DALI OBERON 7C Active Wireless Floorstanding Speaker Review

DALI OBERON 7C & Sound Hub Introduction

The most famous DALI is undoubtedly Salvador, the surrealist painter (and sculptor), but the second most famous is the Danish loudspeaker manufacturer. Long ago I had wondered if there were a connection between the two, especially since DALI’s upper-end loudspeakers resembled works of art, but eventually, I learned that DALI speakers merely stood for Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries. I have always enjoyed the sound of DALI speakers when I have had the opportunity to hear them at hi-fi stores and trade shows, so I leapt at the chance when DALI asked if I were interested in reviewing some examples from their new OBERON C speaker series. In today’s review, we examine the OBERON 7C as well as DALI’s Sound Hub. Together they make up a complete audio system, and all the user has to do is supply the source, whether that be a smartphone, Blu-ray player, Roku, or anything that is compatible with the Sound Hub’s plethora of different inputs. How well does it all work? How does it sound? Is it a worthwhile alternative to the way traditional hi-fi systems are arranged? Let’s dig in to find out…

Appearance

The OBERON 7C comes in four finishes: matte white, dark walnut, light oak, and black ash. I received the light oak finish, although the veneer does not extend to the front baffle, which is matte white. In the light oak, the OBERON 7C looks upbeat compared to so many speakers that are merely black boxes or, if they have a wood veneer option, it is an overly conservative one. I would say this makes the OBERON 7C a good choice for white-painted interiors as is found in so many homes. The veneers are laminates, but they are pretty convincing imitations, and it wouldn’t be noticed unless you gave the speaker a very close inspection. The grilles have a grey weave fabric that gives the grilled appearance more character than the usual black fabric grilles. While I think these speakers look a bit better without the grilles, the grilles don’t look bad on these models. The enclosure has some slight rounding on the vertical edges of the front baffle, but otherwise, the shape is just a rectangular box. The most notable feature of the exposed drivers is the plum coloration of the woofer cones. This is a visual signature of DALI speakers, which all have this cone correlation, much like Klipsch is known for their copper cones. The tweeter is a dome mounted in a sizable plate that has a dotted pattern printed on it. The enclosures stand on some curved metal plinths which complement the speakers nicely. Overall, the OBERON 7C speakers look tasteful without being boring, and they could fit in easily with a wide variety of interior decors thanks to the variety of veneers and refined industrial design.

 

There isn’t too much to say about the looks of the Sound Hub, except that it doesn’t look bad either, thanks to its minimalist design. Obviously, it won’t have as much aesthetic impact as the speakers. It’s a glossy plastic module that is mainly distinguished by a large volume knob in the unit’s center. The LED display is centered within the volume knob, which is a neat touch.

Design Analysis

The DALI OBERON C loudspeakers and Sound Hub are conceived as ways of getting a high-fidelity sound without needing a stack of complicated electronics with the corresponding spaghetti nest of connecting wires. The speakers receive the signal from the Sound Hub wirelessly, so the only cables the speakers need are AC power cables. Likewise, the Sound Hub only really needs a power cable, since it can also receive a wireless signal, although it can accommodate a variety of wired connections, both digital and analog. Together, the OBERON 7C and Sound Hub form an all-in-one sound system.

 

Let’s start our analysis of the system design by talking about the OBERON 7C loudspeakers. They are two-way, self-powered, floor-standing loudspeakers set that can only take wireless signal input produced by the DALI Sound Hub or the less expensive and smaller Sound Hub Compact. The OBERON 7C uses two 7” bass drivers and a 1” dome tweeter. Curiously, the bass drivers are powered by a 50-watt class-D amplifier and the tweeter is powered by another 50-watt class-D amp. This is unusual because one would think that the bass drivers would require a lot more power than the tweeter to produce the same SPL, so only providing 50-watts is robbing them of some headroom that the system could otherwise deliver. DALI may have opted for using a 50-watt amp for the woofers for ease of manufacturing and cost. Nonetheless, the amplification should give the system enough headroom to satisfy most buyers.

