Going back to the previous article, I believe that the review of the columns Signature Delta Triangle was a certain starting point in the development of my requirements for sound quality of audio systems. He is a follower of decades of so-called “British” sound – not isolated, discreet and generally quite unconscious. Speakers Triangle showed what can be achieved if to follow a very different approach: still poor colors, but sensual and stunningly clear sound. Therefore, being in September in Dallas in the company The Sound Organisation – the official supplier of the firm Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries (DALI Rubicon 8) in the United States – and, faced with columns DALI Rubicon 8, who inherited the closer the company Triangle philosophy of building sound systems, I immediately asked to take one a pair for review.
Through Rubicon DALI Rubicon 8
At a price of 7,995 dollars per pair of DALI Rubicon 8 speakers are in the same price range as that of the firm Signature Delta Triangle, are as elegant and made to be placed on the floor with a separate section for each woofer. But this similarity ends. If the three-band product from Triangle combines high-frequency horn radiator, one midrange and two basses, the product of the DALI uses a unique combination of an unusually large (2.92 cm.) Tweeter soft dome mounted at a slight ribbon ultra high-frequency transmitter and even lower are three woofer size of 16.5 cm. In this case, only the top bass speaker reproduces frequencies up to 2.5 kHz, which are then picked up by a dome tweeter. The cutoff frequency at woofer located in the middle is located lower than the upper limit. And below it at the bottom. All three subwoofer reproduce the bass, which is necessary to increase the area, but with increasing frequency emitter area is reduced. DALI Rubicon 8 calls this design «2½ + ½ + ½».
All five speakers DALI Rubicon 8 are made in the company DALI. RF and ultra high frequency are made in a single chassis: is a reworked version of the hybrid tweeter module, first used in the flagship series Epicon. The belt runs in the ultra high frequency range of 14 kHz and is intended to expand the horizontal component of the pattern of higher octaves and provide a greater range of space in which participants can hear a full set of high frequencies.
Three woofer technically very complex in their design task was to minimize harmonic distortion. One of the problems of the magnets used in the dynamic head – hysteresis, because of which the magnetization and demagnetization that occurs when converting electricity into sound, occur at different speeds, which ultimately results in distortion. If you could create a material for a magnet that can easily be magnetized and not conducting current, hysteresis, and related distortions would have been greatly reduced. DALI claims that his new material Soft Magnetic Compound (SMC has these two properties. SMC consists of individual small iron particles – like dust – covered with insulating material. Therefore, being an excellent magnetic conductor at the SMC a very low electrical conductivity: approximately 10,000 less than that of iron, which significantly reduces hysteresis.
Woofers pole pieces made of SMC, surrounded by a copper ring and charged by the magnetic field from the large ferrite magnet. The copper ring reduces electromagnetic induction generated by current flowing through the voice coil. Like the early columns from DALI, woofer cones are made from wood fibers.
Housing at the Rubicon is made of MDF, the front, and rear panels are slightly rounded. Three ports on the rear panel are covered to reduce the noise from air movement. Electrical connections are made from two pairs of high-quality screw terminals located at the bottom of the rear panel. Greeley columns are made of lightweight black cloth stretched over a plastic grid. But DALI Rubicon 8 looks very elegantly and without grills, so I took them off while listening.
Listen DALI Rubicon 8
DALI Rubicon 8 were installed in my room, in accordance with the recommendations of The Sound Organisation Officer David Carr: direction – strictly in the head (but not right next to the chair), with a slightly greater distance from the wall than I usually place the speakers: 238.8 cm., measured from the front panel. As a result, each tweeter located at a distance of 251 cm. From my head, forming an almost perfect equilateral triangle. My room is a bit asymmetrical, so even the smooth transition of sound between speakers from bass to midrange A slightly asymmetrical: dust cap speaker Right subwoofer located in the 117.8 cm. Of books next to a wall blocking the box; Left woofer housed in a 104 cm. is hidden in the same way the other wall.
When I play my favorite disk marked as “Editor’s Choice» (CD, Stereophile STPH016-2), one-third octave low-frequency signals Sweep reproduced on the “whole hog” up to 32 Hz band. Although 40 Hz signal was a bit depressed, as all the speakers with an extended low range, 32-hertz oscillating signal was amplified indoor resonance. The 25-hertz oscillating signal audible under normal listening, but the 20-hertz – just lost. But I was surprised at how clean the bass sounded – woofer from DALI turned completely “undistorted”. The track from the same disc with spaced a semitone beats reproduced cleanly from the middle of the lower to mid-range high, with fewer components on the phantom aliasing, which I usually hear.
It is time to the music. After watching a documentary about contemporary musicians, borrowing texts from the 50-year-old young Bob Dylan songs, I reached up album The New Basement Tapes – Lost on the River (CD, Harvest 02 537 95014). Embellished modern sound disappointed, as well as the background instruments, conflicting and voice. However, the music is amazing and more autonomous sound of individual instruments, both in «Kansas City» authored by Mumford & Sons music, Marcus Mumford, and Taylor Goldsmith, I could appreciate how DALI Rubicon 8 reports the growing rhythm percussion. This track was bass “overripe”, as well as bass and drums in the composition «When I Get My Hands on You» – another gem from Mumford and Goldsmith.
