New speakers at my home

Hello,

Finally I was decided to change my speakers from Dali Zensor 1’s to something better, with much more low frequency response, but with better or equally superb tonal balance as Zensor 1’s. It wasn’t easy and I went through several audition sessions starting with floorstanders also from Zensor product line, Focal Chorus line, Monitor Audio, Dali Ikon 2’s and finally true High End Mentor 2’s audio monitors.

At the end I thought that Ikon 2’s should be perfectly fine, but after listening to them at the store I found them little bright with granular, metallic high tone frequencies which annoyed me little bit. Than, I tried Mentor’s with the same tune playing and they sounded more refined with smoother top end. They can cover all the string in the upper bass instrument going down to 37Hz – perfect for jazz and classical music as well.

I couldn’t afford to them back then, but because this line is about to be replaced by the recent new Dali’s Rubicon line I’ve got pretty nice discount at the store. So, to make the story short here they are standing on the SoundOrganization Z1’s stands.

Below without the grill:

Based on the included guide they need some break-in time to improve their overall performance, but this guide do not provide how long, so I asked about it directly to Dali. According to Dali’s product manager they need around 50-100 hours of run-in period with normal listening. In my case it will be around one month. Of course I will report back then how they sound. Their build quality is stunning with original wood veneer and top quality binding posts with ability for bi-wiring/amping if needed.
According also by Dali they should be placed at least 10-80cm off of the rear wall with no toe-in thanks to widespread tweeter characteristic.

For my old speakers I used QED Strand 79 AWG14 speaker cable which is pure copper simple wire. I am skeptical about hugely priced speaker cables, but I decided to re-wire my Mentors with something what looks better (pro-kinda) with bigger diameter – AWG 12. My choice is Mogami W3103 as you can see below.

It’s quite thick cable from their professional line, but rather flexible. It has negligible resistance and pretty low capacitance. It looks much better with my new speakers ;-). How it sounds, I will let you know after the run-in period as well.

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