 

The OBERON 7C tweeter is a 1.1” fabric dome that uses an iron ferrite motor and ferrofluid in the voice-coil gap for greater thermal handling. The bass drivers’ cones use a composite of fine paper pulp and reinforcing wood fibers. One interesting aspect of the bass drivers occurs in the motor section with the use of SMC or Soft Magnetic Compound. SMC is used in the motor section around the gap where the voice coil rests. What SMC does is transmit the magnetic field without being electrically conductive. The advantage in that is a major reduction in eddy currents and hysteresis and thus reduction in odd-order harmonic distortion and an increase in upper-frequency sensitivity. For those who want the gory details about SMC use in drivers, DALI has this page that describes it, but the reader can also refer to the patent for a more precise description. The motor uses a reasonably sized 3 ¼” diameter magnet with a ¾” thickness and is vented through the pole piece.

The enclosure uses a ⅝” thick front baffle and has two cross braces to maximally reinforce the cabinet at key points. There are also corner braces that give the enclosure more strength. There is a generous amount of stuffing lining the cabinet walls to damp internal pressure waves. The OBERON 7C uses a rear-mounted flared port that has a 4” depth and a 2 ¾” diameter. DALI gives the user the choice to use spiked feet or rubber feet on the plinth. Spiked feet will give the speaker a better grip on carpeted surfaces, but obviously, the rubber feet would be the better choice where the speaker is set on hard-flooring.

 

The grilles attach to the speakers using pegs. Unfortunately, the grille frame design has large solid pieces that surround a honeycomb pattern over the drivers. While it does a lot to actually protect the drivers, it is a suboptimal design for how the sound diffracts off of the front baffle and grille frame. While leaving the grilles off of the speaker for the best sound is almost always the best way to go for any speaker, it is even more true for this speaker.

The OBERON speakers were easy to pair up with the Sound Hub. All I had to do was press the ‘LINK’ button on the Sound Hub, then press the ‘LINK’ button on the speaker, and when they established a connection, I selected what channel it should receive on the Sound Hub. The Sound Hub’s instruction manual was a bit vague and ambiguous, but the instruction manual on the Sound Hub online product page is much more articulate, so I would advise users to refer to the website’s manual. The Sound Hub can take input from almost any source that exists except for balanced analog inputs. It can accommodate unbalanced RCA, optical TosLink, S/PDIF COAX, 3.5mm mini-jack, and wireless Bluetooth. There is an expansion slot that adds optional connectivity. One module is a BuOS module that can enable ethernet and WiFi connectivity as well as USB inputs that allow sound files to be played from a USB drive. There is another similar module that does all of the same things but also adds Apple’s AirPlay2 streaming. There is also an HDMI module available for HDMI connectivity including HDMI ARC and eARC signals. 

 

 

 

The Sound Hub has an unbalanced RCA left and right outputs as well as a subwoofer output, so it can be used as a 2.1 preamp if desired. It does mute the wireless output if it detects a connection on the RCA outputs. If HDMI connectivity is used, the Sound Hub can emit eight channels of signals; so it can handle a 7.1 system. If the user is inputting a higher channel signal than the number of speakers that are actually connected to the Sound Hub, it will downmix the output appropriately.

The Sound Hub can adjust the speakers individually for level and distance. The crossover frequency used for the sub output is 100Hz, and that seems to be the extent of the bass management. I would like to have seen more options for bass management. The subwoofer output can be sent both wirelessly and through the RCA sub out. DALI offers a wireless subwoofer signal adapter called the WSR that receives the wireless signal and converts it to an ordinary RCA output, so it can be used with any subwoofer. The Sound Hub can only transmit to one WSR, so the sound hub cannot output to multiple subwoofers itself. If the user wants to employ multiple subwoofers, they will need to use a signal splitter on the output of the WSR.

