DALI is a company that has nothing to do with surrealism or Tibetan Buddhism. This is an acronym that stands for Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries, a Danish company producing speakers for “audiophiles,” which has gone from sales in the local market to a reputable international brand in 30 years. Despite success, the company's products can not be found often.
Compact mini tower
The speaker system in question is represented by three of the five models of the line. It includes a Zensor 5 mini-tower for the left and right channels, Zensor Vokal for the center channel, and a compact Zensor 1 shelf pair for surround-channel positions. The remaining speakers are a large tower and large shelf speakers. With the Hsu Research VTF-1 MK2 subwoofer, they make up a well-scaled system, with an equally attractive price of $ 2,244. In addition, DALI Zensor 5 AX is being modified, which is distinguished by the presence of a built-in stereo amplifier with a power of 2x50 W, Bluetooth, apt-X, an analog mini-jack connector and an optical TOSLink port.
Dane from China
Although Zensor speakers are designed and engineered in Denmark (at least that's what the boxes say), they, like almost all competitive speakers today, are made in China. True, it is alleged that they are assembled at an enterprise completely owned by DALI, where their own drivers are also produced, and where the work is carried out under the daily supervision of a Danish manager, in accordance with the standards set by the European factory.
Dali Zensor 5 Features Overview
The design is distinguished by the presence of a removable front panel, a stable aluminum base and a single-wire connection. The model is two-way and made of MDF, trimmed with vinyl, available in white (DALI Zensor 5 White), black (Black Ash) and walnut (Light Walnut). Together with their own drivers, the speakers are equipped with crossovers that demonstrate the quality factor of the components. At the heart of the design of the case is a simple box, which is a rectangular parallelepiped. It is unpretentious and inexpensive, but beautifully finished with visible care and quality that cannot be faked. The dimensions of the column are 163x825x267 mm. Weight - 10.3 kg. Having passed a decent break-in period, the DALI Zensor 5 easily copes with its duties and demonstrates characteristics that seem incredible for pocket-sized racks with a 25-mm soft dome tweeter, a pair of 134-mm membranes made of wood fiber, mid / bass drivers and front a bass reflex hole with a tuning frequency of 44 Hz. Acoustics allows you to play sounds from 43 Hz to 26.5 kHz.
The sound they produce is wide and coherent, and the intimate textured vocals are unshakably centered. The upper part of the frequency range is clean and detailed, and the integration of the highest sounds with the lowest is very smooth. Sharp dynamic shifts are not a problem, and DALI tones are balanced and uniform. True, Zensor 5 has difficulties with a clear low-frequency transmission - instead, the speakers swallow the leading edge of the note a little. This slightly spoils the rhythm and deprives the recording of the last span of attack, making listening a bit more difficult. But this is not critical.
Sensitivity - 87.5 dB at frequencies from 500 Hz to 2 kHz.
Customization
All Zensor speakers have rigid multi-sided connectors, so the connection is simple and mechanically robust. By connecting all six speakers and balancing them, you can begin testing.
A careful listening to full-range stereo (without a subwoofer) quickly confirms what is visually clear from the very beginning - the DALI Zensor 5 mini-towers are too low. Their small height shifts the acoustic center 30 cm below the height of the ears when the listener is in a sitting position. The vertical scatter is pretty good, but it still leaves a noticeable decrease in “atmosphere” when sitting upright, compared to dropping to the level of the speakers. The situation can be corrected by simply tilting the speakers back so that their sound axes are directed towards the ears. The manufacturer supplies the DALI Zensor 5 Black Ash, White and Light Walnut with adjustable legs (and rubber bumpers for wooden floors), but in order to get the required height, additional items were required. This gave a slope of about 12 degrees - not enough for the case, left on top, to begin to slide, but it was not far from this.
Listening
Thanks to this manipulation, the sound of the DALI Zensor 5 becomes noticeably more open and wide. The speakers have a very honest, natural tonal balance. According to user reviews, compared to monitors with a similar aperture and resonator volume Energy Veritas, the Zensor 5 sounds a little “darker”, with a subtle shade of less airiness (or, possibly, less depth). They do not transmit the lowest frequencies, which is a consequence of the small size of the bass speaker, they only hint at the warmth of the average bass, and do not give the crystal clarity of the bass tone, although they tend to come close to this. And this is commendable, as Energy Veritas were twice as expensive back in the days when they were released.
Demanding material, such as the Why We Can Orchestra of Gordon Goodwin, showed mini-towers on the positive side. Their ability to design the complex musical texture of this big band, including not only wind instruments, but also the lead bass, all in a sterile, close to the original closed perspective, was impressive, and at the same time quite exciting. There were no problems with immersion in this highly colored music, and large transients from bass and drums collided, demonstrating real authority. The stereo effect was, as is usually the case with small two-way speakers, fairly accurate and stable, but slightly less rich in frontal depth and atmosphere, compared to what I would like to hear from much more expensive designs. The clarity of the middle range of strong solo elements (such as trumpets or female vocals) is excellent, they have a pleasant, solid (albeit modest) projection in the front of the stereo, and also a reliably clear, distinct tonality, even at significant volume.
Budget alternative
If we compare the DALI Zensor 5 with the shelf Zensor 1, we can say that they are very similar, despite the presence of an additional woofer and a front phase inverter, in contrast to the rear in the second version and a much higher case. Both models sound close enough to the original, however, in adjacent but physically discrete positions. Zensor 5 produces only slightly lower frequencies and a little louder, but the differences are much smaller than you might expect, and in a multi-channel system with a well-selected and carefully tuned subwoofer, perhaps the drawbacks of the shelf model will be vanishingly small, at least in pretty small room. It will be useful to know for those who want to save. Mounted on racks at the right height without tilting, the shelf-mounted version ideally matches upright mini-towers. The almost perfect correspondence between the first and fifth models is all the more surprising since they have different separation frequencies: 2400 and 2900 hertz.
One of many
By and large, the owners' reviews do not say anything bad about the DALI Zensor 5: the acoustics are a finely balanced and well-designed system. Nevertheless, it has many competitors: almost all reputable manufacturers (and even less respected ones) offer a relatively inexpensive assortment; two-way speakers made in China are also of very high quality. Such a wealth of choice, of course, has a positive effect on consumers, and the DALI Zensor 5 speakers will be a good solution for them.
Verdict
Among the positive aspects of the model, users call the neutral balance, excellent tonal alignment of the center with the left and right channels, and its main drawback is the small height of the mini-tower. The combination of the superior performance of high - quality two - way speakers with an inexpensive 10-inch subwoofer creates an affordable system that competes with many speaker manufacturers in this price class. The system is focused on sound quality, not ostentatious, detailed, but not analytical, balanced, but not boring. They need a suitable room and high-quality accompanying acoustics.