Introduction

DALI pitch their relatively new iO-12 cans as the only headphones you will ever need, bridging the ground between premium wireless and wired headphones. Whether you're plugged into your Hi-Fi, immersed deep into your vinyl collection, or paired with a smartphone or laptop enjoying music whilst on the move.

So the DALI are offered up as being able to excel in the portable, wireless role, but also in the wired domestic role. This is not necessarily to say that they are up there with the best Sennheiser or Mezze high-end wired offerings, but rather that they have the dual facility of being wired and wireless and they will sound great with both. They will compare favourably against functionally similar portable alternatives around the price-point. Almost a new category of headphone really, majoring both on sound quality and versatility.

The technical stuff

Wirelessly, the iO-12 features AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive. They also features Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) and also has a USB-C input which sends its signal to the DALI internal DAC (handling up to 24-bit 96kHz files).

iPhone 15 or iPad users with USB charging and output points can jump for joy here as you can get direct access to the full-fat-cream hi-res experience streaming experience from Apple Music, Qobuz and the like. There are two sound profiles when listening in wireless, one is Hi-Fi and the other is Bass.

They also have a purely passive wired-only mode for use with a headphone amplifier, via a 3.5mm stereo jack.

DALI plough their own furrow in many ways with the iO-12 in that there is no app to partner with and control it. They have gone for the no-fuss simplicity of buttons on the right-hand ear cup that toggle noise cancelling on and off, power/pairing on and off, apply bass boost and allow volume and track selection to be controlled. A lovely touch here is that when you press a button a voice through the headphone informs you of the setting. Personally, I prefer this simple but effective approach over an app.

Controls on the right earcup, here with bluetooth engaged

The 35 hours of battery life with noise cancelling and Bluetooth turned on is likely to prove more than sufficient for most users.

DALI has done something quite interesting and unique with the iO-12, they are the first headphones to feature the company’s patented Soft Magnetic Compound (SMC) technology which aims to reduce unwanted distortion and give a clearer. This is a “trickle down “usually found in DALI high end speaker systems.

The internals of the io-12 speaker driver

The speaker units also feature large 50mm drivers utilizing a paper fibre cone, again to help lower distortion.

Quality and comfort

The iO-12 exude the quality and style of a premium product, and the overall colour effect is a sort of mid to dark chocolate brown. Continuing the quality feel, the headband is leather, and the bottom padded section is a soft rubbery material that is well cushioned, and the earpads are sort of rectangular and made from genuine leather. They are quite big, and they are very comfortable, but they do look physically big when you are wearing them.

The earpads are nice and deep and easily cover my ears, they are also well padded which leads to good comfort levels all-round, a must for a headphone that is designed for out-and-about daily use.

The luxury feel, packaging and comfort of the iO-12 is very good indeed and will no doubt add to the pride of ownership.

How do they sound?

To test out the flexibility of these cans I used Bluetooth 5.2 for streaming from my laptop and phone. Watching Foundation on Netflix from the laptop, there was a convincing soundstage, dynamics and most importantly, clarity of voice. A good start.

Music from Qobuz was well presented and nuanced via the iPhone with Bluetooth, and quite immersive, allowing you to get lost in the music with all its ambient clues. It was a rich and detailed experience both inside the house or going for a walk. The Bass setting was good, tilted more towards the lower end, giving substance but not overpoweringly so. The Hi-fi setting gave more detail as expected but in a very convincing way that got to the heart of the performance, the lossy codecs doing a surprisingly good job of transferring musical information.

Listening to film Media via USB/Thunderbolt, using the internal dac

Going back to the laptop I was able to plug the iO-12 directly into the USB3/Thunderbolt ports, thus accessing the in-built DAC in the headset. This was a great experience and a step up in musical clarity and dynamics over Bluetooth.

I also managed to dig out my old Meridian Explorer USB DAC and attach it to the Mac to use the iO-12 in passive mode via the stereo jack. Bingo, this gave an outstanding result as well, with clarity and insight. Another uptick in sound quality was achieved when heard in passive mode via the Naim Uniti Atom HE.

io-12’s passively driven via meridian explored

Using the iO-12 in its tethered modes, either via USB-C or the stereo jack, reveals just how much more detail is available, and how engagingly capable the iO-12 is as a passive headphone. This makes me think that DALI have done some careful work on the shape and engineering of the headset cups, rather than just relying on heavy DSP to get their headphones to sound right. The iO-12 sound good in passive mode, and though they have a warm tilt this doesn’t mask an overall clean sound.

Last but by no means least, the ANC worked well to damp out distracting roar in a noisy environment, Transparency mode works as it should and allows you to hear more of your surroundings as and when needed. Also, the passive isolation is excellent.

Music and Media

Music (thought I would throw in something different this time):

Maria Topley Bird – Forever I Wait
Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul
Nine Horses – The Banality of Evil

Other Media Used:

Foundation streaming series, Ad Astra film via Apple TV and various podcasts from BBC Sounds

Summary

The DALI iO-12 are one of the best high-end wireless options on the market for out-and-about use, they even do a fantastic job when sitting down and listening at home. They are flexible and produce a great sound regardless of which mode you listen to. They are thoughtfully engineered to give a great sound quality.

Personally, I find the no app ethos refreshing, it is one less thing to worry about or get lost in. In practice the physical sound mode buttons just perform very well indeed and the ANC simply works.

Comfort and premium build quality is superb. Price is a bit more than many wireless alternatives, but so is flexibility.

These are great all-rounders and deserve to be heard. Why not book a demo?

Thank you for reading.

Rob - Audio T Oxford

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