Those who want to take advantage of the surround sound capability of the Dali Sound Hub must purchase and install the optional HDMI Module (as well as the extra speakers for those channels). Once installed, the Sound Hub can handle ARC and eARC signals and decode Dolby and DTS sound formats for surround sound up to 7.1 channels. There is no support for the extra channels of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, but the Sound Hub does support DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. Dolby signals will be post-processed by the Dolby ProLogic I or ProLogic IIx codec, depending on user selection, while DTS and PCM will be post-processed by the DTS Neo:6.Cinema Codec. The module can also be configured to upmix the sound up to a 7.1 system or simply route the signals to the intended channels with no upmixing.

Controls for the Sound Hub are pretty simple. There is a large volume dial, and three buttons above it: a stand-by button, a source selector, and a mute button. The Sound Hub comes with a remote with the same set of controls. The center of the volume dial has an LED display that shows the volume level as well as the selected source. The brightness of the LED display in the volume control can be adjusted. Setting up the Sound Hub with the OBERON speakers was not difficult, but I did have to refer to the user manual since the quick start guide’s illustrated steps were a bit too ambiguous for me to follow.

Listening Sessions

In my 24’ by 13’ (approximately) listening room, I set up the speakers with a few feet of stand-off distances between the back wall and sidewall and equal distance between speakers and listening position. I angled the speakers to face straight ahead per the user manual’s recommendation. The listening distance from the speakers was about 8 feet. No subwoofers were used.

Music Listening

As usual, I started off a close listen to the speakers using something with an emphasis on a cleanly recorded vocal, and a found a terrific album in “A Southern Gothic” by Aida Victoria on Qobuz. “A Southern Gothic” is firmly planted within the blues genre. Aida’s voice is versatile and alternates between ethereal femininity, confrontational force, melancholy, as well as many other modes within its forty-minute runtime. The recording puts her voice at the forefront, but she gets backing from traditional blues instruments such as guitar, banjo, percussion, as well as some subtle electronic atmospherics. This album, recorded and presented in hi-res, puts Aida’s richly textured voice under a microscope and therefore serves as a test of how well a sound system can reproduce it.

The OBERON 7C speakers anchored Aida’s voice at a center position between the speakers. It was apparent through the speakers that the instruments were close mic’d since they all sounded ‘big’ and were spread over the width of the soundstage. This brought the performance close to the listener. Aida’s voice was given a detailed representation by the DALI speakers but without becoming bright. Bass guitar was thick enough to give the music a strong foundation, but I did not find it to be at all bloated or overbearing. The snare drums had a vibrant snap and the kick drums had a sharp jab. The 50-watt amplifiers seemed to be adequate here for spirited listening on this album. The overall reproduction of “A Southern Gothic” by the OBERON 7C speakers was smooth and balanced and did not give me anything to object to in the slightest.

 

For vocals of a much more pyrotechnical nature, I listened to the classic RCA recording of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” done in the 1970s and famous within its genre. The version I listened to was the 2010 remaster streamed in 96k/24bit on Qobuz. This performance gathered some of the greatest voices of the era for this epic opera which includes Leontyne Price, Elizabeth Bainbridge, and Placido Domingo, among others. Even though this recording is 50 years old, it still sounds sublime and wildly dynamic. The New Philharmonia symphony matches the singers in virtuoso musicianship. This demanding recording has been a staple of opera lovers for three decades now, and any sound system that can do it justice would be a good candidate for any classical music collection.  

