DALI Headphones IO-6, Iron Black

Product Information

If you’re looking for an ultra premium option, and don’t mind not having the best noise cancellation out there, then these are well worth the cost. This is aided by treble that to me seems just a bit forward; it will emphasize details in the highs though not enough to exaggerate sibilants or harsh recordings to my ear. Some users may prefer a bit more oomph, but the IO6 strikes a nice balance to my ears, such that there’s enough bass in hip-hop tunes.

And that big battery life estimate, which with some alternative headphones is revealed to be about as accurate as some gossip overheard in the pub, proves quite correct. This, together with the well controlled breakups of the paper fibre cone diaphragm means that even the most minute music details stand out crystal clear. It provides nearly 24 Mbit/s of hypothetical transfer speeds, consumes very little energy and minimises signal interference by identifying crowded frequencies and circumventing them. Before I go into it, I have a background in Audio - a music technology degree, experience working in some studio's, composing music and also play a variety of instruments. Dali seems to focus their headphones on music instead of noise cancelling (NC), and that's fine by me.Her voice has such a beautiful velvet airiness to it, there's no harsh sibilance going on here, it's very well controlled and smooth. The dynamics of those keystrokes, the depth of the bass notes from the piano, the resonance of some of the keys that are sustained, the actual timbre and nuances of those stringed instruments that subtly fill the low end and the occasional panning to the right.

The DALI IO ear pads are made from memory foam that naturally shapes to the head, therefore creating the best possible seal to achieve minimum leak variation. Trying something with a lot more dynamics and attack, lets take "The Bass Walk - Abraham Laboriel" - Probably one of the most appreciated bass guitar players out there, how musical is this track through these headphones with the volume turned up a notch - very! CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4, CA5, CA6, CA7, CA8, CA9, CA10, CA11, CA12, CA13, CA14, CA15, CA16, CA17, CA18, CA19, CA20, CA21, CA22, CA23, CA24, CA25, CA26, CA27, CA28.

In combination with the similarly finely resolved trebles, this results in wonderful presence in the form of a remarkably fast and open sound image, which is by no means typical with closed systems. High frequencies are not in your face, they are there but gentle and smooth, it can reach high when it needs to bring that shine, sparkle and sheen out as and when dictated by the music, this is what makes it enjoyable, dynamic and engaging. There is, though, a ‘transparency’ setting which pauses music and slightly amplifies the sound of the outside world.

They mention that the sound is fantastic, the depth of music revealing stands out and that the volume is impressive. all I've done after work for the past week is listen to music and its made me fall in love with songs all over again. Every time we get a premium pair of wireless noise-cancellers to review (and they just keep on coming, most recently from Sennhesier), we observe that you’re spoiled for choice. As far as the electronics are concerned, the device we tested works more gently and less intensively in comparison to the Sony WH-1000XM3. I HIGHLY recommend you folk listen to these passively and see what you think, maybe compare them to other higher end headphones and see what the comparisons are.On the other end of the spectrum, I often used the headphones’ transparency mode which uses the microphone to amplify outside noise, because the headphones already block out so much sound with noise canceling off. On top of that, the Dalis can go from flat to fully charged in just two hours – and the USB-C socket can also be used as an audio connection (from Windows or Mac) as well as facilitating charging.

DALI may not be as well-known as the likes of Bose or Sony, but the Danish company has been building high-quality speakers for years. He is not the kind of 'detail' that walks in the room and suddenly starts boasting about what he can do and wants to be the centre of attention. So where does this leave me with the Dali IO6 so far, it has a very good impressive strong foundation that makes it a sound solid investment right out of the box. Along with reducing the annoyance of external noise, noise cancelling improves the audibility of music detail, meaning you can listen at lower volume reducing the potential of long term hearing damage. As usual, this is the ‘make-or-break’ section – but in the case of the Dali IO-6 headphones it feels even more so than usual.On another track, let's take "Angel - Sarah McLachlan" - the detail and nuances in the piano that really start to become noticable. The DALI IO-6 headphones offer a runtime per battery charge of up to 30 hours, while the IO-4 offers the record value of up to 60 hours. The company’s been a leading light of passive loudspeaker design for over 35 years now, so it must have thought the time was finally right to get a piece of the headphone action – that’s if there’s any left to grab, of course. Moving to Cindy Lauper’s True Colors, the iO-6s give us the stark, pared-back nuances of the initial bongo drums, the strummed acoustic guitar and Lauper’s inimitable vocal with both competence and ease.