Performance DALI Phantom 280S
Contents
What does a big built-in speaker sound like now? Well, uh… super! We are truly amazed at how good this is! Of course the set has to play a lot, but once that’s done, we hear a very loose image, beautiful loose reproduction in the whole spectrum and a razor sharp stereo image. We still play a lot of movies in 4.0 – the Illusonic can mix that back perfectly – but we don’t miss the subwoofer and center. Is it better with a center and subwoofer? Sure… but we don’t miss it. And that’s handsome.
Vocals are placed super-tight in the middle of the screen and move along nicely as the actor walks through the image. Cars passing by the same: neat placement. The reason that DALI was able to achieve this is that they know exactly where the speaker goes: in the wall. So they don’t have to consider the space around them. The entire speaker is tuned to built-in. And that has its advantages.
Bass junkies pay attention
Which is a bit odd: despite its considerable size, this is not a low sample. Yes. The Phantom 280S can go deep. But if you’re expecting a full-range speaker with a deep, powerfull bass:… no. We measure that the Phantom is really up and running from about 50 Hz. 40Hz is achievable with a few dB loss. That’s enough for many applications. But movies with deep layers. Or church organs… that still requires a subwoofer.
But, uh…
Apart from that, the Phantom 280S sounds very rich. And complete. No subwoofer is required for normal operation. Believe us. We also don’t hear any hard edges or sharpness in the middle and high. Really… well… hi! Are we surprised? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A little, if we’re honest. We just didn’t expect this from a built-in speaker. Though this is more of a floor stand you can build into the wall.
The height is very open and airy, which makes for a beautiful staging. And the mids area enters our ear canal crystal clear, allowing voices to come through beautifully. This is pleasant with music as well as with films in which spoken word must be easy to follow.
With films, it is also noticeable that the loudspeaker can easily handle the blows that occur in a film. For example, at I Am Legend when a car falls off the bridge… That’s quite a bang, but the Phantom – together with the B+K amplifier – knows how to bring it with conviction. Not a shred of pain… except for the editor in question who was allowed to mop up some glasses of Coke because some viewers were shocked. Belongs with it.
Compare…?
If we have to compare the Phantom to an ‘ordinary’ floorstander, it really tore against the Epicon. Perhaps between the Rubicon and Epicon. In short: serious level.
Hi, I am curious about the Dali phantom sub s-100? I would also be very interested seeing an in room response curve. Thanks in advance.
We have only heard the S-100 in a demo at Dali Benelux. Very nice sub. The measurements supplied in the review is what we have.