The OBERON 7C set the listener at a middle distance from the performance as an audience position. The orchestral elements had an expansive symphonic-hall sound but the singers were given well-defined positions within the soundstage. I could hear the singer’s positions as they crossed the stage, and the OBERONs gave a nearly pictorial presentation of this performance. The singers in duets and trios were kept separate and distinct, and their locations were never unclear even as their singing would overlap. The sound of the orchestra was beautifully rendered, but the OBERON speakers were able to uncover some cues that betrayed the age of this recording. First, there was a slight analog tape hiss of the noise floor of the recording. The OBERON 7C speakers were very quiet with no signal present, although they were not dead silent, their own noise could only be heard by placing your ear close to the tweeter. In any normal listening situation, it would be inaudible. The other indication that gave the recording’s age away was the soft clipping sound at the crescendos that was characteristic of analog tape recordings of that era. The OBERON 7C speakers had more than enough dynamic range for the loudness level at which I listened to this recording. While these speakers would probably not be able to deliver the kind of dynamics that one would experience live with this kind of performance, they doubtlessly have enough power for the vast majority of buyers for speakers in this class.

For something with a focus on traditional instruments, I found a jazz album titled “Impact Winter Formal” (sounds more like the name of a font) by Chris Morrissey, an accomplished bassist from New York. This short four-track album does have some vocals but it is principally instrumental jazz with a few other flourishes, and the recording quality of this new release is top-notch. There is a variety of Instrumentation featured in these complex, multi-layered compositions, and they are all very nicely recorded and presented in high-res streaming. This is a brand-new release from the Edition Records label and is well worthwhile for anyone seeking a mix of old and new in contemporary jazz. 

The first thing that struck me about the OBERON 7C’s rendition of “Impact Winter Formal” was how vivid the instruments were reproduced as well as Morrissey’s voice. The level of detail granted by the speakers and recording created an uncommon—but quite welcome—realism to the sound. A contributing factor in this would have to be the even tonal balance produced by the OBERON speakers. A significant tilt one way or the other can really undo this illusion, but the OBERONs seemed to land on the side of neutrality. Again, the instruments could be heard to be mic’d at a close distance which helped to give them richly-detailed definition, although that comes at the expense of a live performance-type soundstage. The last track, “It’s Cruel That It Ends,” does play with imaging by projecting Morrissey’s voice all around the stage through studio trickery, and the OBERONs articulately conveyed that effect. By the end of the album, I was left impressed by the OBERON 7Cs sound, and I have no doubt that any jazz lover would get along great with them.

For something to test the bass capabilities and dynamic range of the OBERON 7C, I selected “Agnum Opus” by Agallah The Don Bishop. Agallah has been around New York’s rap scene since the mid ’90s and has released a slew of records over the last couple of decades. “Agnum Opus” is a 2017 release that features some wicked lyrics and heavy-duty bass. This studio production is high energy from beginning to end and seldom lets up on the gain levels. This makes it a good test of stamina for any speaker, and even more so for powered speakers like the OBERON C series, since the amplifier is a potential bottleneck along with the drivers.

While I wouldn’t look to them as party speakers, the OBERON 7C speakers can get surprisingly loud. The bass is satisfyingly punchy as well, although perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising, since the area of the four 7” woofers of the OBERON 7Cs is about equal to that of a 14” cone, and that should be capable of moving a significant amount of air. I pushed the speakers hard, but after a certain point, I did back down since I thought I could be on the verge of overloading the tweeters. These speakers can get much louder than I would ever normally listen. They didn’t lack for bass, and I didn’t feel a need for subwoofers during “Agnum Opus,” although the addition of subs would likely step up the low-frequency headroom in a noticeable way. As was noted before, subwoofers can be added to the system, but the Sound Hub’s bass management is rudimentary, and, with a fixed 100Hz crossover frequency, a multi-sub system is advised in order to thwart the localization effects of such a high crossover frequency. On the plus side, such a high crossover frequency means less of the OBERON 7C’s amplification power will be spent on lower bass, thereby preserving that power for mid-bass output. The 7C bass headroom and overall dynamic range turned out to be quite a bit more than I had expected. However, for those who want to add more bass with subwoofers, DALI does not make it easy to be done properly.

