Drawing upon four decades of hifi expertise, as DALI celebrates 40 years in the global audio business, the DALI IO-12 headphones have been engineered to deliver superior quality sound, together with sumptuous levels of comfort. Central to the development effort is the same material found in DALI's high-end speakers, making the DALI IO-12 headphones the world's first to feature DALI's patented Soft Magnetic Compound (SMC) magnet system.
When using conventional magnets in a speaker design, it is not unusual to experience a phenomenon known as hysteresis. This introduces an unintended resistance to the voice-coil, which can lead to unwanted distortion in the audio signal. DALI's SMC technology, combined with their signature paper fibre cones, significantly reduces hysteresis, lowering uneven harmonic distortion drastically. "By applying SMC to the DALI IO-12 headphones we have essentially achieved electrostatic levels of midrange clarity," says Krestian Pedersen, DALI Head of Product Management.
The IO-12 drivers also incorporate some DALI speaker driver techniques. Rather than employing a self-supporting, former-less construction in its voice-coil (typical of many headphone drivers), the IO-12 uses a voice-coil former, with the same shape and style as in a normal DALI speaker driver. The result is lower distortion through improved voice-coil structural integrity.
In addition, the IO-12 driver diaphragm borrows from DALI’s proprietary paper fibre diaphragm material. This offers a unique combination of mass, rigidity and damping that's perfectly tailored to wide-band reproduction with minimal distortion and energy storage. Employed in the IO-12, in combination with its SMC motor system, the result is a headphone driver with truly excellent performance and sound quality.
The IO-12's active sound quality is also optimized through its use of advanced electronic components sourced from world leading manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Sony. And rather than employ a conventional half-bridge amplifier topology, the IO-12 amplifier employs a fully bridged topology - effectively two amplifiers working together. The benefits are increased efficiency (typically greater than 90%), which helps with headphone battery life, and reduced distortion in the audio band, which of course also contributes to improved sound quality.
Wired and Wireless
Versatile and intuitive, the DALI IO-12 headphones have been designed to be used either wired or wirelessly. Thanks to support for SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth, and the supplied 3.5mm mini-jack and USB-C cables, users are able to listen to their music from a host of devices including: smartphones, Digital Audio Players (DAPs), PCs, games consoles and more. When using the supplied USB-C cable — dependent upon source and device — audio can be listened to at up to 24-bit/96kHz Hi-Res quality.
In contrast to many other headphones on the market — when using the 3.5mm cable in passive analog mode — the IO-12 do not need to be powered on. When used in this passive mode, the IO-12 applies a sophisticated internal passive filter, ensuring the same sound quality and performance, as when using the DSP based filtering used in active mode.
Given that audio reproduction quality is the focus for the design, the DALI IO-12 headphones also offer two sound profiles for listening to music. Those who prefer to listen to music as the artist intended, and those preferring a punchier, bass-focused performance, will simply need to activate the DALI IO-12's tailored 'Hi-Fi' and 'Bass' sound modes to get their music the way they want it.
Adopting a simple, app-free operation, users can skip tracks, pause/resume, adjust volume, and more using the IO-12's integrated buttons. Cutting-edge Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) adds even more functionality and ensures — even in noisy environments — an immersive listening experience, where every musical detail is revealed. With their comfortable design and long battery-life delivering 35 hours of fatigue-free listening, the DALI IO-12 headphones let users enjoy a new level of hi-fidelity on the go. And, thanks to the high-quality integrated microphones, voice can be heard clearly when making hands-free calls or voice-controlling a compatible device.
The luxurious design of the DALI IO-12 features a real leather headband and oversized square ear-pads, plus a matching luxury transport case with space for the included USB-C cable, 1.2m stereo mini-jack cable, 3m stereo mini-jack cable, 3.5mm stereo mini-jack to 6.35mm jack adaptor, and flight adaptor. The DALI IO-12 headphones are available now at €999 EUR or $1,299 USD.
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