DALI - SPEKTOR 2 Compact Speakers - Pair - Black Ash

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Stylish and Competent Speakers

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 25 Contributor

  The DALI Spektor 2 is a bookshelf pair that comes in either black ash or dark walnut finish. The set I have are black ash. My setup uses a Yamaha Aventage RX-A750 receiver. I normally run an all Klipsch (Icon W series) setup with towers for my main and bookshelves for front high presence. I also ran these on my other setup with a Yamaha HTR-5063 receiver and Klipsch Quintet speakers. This setup runs surrounds and rear surrounds. Speaker specs: 6.7 W x 9.4 D x 11.5 H 9.26 lbs Main Driver – 5.25” wood fiber OBERON woofer Tweeter – 1” soft domed fabric weave Impedance – 6 Ω Connection – 5-way binding posts Power Handling – 100W RMS Sensitivity – 84.5 db The design of the speakers is pretty understated with the removeable grills in place. The speaker cabinet is a sleek wood grain with a black stain – a pretty standard look for a speaker cabinet. The speaker grill is removeable and is snuggly held in place by pins in each corner. The only thing standing out when the grill is on is the metallic DALI logo at the bottom of the grill. This design allows these speaker to disappear into the background in any room. Now that all changes when the grill is removed. The distinctive brown color of the main woofer sets its apart from any other speaker I own. Combine that with the metallic tweeter cone and it makes for a fairly striking look. The modernist look of these speakers is an aesthetic that I enjoy. I can imagine these speakers looking right at home alongside vintage stereo equipment, tube amps, etc. The speakers come with a keyhole/picture hanger wall bracket, rubber adhesive feet, and speaker binding posts. The backside of the speaker has a couple of indicator dots for where the wall bracket is intended to mount. Using the wall bracket makes the speaker lay flat against the wall. The main driver at 5.25” is almost the full width of the speaker cabinet. Speaker Placement/Configuration DALI recommends placing these speakers at a level even with the listeners ear and evenly spread side to side. The speakers feature a wide dispersion that is supposed to improve off angle listening. The Spektor 2’s can be easily deployed in an almost any position. They can be used as mains in a 2, 3, 5, or 7 channel setup. They can also be deployed as front high presence in 5.1 and 7.1 setups or surround and rear surrounds in the same setups. The only place where these don’t work are as center channel speakers. Between my two setups I was able to run the Spektor 2’s in every position and configuration that I felt suited them. Before I did any setup I had to configure my receivers. I had to switch their speaker impedance from 8 to 6 Ω. This is based on guidance from Yamaha (and likely other receiver MFR’s) to set the speaker impedance to match the lowest speaker impedance. I had to recalibrate my setup with the YPAO mic to correct my other speakers for the lower impedance out on the receiver. I started out by turning my 7.1 to a 2.1 and leaving my towers in place. I listened to this setup for a bit before I swapped the Spektors for the towers. In my receiver config I left the speaker setting as “Large” since the Spektors are supposed to handle a wide frequency range (down to 59Hz). I took my subwoofer offline at the start of this test as well. Running these is in a 2.0 setup I could really get a sense for how they performed. They had excellent low range for their size (frequency range down to 59Hz which is territory large towers and subwoofers usually handle) while still hitting the mids and highs. The soft dome tweeter replayed the high range very accurately and kept up with whatever media I threw at it (movies, music, FPS games, dialog). Mid range was well represented and crisp. It was in this config that I allowed the speakers to break in the for the recommended 4-6 hours, so I didn’t push them super loud. However, at low volumes they maintained a crisp sound along the whole frequency range (i.e. dialog was still very audible at low levels and didn’t drop off). As a 2.0 system the speakers performed better than I expected and would be more than adequate for a small setup – even one servicing a larger room (I had these filling a 350 sqft den with ease). I switched my subwoofer on and rolled these into a 2.1 setup. With this setup I was very impressed. I had to check a couple of times to see if my receiver had switched back to 7.1 because the room was filled with sound. I watched Rogue One and the soundtrack was spectacular. I played Halo MCC and the shots and explosions were right on target and immersive. Honestly, these really shined in a 2.1. They were almost as good as my towers – both in soundstage presence and volume - but had better sound reproduction across the entire range. In short they were excellent. I moved on to a 7.1 setup with these as my mains. Honestly, it was a very similar experience to the 2.1 setup. The full 7.1 gave more immersion and better sound reproduction, but I didn’t feel as though the DALI’s were hidden in the setup. I felt the dialog from movies (in quiet scenes) showed up a little better with these swapped in place of my towers. With music and movie soundtracks the DALI’s really shined. I swapped into another spot of my system – the front high presence. This speaker position exists to lift dialog and give height to your soundstage. Since I was impressed with dialog reproduction in 2.1 and the other 7.1 setup I was excited to try this out - I was not disappointed. Dialog and soundstage lift were excellent and were a noticeable upgrade over my Klipsch WB-14’s. The only thing that my Klipsch had an advantage was positioning flexibility – they are a slightly smally bookshelf speaker with a ¼”-20 threaded insert for mounting. This allowed for easier mounting and I could point them to my listening position. For the DALI’s I could only mount them flat to the wall, so a portion of the sound carried far overhead where it wouldn’t be doing anything for the listener. I bought some speaker mounts from Monoprice (product ID 30829) to use with these speakers, but they haven’t come in yet. They should make it easier to position and pitch the speakers towards the listener. I made one last position change to my other 7.1 setup and placed these in the surround rear position on the back wall of my den. This position is about 15ft from any seating so they are back a ways. My smaller satellites (Klipsch Quintet III) that these replaced always struggled a but with the distance. They sounded good, but the rears were just a bit too far. With the DALI’s in place the rear position got a much needed bump in both power and clarity. Even at 15ft the effect they had was noticeable. I watched 1917 and the added depth to the surrounding noise/chaos of the battlefield was welcome. They filled out the rear soundstage quite well. In this location the DALI’s keyhole mounting was a benefit since directionality isn’t as important with rear surrounds as it is with front presence. Issues The only issue I had with the Spektor 2’s was the wall mounting. The keyhole approach Is not really to my liking. It doesn’t allow you to direct/aim the speaker at the main listening position. This is more of an issue when using in a front high presence conifig where you should aim the speak down towards the listener. It also has issue when it comes to using banana plugs – you can’t. There is not enough clearance behind the speaker to use them because the binding posts are “pitched outward.” This is a small issue, but I really prefer to use banana plugs for my connections. Overall I was very impressed with the Spektor 2’s. I listened to them for nearly a week in a 2.1 setup, forgoing my normal 7.1 in that timeframe, and I can’t say I missed out. Pairing these speakers with a subwoofer and a decent AVR will beat out a sound bar every day. Their smaller size belies their ability to really fill a room with sound. From music to movies loaded with action or dialog I was not disappointed. My struggle now is to figure out where the best place for them to live. I’ve had them in 2.0, 2.1, and mutiple 7.1 setups and they were an improvement everywhere I put them. I am very tempted to add a another 2.1 setup to my smaller TV room just to have these on their own. They really are that good.