Movie Watching

One film that I watched using the OBERON 7C speakers was Ridley Scott’s 2021 medieval opus “The Last Duel.” This movie was one of the casualties of COVID-19, a $100 million dollar epic that was barely noticed since few people were interested in going out to the theaters at the time of its release. Led by a high-profile cast including Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer, “The Last Duel” tells the tale of a knight who blames his misfortunes on a former friend who became wealthy, and the knight’s wife who suffered mistreatment from both of them. This lavish production has a first-rate sound mix as would be expected from a major Hollywood movie and is abetted by a sweeping orchestral score with emphasis on period instruments from Harry Gregson-Williams. With a sound mix featuring large-scale battle scenes, environmental sound from feudal life, antiquated speech, and Gregson-Williams epic score, I figured this movie would be a good test of the OBERON’s ability to reproduce a major historical drama.

I watched “The Last Duel” at a fairly loud level, and the OBERON 7C speakers were more than able to keep up with the demands that I placed on it. I was surprised at their low-frequency impact, and the thunderous sounds of the teams of horses galloping were given an almost subwoofer-like sound. Dialogue was always intelligible, but part of that might have been due to the fact that the actors did not even try to effect a French accent even though the movie was set in medieval France. Battle scenes were violently relayed, and the clashing of swords and armor glances had a visceral impact that sharply communicated the reality of medieval combat. Gregson-Williams lush score was beautifully reproduced by the 7Cs and was very appreciable even amidst the grim events depicted in the film. The music score for this film surely has to be one of the best of the year. Despise the harshness of the events and setting of “The Last Duel”, the cinematography and sound mix could often be quite striking, and I am glad to have viewed it with such competent speakers as the OBERON 7Cs.

 

One movie that I watched with the OBERON 7C speakers that I had been greatly looking forward to seeing was the latest Bond movie “No Time To Die.” There are major Hollywood movies and then there are James Bond movies. Bond movies always look and sound spectacular, and this one does just that, but it has no excuse not to with a purported 250 million dollar budget. A quarter of a billion dollars buys you the best sound mixing that can be had, and this is no exception. Any modern Bond movie is ideal for a sound system demo, and so I decided it would be great to use as an evaluation piece for the OBERON 7C speakers.

“No Time To Die” sounded fabulous with the OBERON speakers, from the first moments of action and onward. The sound of the Aston Martin and pursuing motorcycles roared with intensity, and the explosions, car crashes, and gunfire burst out of the screen giving the experience a cinematic verve. Again, I was surprised at how much low bass was coming out of a speaker that had a smallish port and 50-watt amplifier. Dialogue intelligibility was never a problem, even with the many accents from all the exotic locales that Bond globe-trots around. Billie Eilish supplies that opening credits music. It was a very traditional Bond song and not quite within Eilish’s normal ambit, but she still created one of the better Bond themes, and it sounded terrific on the OBERON 7Cs. Hanz Zimmer provided the bulk of the score for the film, and, as usual, Zimmer laid down some serious bass that the OBERON speakers were more than ready for. Not knowing much about the movie before viewing it, I was surprised by the many twists and turns the plot took, but in the end, I greatly enjoyed it and was glad to have watched it with such a competent sound system.

DALI OBERON 7C Measurements & Conclusion

 

The DALI OBERON 7C towers were measured in free-air at a height of 4 feet at a 2-meter distance from the microphone, with the microphone raised to a 7.5’ elevation that was level with and aimed at the tweeter center. The measurements were gated at 8-milliseconds. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 400 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 200 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/12 octave resolution.

The above graphs depict the OBERON 7C tower’s direct-axis and horizontal dispersion out to a 90-degree angle in five-degree increments. Information on how to interpret these graphs can be read in our article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II. The measured response here is very good. The on-axis response keeps to a fairly tight window, deviating slightly with a small peak at around 8kHz which would scarcely be notable. The off-axis response keeps to a respectable correlation to the on-axis response except in upper treble where the tweeter starts to beam above 7kHz. The beaming pattern is very common to dome tweeters with no waveguide. Overall, we have a nice neutral response,and the OBERON 7Cs will deliver a sound that is faithful to the source material.

