special soft magnetic (SMC) magnet technology, which is one of the most optimized magnetic systems in the industry today. The imbalance that is often seen in the displacement of the diaphragmatic membrane comes from the Eddy current. The voice-coil and cathode-core movement produce the Eddy current effect – a magnetic field that acts counter to the voice-coil movement. To eliminate this phenomenon, Dali uses the SMC special material, which is a magnetic conductor but has a resistance that is 10,000 times that of iron, minimizing Eddy current generation, ensure time-optimal accumulation and discharge from the field.

where can you get a Dali Opticon 8 online

Dali Opticon 8 3.5-Way Large Floorstanding Speakers (Pair, Black Ash): Buy it now

Dali Opticon 8 3.5-Way Large Floorstanding Speakers (Pair, Light Walnut): Buy it now

Performance quality

The Dali Opticon 8 is only 1 meter high, but it has an impressive sound stage opening in both horizontal and in-depth. That is one of the best sound reproducing speakers in the current price range. Not only does it produce a wide range, with some good quality recordings, but Opticon 8 can also even split audio layers – nearly impossible to find in the $ 10,000 speaker array. Opticon’s partners are the Moon Evolution 600i integrated amplifier and Moon NEO 260D. With the Dali loudspeaker design, especially the speakers equipped with the hybrid tweeter module, attention is limited to the toe-in. Dali’s philosophy and advantage are to reproduce wide-open sound if abuse of toe-in will inadvertently lose the stage effect with multiple layers.

The first demo of Any Time of Day on the Best of Fourplay album was successfully performed by Opticon 8. These speakers reproduce a wide sound stage, four keyboards, electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums arranged extremely separated. The bass and bass guitar, the keyboards, and the guitar played by Bod James and Lee Ritenour is prominent in the two speakers’ middle. The space and the detail of the recording are also very good, the strings are very sharp, and the mid-bass of the bass guitar is thick and sharp.

With the bass, the same list of records, Opticon 8 made us very satisfied. These speakers show bass with a full, powerful background and create very “analog” softness. The 8-inch woofer is not as fast as expected in terms of dynamics, but it’s clear that their bass reproduction is very addictive, with deep drop-offs mixed in a bit of warmth. With drum tracks and very low frequencies, the Opticon 8 still handles well, creating depth and maintaining a solid sound background. However, in the low passages requiring high dynamics, Opticon 8 can not play as stable as the high-end product line.

Experience The Beat Goes On the record in Patrica Barber’s famous

Companion album, you’ll find remarkable Dali Opticon 8’s space and bass processing capabilities. The nasty contrabass in this track was accurately reproduced by Opticon 8 with splitting and thickening. Particularly the vocal part has very low noise; the sound is very good. Another interesting impression is the audience’s clapping, with sound effects separate from the stage, beyond the listening room.

The superiority of the aperture and the ability to reproduce the low-lying, low-pitched backgrounds helped the Dali Opticon 8 score better than its competitors in the same price range. This pair of Danish loudspeakers is one of the sound supreme that helps players set up a HiFi system with reasonable investment but still shows the color and sound quality of the big stacks.