Lenbrook of Canada has several modern hi-fi brands under its “umbrella,” and I had the chance to check out some of the latest wares from DALI, NAD, and Bluesound in room 729 at AXPONA.
Thomas Knudsen, a friendly Dane representing Danish company DALI, which is an initialism that stands for “Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries” gave me the details on a couple of their current floorstanding speakersand shared a bit about the other demo setup equipment.
The DALI Rubicon 8C active speakerthe passive version of which JA reviewed in March 2015stands out for having two tweeters: one ribbon tweeter covering the 1315kHz frequency range; the other uses an “oversized” doped-cloth dome that extends deeper into the upper midrange than a tweeter usually does. There’s no crossover between them; they share a 250W amplifier. The 3.5-way has three active woofers that share one 250W amp. Their diaphragms are made of coated cloth with wood fiber added for stiffnessand to give an uneven surface to prevent standing waves, Knudsen said.
A DALI Sound Hub preamp/streamer (above) also served as the wireless connection point for those speakers. Its wireless connection uses a 5.8GHz protocol, running in parallel to your home wi-fi to minimize/avoid the noise of other network traffic.
The DALI Oberon 9 speaker ($2500/pair), a passive model, was powered by an NAD C399 Hybrid Digital DAC amplifier ($2000, above) rated at 180Wpc (continuous) into 4 or 8 ohms. This integrated amp with a 32-bit/384kHz ESS Sabre DAC and Hypex HybridDigital nCore amp circuitry is the series flagship and the first to offer NAD’s modular approach (MDC2) for upgrades. An optional Bluesound BluOS-D module/card can be addedas it was herefor an extra $550. The source? A Bluesound Node network streamer box ($599). The system was shown on a Pangea Audio Vulcan rack ($199).
A listen to Marian Hill’s “Differently”a track I heard in many an AXPONA demoand Portishead’s “Glory Box” from Live at Roseland revealed razor-sharp edges, high-degree detail, and remarkably deep, clean bass. Playback sounded lively, alive.
Click Here: clare gaa jerseys"