Today we take a look at the new Oberon C Series, one of DALI’s wireless active loudspeaker ranges. Whilst the active version of the speakers are physically the same size as the passive ones, the amplifiers are built in to the cabinets and the musIc is transmitted wirelessly, without loss of quality from a system HUB. This means that no speaker cables run across the floor and the speakers can be positioned almost anywhere in the room (within 10 metres of the HUB and ideally within the same room).

The DALI Oberon C Series comprises of four active speakers : The Oberon 1 C book shelf, the Oberon 7 C floorstander, the On-Wall C wall mounted speakers and the Vokal C centre speaker. The quartet of speakers are available in white, black ash, light oak and walnut finishes.

Oberon 7 C, Oberon1 C and Oberon Vokal C

NO SPEAKER CABLE, MORE FLEXIBILITY - HOW DOES IT WORK ?

Choose a pair of Oberon 1 C, Oberon 7 C or Oberon On-Wall C as your front left & right loudspeakers. Position them in the room, then add one of the two sound hub options. The SOUND HUB COMPACT (for a stereo speaker setup) has one HDMI ARC input, two optical inputs, a set of phono inputs and Bluetooth. You can also add a subwoofer as well.

The second HUB, the SOUND HUB (for a system with up to seven speakers) offers an upgrade path. On board are two digital optical inputs, one digital coax, two analogue inputs and Bluetooth. Pre-out sockets allow you to connect the Sound HUB to an external power amplifier with passive speakers, and a subwoofer can be connected as well.

UPGRADE OPTIONS

Two easy-to-install modules can be added. One is an HDMi ARC/eARC module for Dolby or DTS up to 7.1 surround sound.

The other one is a BluOS NPM-2i module. BluOS is an advanced multi-room audio technology that lets you stream music from all your favourite streaming services, radio stations, and digital sources to any BluOS enabled stereo system or speaker, using the BluOS app.

EASY TO SET UP

The speakers are added wirelessly via link-connect buttons on the back of the speakers and the HUB. Start the pairing and set each speaker to the correct position. On the back of each speaker is a diagram with 7 led’s and what looks like a little figure sitting on a chair facing a line (which is supposed to be the screen/tv) helps to assign the correct position of the speaker and you’re done. It is really that easy.

Good news for all people with existing subwoofers - The DALI WSR (Wireless Subwoofer Receiver) can be added to turn any subwoofer into a wireless subwoofer - Clever.

SOUND QUALITY

The Dali Oberon C system sounds fast, fresh and open and this is because of the short signal path between the DAC (digital-to-analogue converter), the built-in amplifiers (2x 50 Watts per speaker) and the speaker drive units. The way the speakers respond to even small adjustments in volume via the Sound HUB is fantastic.

Play music via Wifi or Bluetooth, you can access and share music from a computer, phone, tablet or network-attached storage drive (NAS) or listen to music from one of the many streaming services and internet radio apps built right into the BluOS NPM-2i module.

CAN A TURNTABLE BE CONNECTED ?

Yes, either via a phono amplifier that sits between the turntable and the SOUND HUB or plug it in straight away if the phono amplifier is built into the turntable.

HOME CINEMA SOUND

We have set up a 5.1 Oberon C home cinema system that comprises of a pair of Oberon 7 C ( front left & right channels ) , Vokal C centre speaker, a pair of Oberon 1 C ( rear surround channels ) and the WSR ( Wireless subwoofer receiver ) that connects to the subwoofer. The final steps are connecting a Blu-Ray player to our tv and running an HDMI cable from the screen’s ARC/eARC socket to the Sound HUB.

There are too many great movie scenes to choose from and to talk about but we can tell you this - It sounds very cinematic with all the punch, attack and finesse that we have heard from passive speaker packages before and thanks to speaker level adjustment it is very easy to fine tune the speakers to any room.

DALI wireless technology definitely offers more flexibility for those of us with wooden or tiled floors and more importantly, without compromises on sound quality.

We hope that you have enjoyed this blog. If you are interested in an DALI product that isn’t mentioned in this blog, please give us a call on 01793 538222 or send us an email to swindon@audio-t.co.uk.

Thanks for reading - Stefan & Andy - Audio T Swindon

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