Years in the making, DALI’s KORE flagship breaks cover and it’s a triumph of engineering, style and superlative sound
There are many ways to express that emotion of delighted surprise when encountering something unexpected: everything from the archaic ‘Gosh’ or ‘Goodness’, through the more contemporary low whistle or ‘Wow’, or even the kind of expletive never found in these pages. Meanwhile, the Blessed Google suggests that the Danes might say ‘hold da helt ferie’, literally ‘take a whole vacation’, which I guess is somewhere close to the American ‘get outta here’. But for those of us brought up on British films of the latter part of last century, perhaps the best reaction to these new DALI flagship speakers is just to mention their name, perhaps followed by ‘blimey’ for the full effect.
You see, the DALI KORE speakers, yours for a cool £70,000 a pair in their combination of Ebony Amarra wood veneer with gold accents, are impressive on just about every level. Even if they’re not the very tallest floorstander we’ve reviewed over the years, at 1.675m the KORE remains an imposing presence in any room thanks as much to its sheer bulk and solidity.
On A Roll
At 148kg per speaker (248kg per crate) the KORE’s unpacking and installation is eased by a ‘castors and ramp’ approach first championed by B&W, allowing these huge cabinets to be rolled out of their crates and into place. Then it’s a matter of winding down the spikes to support the speakers, before finally unbolting the castors and putting them away somewhere safe in case you ever feel brave enough to move the cabinets again.
All the mass of this speaker helps define its performance rather than contributing to aesthetic effect, although there’s no disputing the visual impact of the KORE’s stunning industrial design. With one of its hefty 290mm bass drivers mounted high up in the cabinet, stability was a concern – hence the outrigger feet and 32kg plinth made from concrete and resin, the latter ‘grounding’ the speakers while also allowing for some adjustment of tilt towards the listener. The position of the two bass units on the baffle, and their slight angle, also forms part of the overall time-alignment of the KORE’s output for a notional 3m listening distance.
Stuff Of Legend
Everything about the KOREs seems built on a Herculean scale, not least those ‘nearly 12in’ woofers with their twin voice-coil balanced drive and second generation of DALI’s Soft Magnetic Compound (SMC)technology. The idea of using twin voice coils is to extend the linear performance of the motor, for as one coil is leaving the surrounding magnetic field the other is entering. Directional non-linearities are cancelled, distortion is reduced and maximum output improved. Shorting rings are also used to linearise voice-coil inductance and reduce distortion still further. In practice, and despite the much-reduced excursion of the partnering 178mm midrange unit, all three of these moving-coil drivers employ the same ‘Balanced Drive’ concept.
They also feature similar sandwich cones made from paper pulp reinforced with wood fibre, the rich colour and ‘natural’ texturing of the cones being very familiar to DALI-watchers over the years. Those bass drivers are mounted into separate ~72 litre reflex enclosures and tuned to a claimed 22Hz via angled ports that exit at the rear via a pair of slatted exhausts. The midrange unit, by contrast, is loaded into an attenuated open back housing. These drivers are combined with a 35mm soft textile dome tweeter and a 10x55mm ultra-high frequency planar/ribbon unit, this forming what DALI calls its EVO-K driver: the version here a development of that found in the company’s Epicon loudspeakers. The crossover, operating at 390Hz, 2.1kHz and 12kHz, is a split design with the bass section mounted in that hefty composite plinth, and the midband-to-treble handled by a second board, located close to those drivers.
Divide And Conquer
The enclosure, meanwhile, is built by a Danish furniture manufacturer that specialises in ‘curved shapes’, using a 28mm-thick birch laminate composite. It combines structural elements made from die-cast aluminium, thermoset resin and cast composite, and is divided up internally so each section of the speaker is operating in its own space. The dividers also brace the cabinet and are formed from laminated birch shelves installed to create non-parallel surfaces. The role of this cabinet, which is finished in a striking dark veneer with textured accents? According to CEO Lars Worre, it’s to ‘hold the drivers, be airtight, and shut up’.
It’s also built to be relatively easy to position – DALI suggesting 3-5m between the speakers, 1-2m from the wall behind, and away from corners, while also advising against any toe-in if the set-up conforms to the classic ‘equilateral triangle’ layout. There’s a KORE ‘White Paper’ covering, among other things, the brand’s ‘wide dispersion philosophy’, and you can find it on the company website at www.dali-speakers.com/en/products/dali-kore/dali-kore. (Registration may be required.)
Executive summary? The company aims to optimise the dispersion characteristics of its designs so that direct and reflected sounds have a similar tonal character. What’s more, the KORE is designed as a stable, relatively easy load for amplifiers, with a nominal impedance rated at 4ohm, a minimum of 3.2ohms at 72Hz, and a sensitivity given as 88dB/W/m.
The Big Picture
The KOREs, driven for my listening in PM‘s main room by Constellation’s Centaur II 500 Stereo power amp [HFN Dec ’19], had a sound to match their imposing presence. They created a big, impressive sonic picture with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Reiner recording of Dvorak’s 9th [RCA Red Seal 82876 66376 2], allied to excellent orchestral dynamics and detail, despite not being quite the last word in soundstaging. In truth, this recording is a little bit ‘big band’ rather than having ultimate audiophile focus, but there’s nonetheless fabulous speed and power – in the brass in particular – realised with ease by the KOREs.