 

The above polar map shows the same information in the preceding graphs but depicts it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, polar maps use color to portray amplitude, and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s dispersion behavior more easily. More information about interpreting this graph can be read in our article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II.

The OBERON 7C speakers hold a fairly consistent dispersion pattern up to 7kHz where the treble dispersion starts to narrow. There is some mild waist-banding centered around 2kHz, but it isn’t severe enough to have a big impact on the sound. The treble beaming doesn’t become very narrow until well above 10kHz where it doesn’t matter very much. If you want to get hit with the full range of treble, it's best to be listening at or close to the on-axis angle. It should be remembered that there isn’t much content above 12-15kHz, and many people, especially older men, no longer hear frequencies that high anyway. Curiously, DALI recommends positioning the speakers to face straight ahead so that they are angled in a parallel direction. That would put the listener in a 20 to 30-degree angle from the on-axis direction where upper treble does see a roll-off. However, the most accurate response occurs around the on-axis angle, and I would recommend listening within a 20-degree angle of that direction. My advice is to have the speakers face the listener directly.

 

The above graph is a sampling of some of the vertical angle responses at and around the on-axis angle. The OBERON 7C holds the flattest response at the tweeter height, but the response isn’t too badly affected out to a 5-degree angle above or below that point. However, the response does take some pretty substantial deformations outside of that range. This is not unusual for a loudspeaker with this type of driver layout. The takeaway here is that the OBERON 7C is best listened to with the ears pretty close to level with the tweeters, much like many other loudspeakers.

 

The above graph shows the OBERON 7C’s low-frequency response captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground at a 2-meter distance in a wide-open area). This response is fairly well-controlled and exhibits a bit more upper bass output than lower bass. The room will inevitably boost lower bass, so this is often done in tower speakers in order to compensate for the room gain-induced bass boost. The port tuning frequency looks to be around 35Hz, and typical pressure vessel gain from domestic spaces should yield usable bass down to 30Hz, a very respectable low-frequency extension for a modestly-sized tower speaker.

Conclusion

Before bringing this review to a close, I will briefly go over the strengths and weaknesses of the product under review, and, as always, I will start with the weaknesses. Taking a broad view of the OBERON 7C and Sound Hub system, I don’t have much to complain about. However, there are a few minor things I things that I think could be improved. Firstly, one nice touch would have been to have the OBERON 7C speakers accommodate analog inputs. That would have made them so much more usable across a wider array of systems. As it is, DALI’s Sound Hub or Sound Hub Compact is required to operate the OBERON 7C speakers, and the speakers only accept a Bluetooth connection from those transmitters as an input signal. If DALI had given the OBERON 7Cs some RCA or XLR inputs, anyone with a DAC could have used these speakers. An added bonus to accepting analog inputs is that if in the future, the Sound Hub breaks or loses functionality, the OBERON speakers would still be useful. But with the way DALI has chosen to design these speakers, if the Sound Hub to the user’s system goes bad and they aren’t able to get another, the entire speaker system is bricked. Analog inputs are a feature on DALI’s step-up series, the RUBICON C series, and it’s a shame that feature didn’t make it to the OBERON series. 

One thing I would like to see in future versions of the Sound Hub system is more flexibility in bass management for the subwoofers. The existing bass management system is almost as rudimentary as possible with a fixed 100Hz crossover frequency. That is a bit higher than what is ideal for most setups. I hope in upcoming versions that DALI will provide some adjustability that will enable 60Hz and 80Hz crossover frequency options. One other nit I would pick is that the grille design for the 7Cs is not great from an acoustical perspective. DALI should make the grille frame be much less intrusive on the acoustics of the speaker.