But what was going on – in the audio system or record? As described earlier, columns DALI Rubicon 8 at frequencies below 40 Hz room helped lower resonance frequency. When Eberhard Weber went down to the lower octave E and A strings of his bass in the composition «Endless Days» (CD, ECM 1748), the modest size of the DALI Rubicon 8 reproduce tool c stunning clarity. On this album, the bass notes of the synthesizer by Reiner BrAningausa stunningly clear sound, maybe even too bright.
The first CD group Hollies «50 at Fifty» (edition 3-CD, Parlophone / Rhino RP222354) includes most of the hits of the British team, and all the complexity of the compositions in the midrange, clear playback speaker of DALI on the lower octaves again 50 years later, he gave me an opportunity to assess how well the great bass player was Eric Haydock. Even in such a simple and harmonious compositions like Marisa Williams «Stay», bass line Haydock, performed DALI Rubicon 8 with all clarity and power, it seems to be more solid than expected.
Well, you came balance treble at DALI Rubicon 8 of vintage records Hollies? Being invisible – it’s not about the combination of dome and ribbon tweeter, but when I turn on the natural balanced classical compositions, such as a string quintet by Brahms performed by the Quartet Takács, written by the former engineer of the company Decca Simon Edonon and produced by longtime collaborator of the magazine «Hi-Fi News “Andrew Keener (File ALAC, carried over from the CD, Hyperion CDA67900), high frequency sound in the correct proportions, with lightly colored midrange, viola and cello.
In fact, reproducible system DALI Rubicon 8 higher octaves excellent. Michael DiPaskua cymbals, sounding when entering the «Endless Days», together with the lyrical solo Weber, did not stand out, front transient response during the strike plate DiPaskua designated quiet and crisp signal jitter. Similarly, plates Steve Nash «Trouble Man» Kurt Veyllisa by Frank Kimbrough quartet on jazz CD (Palmetto PM 2173), which I bought after inspirational overview Fred Kaplan, reproduced from the original metallic luster. The confused mixture of the composition «The Call» Nash and bassist Jay Anderson, like a replay would sound very crumpled on less advanced systems, but clearly the Rubicon passed the initial plan.
This album was recorded in Brooklyn, to me familiar studio «Systems Two», and the piano sounds on it a little more characteristic frequencies closer to the high-frequency range than you expect from the live sound. I got a recording of solo piano sound, specifically this performance «Années de pèlerinage» Franz Liszt late Jorge ache (File ALAC, carried over from the CD, Decca 410-160-2), and another album on the recommendation of Fred – Play Blue, an anagram by author Paul Bley (Paul Bley) (CD, ECM 2373). This match dates back to 1983 and recorded in the studio «Kingsway Hall» in London; Bley was recorded during a live performance in 2008.
Fred spoke passionately about the quality of the recording Play Blue, indicating that it sends a clear articulation of Blei, dynamic variations and excellent work the pedals, as well as the atmosphere of the hall Norvedzhian Hall. Passing through the column DALI Rubicon 8, the piano was reproduced with some strum, and the sound of superimposed high-frequency whistling and hissing sound: a modulation noise that seems to come from the tape. On the contrary, Bechstein piano ache from a CD of Liszt as a whole sounds just great, with excellent clarity and a natural medium range, except for a small underscore some notes in the high-frequency part. Both the recording was played DALIs with excellent fullness at the instruments in the initial octaves.
The description DALI Rubicon 8 indicated that the area of responsibility of the dome and ribbon tweeter is bordered on the frequency of 14 kHz. If the dome cover by hand and attach the ear to the web, you’ll find that the last comes not so many signals, especially with tools like Steinway Robert Silverman, the running list (files in AIFF and a 20 bit / 44.1 kHz drive Sonata, Stereophile STPH008-2). But when playing Liszt’s sick, covering dome tweeter, it was found that in this country the digital records are present in a small amount of modulation noise from the upper octaves, and non-recurrent stray sounds from the upper octaves, too, that you can not hear if you sit where necessary. Do the same with «Play Blue», I suggested that the whistling sound, mentioned earlier, are not the modulation noise, and are the result of breathing bleat.
What I can not reproduce the composition, DALI Rubicon 8 gave surround sound amazing for their stability and accuracy of the transmitted location tools. Re-enable the CD “Editor’s Choice” on the track with the “pink” double mono noise. My seat is so that my ears are opposite dome tweeter, and from this position “pink” noise reproduce very slowly, without isolation of any individual frequencies. When I sat in the chair so that my ears are located in front of the band, the higher octave sounded a little apart from the mid-range. The transmitted when playing “pink noise” image was extremely rosary, without blurring on some frequencies. When I shook his head, then I heard softly pronounced the results of the comb filter – that Gordon Holt calls “the effect of vertical blinds” – but the balance of the high-frequency is almost no effect. It’s really broadly column.
Summarizing DALI Rubicon 8
In the world on available floor speakers competition is growing, whether it’s a 3-way system, 2½-way or, like DALI Rubicon 8, 2½ + ½ + ½-way. In the last issue, we published an overview of excellent sounding models from Bryston, DeVore Fidelity, Focal, GoldenEar, KEF, Monitor Audio and Vienna Acoustics, as well as from the company’s Triangle, which I mentioned at the beginning of the review. Crisp, clean, unbiased column DALI Rubicon 8 complete this series of high-quality systems, each of which offers music with a little bit different sides, each of which can be recommended for purchase.
Source: dali-speakers, stereophile, dali-rubicon
Read another very interesting article about alternative energy of the Sun, water and air.
