DALI MENUET. A SPECIAL EDITION STUNNER!
/Once in a while a rather special little product will come our way. The day that we were introduced to these brand new little wonders was just such an occasion. In a hotly contested area of the market already well populated with numerous offerings from the likes of Dynaudio, B&W, Monitor Audio, the ever popular KEFs and our personal favourites, Acoustic Energy, comes a brand new star in the guise of the Dali Menuet Special Edition. Make note of that “Special Edition” bit as there is a slightly cheaper standard version of the Menuet too but here we are concentrating on the rather special Special Editions!
The DALI MENUET SE in their new eye-catching finish, Wild Walnut veneer. Made from a variety of natural woods. Every pair is carefully matched and will be unique in appearance. No two pairs will look the same.
Perched on top of the Solid Steel speaker stands looking great and sounding even better !
The intention of this piece is not to list boring specifications and measurements, but instead to talk about the musical response. After all, isn’t that why we’re in this game?
What I’ll say is that we’ve got some extraordinary sounds out of these little beauties. We used them on the end of an all Rega system using the Apollo CD player and the Brio amplifier with a Rega couple interconnect and Chord Company Rumour X loudspeaker cable perched on top of a pair of Solid Steel SS6B loudspeaker stands. The sound of this set up… Wow!
Placement
Dali suggest that the Menuets are used pointing straight out into the listening room with no toe-in. Whilst this seemed like an alien concept to me, I thought I’d tried them the Dali way followed by varying degrees of toe-in. I have to say that Dali are indeed correct! When used with no toe-in the stereo image is just astounding. Yes there may be speakers in this price bracket that can create deeper bass, but in my humble opinion, none of them can throw a stereo image this far out of the box and I’ll take that over bass any day! I’m by no means saying that the Dali Menuets SE are light on the bass either because they are no slouches in that department, believe me.
I just want to take a moment to appreciate how gorgeous these speakers are in their Wild Walnut lacquered wood finish. This is the only finish these speakers come in, and they are beautiful!
Listening
Bass driver uses wood fibre reinforcement for ultimate low distortion reproduction.
As per the pictures, I started off my listening session with a little bit of Blue Note Jazz (thanks Harry). These recordings date from the early 1960’s, but played on the Dali’s they sound vibrant and incisive and most important of all, fun! The Menuets sounded particularly lovely with the track Spring by a band called The Innocence Mission, from the album the album called My Room In The Trees.. A song with a vocal that is to die for and is achingly beautiful and just sheer poetry… Try it for yourself and see what I mean.
Cover of the wonderful album by The Innocence Mission that goes by the title of My Room In The Trees….Try it!
The diminutive Dali’s created a wide soundstage and I was able to hear every little detail that was going on in the music. When I closed my eyes the speakers totally disappeared and the music was just hanging in the air in front of me. A truly amazing response for a speaker at this price. If stereo imaging is your thing, you really need to add these to your audition list !
I Thought this album was sort of appropriate!
Burnin’ Red Ivanhoe…how can a band that looks like this not be good?
Cover of Danish prog rock loveliness.
To pay tribute to Dali’s Danish heritage, I thought I would treat them to a little bit of Prog Rock from the motherland in the shape of the totally ace album, W.W.W. from the band Burnin’ Red Ivanhoe. I really only intended to play the opening track, Second Floor Croydon, but it sounded so good that I had to play the whole album. First released in 1971 and featuring on John Peel’s, Dandelion Records, gives you a bit of a heads up as to the freaky proggy/avant-garde sounds that awaits. It is a rather well recorded album too, which always helps.
Features
Connection for speaker cable is via a pair of rather nice sturdy gold-plated terminals. Originating from the high-end EPICON series. Refined over the years, they ensure that the DALI MENUET SE always has the best possible connection regardless of speaker cable choice.
I think that the secret weapon of the Menuet is the oversized 28mm soft dome tweeter which is able to start and stop with great speed and precision due to the very low mass of the dome assembly as well as a very powerful motor system. This dome is approximately 30% lighter than comparable standard domes and the magnet in the motor system is made of the strongest neodymium material available. Never once did they sound shouty or over bright. It is also possible to position them very close to room boundaries by virtue of a rear mounted bass ports that fires down at a 45 degree angle to minimise reflections from the wall behind… Genius or what?
Conclusion
Anyway…. It’s safe to say that here at Audio T Cheltenham, we love these little Danish beauties and we’re pretty confident that you will too, especially if you’re tight for space these little Dali Menuet SE’s could be just the thing you need! Demonstrations can be arranged in store and are thoroughly recommended.
Thanks for reading.
Andy, Jon and Farid - Audio T Cheltenham Store.
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