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  Posted 4 years ago by DaveW

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Excellent Hi-Fi Bookshelf Speakers

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  -- Design -- The DALI Spektor 2 Compact passive speakers are rear ported cabinets with a 1” soft dome tweeter and a 5 ¼” woofer. The soft dome tweeter is designed to play the lowest parts of the high frequency range without any break-ups, making the crossover from the woofer to the tweeter seamless. The woofers are made by their trademarked wood fibre cones, which is a mix of fine grained paper and wood fibre pulp. The main takeaway from that is the unevenness in the structure of the membrane helps minimize unwanted surface resonances. Finally, DALI dubs these speakers Low Loss, which essentially means that the drivers are designed in such a way that they naturally complement each others’ frequencies to foster that natural crossover. They don’t need to add extra fluff to add “color” to the original sound when designing their crossover tech. Finally, the cabinets are about 12”x7”x9” and are available in two colors (black ash, dark walnut). -- Performance -- I currently drive the Spektor 2s with an NAD D 3045 amp. The monitors are seated on my desk, flanking my 48” LG CX; I’m seated centered to the screen, 30” diagonally distant from each monitor at ear level. The monitors are about 7” from the wall to allow the rear port to breathe. In combination with this amp, these monitors sound very balanced across its entire frequency range, and I find myself able to enjoy any kind of music I threw at it. Using TIDAL’s MQA tracks, I was able to replay my most cherished tracks of yesteryear as well as today, and the Spektor 2s did not disappoint. Playing Killer Queen, I can clearly distinguish the different voices and instruments, and their interplay with each other. Playing Versace On the Floor, I can hear Bruno’s strong, smooth vocals along with the smooth bass line, which I actually found very surprising from these cabinets. If you plan to just run these bookshelves without a sub, I feel that there is enough down low to fill most music. I currently run my B&W ASW608 as a supporting role in the matter; the Spektors 2s can handle it. Obviously if bass is a priority, then you’ll need that sub because these guys weren’t made for that. Patsy Cline’s vocals in Crazy are “crazy” clear and warm and the stereo imaging is quite mind blowing. Move to Forgot About Dre, and you can truly appreciate the rap vocals, synthesizers, and Eminem’s quick and witty dialog all riding the catchy bass line. A live rendition of About A Girl is another example of crystal clear vocals and superb stereo imaging, and the acoustic guitars truly shine out of the midrange. When roaming about my space, the Spektor 2s can fill my 20’x20’ cave with no noticeable change in music clarity or brightness for most tracks at @ 85dB. It definitely helps that they are designed to have a wide dispersion pattern and that I can keep them seated with no toe-in. -- Thoughts -- At its price point, there is a lot of competition and I cannot vouch for the other offerings. But I believe that DALI hit these monitors out of the park as the budget, entry-level speakers they are being marketed as. And truth be told, I was not aware of the Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries as a brand and audio technology. I am now a big fan and will look to DALI for more of their offerings moving forward.

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  Posted 4 years ago by softwareEngineer

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great quality

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  Absolutely love the sound. The bass along with clarity makes movie time more interesting. Love the size for such wonderful sound with music also. Setting up was fast and easy!

  Posted 4 years ago by Netta