There was solid imaging with Lake St Drive’s cover of ‘Automatic’, from the Fun Machine: The Sequel EP [Fantasy FAN01870], with fine focus on Rachael Price’s voice and a big bold, driving bass and drums, along with plenty of information in the rest of the group. The view of the deep, powerful vocals as she switches register between verse and chorus was insightful, and the speakers were just as impressive with the soulful piano opening of ‘You’re Still The One’, with keys player Akie Bermiss on vocals adding bags of character. Meanwhile Price really excelled on ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’, her dark vocals perfectly suited to the tone of the track.
There were more vocals, and more chances for the KOREs to shine, with The Unthanks’ ‘Waters Of Tyne’ from the new Sorrows Away album [Rabble Rouser Records RRM024B]. The song was delivered with intimacy and simplicity, and with every word crystal-clear. In fact, in their clarity, these big speakers sound like much smaller ones, which is no backhanded compliment.
There’s also good pace and lightness of foot here from speakers so large – not always a given. The John Wilson/Sinfonia of London recording of Harold Arlen’s suite from The Wizard Of Oz [Hollywood Soundstage, Chandos CHSA5294] enjoyed the full big picture treatment, slipping from ominous brass to skipping strings without pause.
Stinging Speed
The KOREs are ‘fast’, too, with the Ben Liebrand mix of Sting’s ‘Englishman In New York’ from the new expanded version of Nothing Like The Sun [A&M] crafted with speed and control in the bass and Mino Cinélu’s detailed percussion, plus drama in the accompanying strings. Manu Katché’s drums sounded great here, too, as did the sax solo by Branford Marsalis, while DJ MONK’s ‘hard dub’ take on the usually delicate ‘Fragile’ really got those big, wood-chip infused bass units working.
Startling, too, were the David Bowie remixes and live takes from the Moonage Daydream soundtrack [Parlophone 5054197283970], but the real revelation was the way the KOREs nailed the ‘small ensemble’ feel to the original single version of ‘Starman’. So yes, these towering speakers really can do intimate very well indeed. ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ from the Michael Wollny Trio’s recent Ghosts album [ACT, ACT9956-2] is all subtle bass and a lot of delicate cymbal work behind a wonderfully present piano. The evocative-sounding KOREs maintained the fabulous soundstaging, and close-focused detail of all three performers, the piano sounding suitably percussive and the cymbals just hanging in space.
Magic Act
There’s larger-scale drama from the 2022 Broadway cast recording of Sondheim’s Into The Woods [Craft Recordings], where the KOREs did a thrilling job of keeping under control all the elements of the scene-setting ‘Prologue’. Lots of clever wordplay and plot-development is going on here, and the speakers, driven by the Constellation Centaur amplifier, maintained a firm grip on proceedings, while still conveying the magical atmosphere of the piece as it darts between characters.
A greater sense of menace was evident in Iggy Pop’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’ from the Here It Is tribute album [Blue Note 00602445659951]. Wow – this sounded good via the KOREs, as did Peter Gabriel’s near-impression on his take on the title track, while Mavis Staples’ reading of ‘If It Be Your Will’ was just spine-tingling, not least thanks to the great breathy sax solo by Immanuel Wilkins.
The KOREs also dazzled with the fabulous new Bach: Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069 on Linn Records [CKD 666]. Again, the performance didn’t rival the forensic viewpoint that some loudspeakers offer, but instead majored on a big, bold and crisply detailed impression of real musicians performing in a real space, with absolute communication of the music. The brass and strings were joyously delightful, as were the still tinglesome vocals of The Manhattan Transfer on the orchestra-backed version of ‘Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone’ from Fifty [Craft Recordings CR05249]. This track has a wonderfully ethereal sound that’s more than a match for the original release from 50 years ago, with the added ‘threat’ of orchestral effects, such as the rumbles of thunder. The KOREs allowed the piece to swing while at the same time conveying a palpable sense of unease.
Vivid View
And presence is what these speakers do so well, as is clear with Vicky Chow’s first set of Philip Glass études [Canteloupe Records Bandcamp download]. It’s not just in the way each note lands and decays, but in the realism of the instrument in the round. The same is true of Foy Vance’s ‘Republic Of Eden’ from his Signs Of Life: Live From The Highlands [Atlantic Records] – the sound is so simple, but presented by DALI’s KOREs with such a vivid view of the performance.
Hi-Fi News Verdict
Big, bold and dominating, DALI’s flagship KORE loudspeakers are capable of projecting sound with excellent focus, detail and, of course, acoustic power. Moreover, while they will deliver all the scale of orchestral music with breathless ease, they also have finesse, speed and resolution on their side. If you have the real estate and finances to entertain the KOREs, they rank as one of high-end hi-fi’s ‘essential listens’.
Review originally posted on hifinews.com