Proof Of Concept Dali is best-known in its home market, Denmark, as the creation of Peter Lyndorf. Dali speakers are not only well-known, they’re also highly respected — so much so that 20% of all speakers sold in Scandinavia are made by Dali. The Concept 10 sits at the top of a range that comprises the Concept 1, 2, 6 and 8, plus a centre-channel and subwoofer. All the speakers have been ‘voiced’ so that should you want a complete home theatre system, you can ‘mix and match’ the different models to suit your room and budget. Unpacking the Concept 10 was a two-person job: these speakers are seriously big! Don’t think for a moment they’ll ‘disappear’ into your décor unless you have an absolutely huge listening room. Nor has Dali tried to hide the size with any graceful curves or rounded corners either: the speakers are unashamedly angular. Think 113cm high, 30cm wide and 42cm deep and you’ll be in the ball-park. Peel the front grille away from the baffle and you’ll immediately see the reason Dali’s Danish designers have made the cabinet so large: they had to! The front baffle sports not only a pair of enormous 254mm bass drivers, but also a 165mm midrange driver and a 25mm soft-dome tweeter in its own semi-horn-loaded sub-assembly. There is yet another reason for the size of the cabinet, but that secret is hidden away inside. It’s that the cabinet is not a single enclosure but three completely separate acoustic spaces. The lower of the two bass drivers sits in one chamber, the upper of the two bass drivers sits in a second chamber, and the midrange driver sits in the third. The two ‘bass chambers’ are ported to gain extra efficiency and low-frequency extension. One port vents forwards through the front baffle; the other vents through the rear panel. The rear vent means you should not push the speakers too close against a rear wall, though a 20cm gap is more than sufficient. The two bass drivers are identical. They’re rated at 254mm, but are actually slightly bigger (268mm), though the important Thiele/Small diameter is only 210mm. The cones are made from plastic-coated air-dried paper pulp for minimum mass, and coloured a rather uninspiring ‘mission brown’. The surround suspensions are made from rubber, not the foam that usually disintegrates in Australia’s harsh climate, while the essential dustcap is inversely contoured, so the cone profile resembles a dish. The frame is stamped from steel and supports a large magnet with a central vent. |