With those complaints out of the way, let’s now take a look at the benefits of the OBERON 7C and Sound Hub system. The main benefit of the system as a whole is that it takes away much of the complexity of a traditional system composed of an AVR and passive speakers yet still provides a legitimately high-fidelity sound. Most of the simple sound systems people are going for these days are soundbars. Soundbars are easy to set up and avoid the wire clutter of AVRs. The problem is that they seldom sound good, at least in comparison to a serious sound system. They are essentially monoaural systems with a pitiful dynamic range and often severe response problems. If that sounds like a snooty thing to say, well, it very likely is, but go compare an expensive high-end soundbar against a middle-of-the-road traditional hi-fi setup for yourself. Anyone who has done that comparison will tell you, there is no comparison, a traditional full-range speaker pair with a halfway decent receiver will be far superior.

The problem is that the set up of a normal system can be daunting for most people since they have never done it before. While the set up of these systems is simple for enthusiasts, all the inputs and outputs and menu options of a modern AVR are a lot to take in for the uninitiated. I have received numerous comments from average people who find the whole process intimidating, and I am frequently asked for help just for basic set up procedures. These days, there are many more people who understand Bluetooth connectivity than traditional hi-fi system connectivity, and DALI’s Sound Hub system banks off of that fact.

For those who want a clean living space, the Sound Hub is a clean-looking unit that is not nearly as large as a normal receiver. It can also be hidden in a cupboard or cabinet because it doesn’t need as much ventilation as a unit with a built-in amplifier would; the enclosed surfaces should not block the Bluetooth signal, and the unit can be controlled by the remote. What’s more, it’s light on wire clutter; with the optional NPM BluOS module, the only wires required are the power cables. Those who want a wire-free hi-fi system can have it with the OBERON 7C speakers and Sound hub.

The sound of the OBERON 7C speakers is quite good as well. DALI has used onboard signal processing to their advantage in order to shape the response for a nice neutral tonality. The OBERON 7Cs are a fairly accurate loudspeaker that has a pleasing sound on everything that I listened to. The sound was balanced with no excesses or deficits anywhere. It might be a Bluetooth speaker system, but it is a very good one that is comparable to a traditional hi-fi system. In fact, the active crossover likely gives it an edge over the regular passive version of the OBERON. The bass had sufficient low-frequency extension such that I doubt most people would feel the need to add a subwoofer, and both the dynamic range and SPL capability were more than sufficient for normal people (although I wouldn’t recommend using them to power loud house parties).  They wouldn’t be my first choice in a dedicated home theater room, but no one intending to put together a dedicated home theater is going to be looking at wireless speakers anyway.

Setup was simple, and the system worked without a hitch despite all the technology that it employed. As was said before, it does pay to use the online manual to get it going, since the quick start guide wasn’t very clear.

The OBERON 7C speakers and Sound Hub are not an inexpensive sound system but not unaffordable either. Together, they form an entire sound system for $3,400. The equivalent-performing traditional hi-fi system probably would not cost as much, but it wouldn’t have the technology to do away with the need for wires or large electronics. If you are willing to do away with some of the connectivity, you can substitute the Sound Hub with the Sound Hub Compact, which costs half as much, thereby bringing the total system cost to under $3k.

By now, most readers would know whether the OBERON 7C and Sound Hub are something they would be interested in. Die-hard enthusiasts would probably just stick with traditional passive speakers plus receiver or pre-pro/amplifier, and DALI has some very nice passive loudspeakers toward that end. But even if you are a hardcore traditionalist with respect to the hi-fi hobby, you have to respect what DALI is doing here; they are trying to provide a seriously high-fidelity option for those who would otherwise might just default to a soundbar for a simple hi-fi or home theater sound system. DALI has delivered a simple and elegant solution for those who want great sound but without all the complexity that comes with a traditional system.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value