Inside Track: Enjoying the Atmos with DALI

Steve May visits this Danish loudspeaker giant's ear-bending listening room to sample some serious cinema sound…
Danish speaker specialist DALI likes to do things differently. Imagine eight subwoofers aimed at your head, with the volume set to stun. That can't possibly sound good, right? But it does, and then some! Just when I think I've heard all there is to hear when it comes to home cinema design, along comes something to make me question my life choices…
On a recent visit to the company's headquarters in Nørager, Denmark, I got to spend some time in its impressive home theatre demo room, a playground for its growing Custom Install loudspeaker range. This isn't a cookie-cutter home cinema space. "It's a little bit of an experiment," I was told. Joining the usual front speaker array comprising left, centre, and right enclosures, DALI has built a wall of subwoofers directed squarely at the audience. They are hidden from view by the projection screen, which is acoustically transparent by the way.
When it comes to deploying subwoofers in home cinema, the common wisdom is that two are better than one, and even more are better still, but placement can be painstaking, so you don't want to overdo things. Yet DALI, looking to create the most visceral home theatre experience imaginable, has simply erected a wall of eight Phantom S-100s with the singular purpose of hammering you into your seat and bludgeoning any standing waves into submission.
All eight subs take a single LFE feed from the resident AV controller, a 12-channel Lyngdorf MP-40. With their ultra-slim profile, they sport a 10-inch driver and retail for £1,499 each. The set-up is mad but brilliant, and within minutes of my first demonstration, I wondered how I could replicate such mayhem in my own theatre space.
The layout is designated as a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos configuration. Flagship Phantom S-280 in-wall speakers are used for left, centre and right speaker duties. These feature twin 8-inch woofers, two passive 10-inch radiators, and a rotatable hybrid tweeter module. "We take what we think we can use from the hi-fi world and bring it to home cinema", I was told. Hence, the same drivers and SMC technologies are found in the brand's hi-fi-specific models. The clever thing is that while the S-280s sound like stonking floorstanders, they're impossibly shallow – unlike the price, that is, as they retail for £3,999 apiece.
The depth of the S-series enclosures is actually just 10cm, chosen to fit within the studwork popular with house builders in the US. Designed to be hidden from view, they're entirely predicated on performance. Helpfully, they can also be wall-mounted, using a bespoke frame, which is useful not least because home cinemas in Europe tend to be built in garages and basements, where at least one wall will be concrete or brick.
For downward-firing, in-ceiling audio, DALI has deployed its Phantom K-Series models. These come in two sizes. The K-60 has a 6.5-inch woofer, while the Phantom K80 has an 8-inch woofer. Both sport a directional soft dome tweeter, which allows you to target seating positions. They're priced at £399 and £499 respectively. Completing the layout are speakers to each side, and as well as rear left and rear right. Projection duties here are handled by an Epson 3LCD.
SOUND AND VISION
The cumulative experience of this spectacular system was thrillingly visceral. Artfully calibrated, it delivers more grand slams than Novac Djokovic. Detail is crisp, the body of audio full and textured. Bass is obviously deep and profound, yet transient delivery is tight and fast. Oblivion, the Tom Cruise sci-fi action film, shows just how exciting this system can sound. The movie features the great man himself surviving on a future Earth, where he's pursued by drones created by the invading TET alien race. The honking sound design of these flying spheres is quite extraordinary, and when played loud, it always makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand attention.
Interestingly, DALI has set the subwoofer crossover here at 90Hz. By way of comparison, a THX system would crossover around 80Hz. This is supposedly to remove a little stress from the main L/C/R speakers. Ingenious Lyngdorf DSP is used extensively to manage EQ and phase coherence. Panning and sound steerage prove to be completely seamless. Objects travel every which way, effortlessly depicting movement.
Providing the muscle is a stack of DALI amplification produced in collaboration with fellow Danes, Pascal Audio. Every channel benefits from 500W of Class D, which is a lot of power to pressurise a relatively small space. The ambience this system can muster is brought home by Blade Runner 2049 during the Vegas sequence. The reverb used to create the sense of space within the nightclub is perfectly recreated by the DALI array, while the weapon fire is jarring and dramatic.
Of course, great immersive audio doesn't have to be about Dolby Atmos. Nigel Standford's Cymatics track, a 7.1 mix from the DTS demo disc 2016, is every bit as involving. I'd specify this system for myself in a heartbeat. Of course, the curious fact is that most high-end home cinema buyers don't actually choose their own kit. Instead, they leave it to specialist types who build their dedicated home cinemas. For these professionals, practical concerns often take precedence over performance, whether they're dealing with new builds or retrofitting old living room spaces.
DALI hopes to change all that. It certainly has the performance to win them over. As for me, I'm off to rearrange my home theatre room so I can play subwoofer Jenga. What could possibly go wrong?
Visit DALI for more information

Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
Posted in: Home Theatre
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