DALIOberon 3 Bookshelf Speaker - Dark Walnut (Pair)

Like to sound and midbass. Very neutral sounding speakers which require good amp.

The Dali Oberon 3 loudspeaker harkens back to the glory days of large bookshelf speakers in the '70s and '80s, but have a transparency seldom found at the time. Nobody wanted a puny 5.25 inch woofer to match with their Japanese receiver (many of which are now collector's items).The oversize tweeter and 7 inch woofer give the Oberon 3 big sound, but a subwoofer is still necessary for real heft in the bottom octaves. There's a harmonic richness to the sound you just don't get from small monitors.If you've got the room for them, I can't think of another speaker at this price point I'd rather have.

Good but a little to sharp for me with bad recording . Good sound stage .

I have to say that the Dali Oberon 3s are beautiful speakers, and can sound amazing, but may need some extra attention. I bought a pair of Oberon 3 bookshelf speakers, and paired them with the matching Oberon Vokal Center. They replaced a ten+ year old set of Infinitys for my home theater room. While the Infinitys never were capable of audio magic, they were surprisingly competent, and most of all, very forgiving.Like most people, I don't have a perfectly shaped or treated room, and some of my speaker placements are informed by practical and design concerns, rather than audio ideals. My old Infinitys didn't seem too sensitive to these placement restrictions, a fact that I only belatedly noticed in comparison to the Oberons.After hooking up the new Dalis and orienting them as best I could according to the manufacturer's suggestions (especially not toeing them in), my first impression was how laid back and warm they seemed. Music sounded full and present, with no harsh high end. The soundstage was very wide and localization seemed very specific. Instead of a general idea of where the music was coming from, for the first time I could really close my eyes and pinpoint specific instrument locations in the recording. Very impressive. In fact more than a couple of times I had to check the settings to make sure my receiver wasn't running in some sort of surround mode instead of just stereo.But the more I listened, the more I missed a little sparkle in the upper registers. The highs were rolled off a little much for my tastes. Then I began to notice certain registers of (primarily male) vocals seemed a little boxy, and over-emphasized. Unfortunately this only became worse once I added the Vokal center channel into the mix.Watching movies in Dolby digital surround further confirmed the tendency of the Vokal center channel to become very boxy and hollow sounding--especially when listening even slightly off horizontal axis.In fact this was so annoying that I considered either returning all three speakers, or at least the Vokal center channel. What saved the day was the arrival of a new AV receiver, which included Dirac Live room calibration. After a bit of a learning curve ( and the purchase of an external calibration mic), I did a complete room calibration with the new Dalis. What a difference! The Dirac calibration completely tamed the boxiness of the Dalis, and made their sweet soundstage come even more alive. Now I finally appreciated how beautiful these speakers could sound with a little extra attention. And the calibrated surround settings made movies even more enveloping and immediate. Individual speaker location dropped away, leaving a nearly seamless audio experience. Vocals were clear and natural, and everything seemed perfectly balanced.The bottom line is these can be gorgeous sounding speakers, especially for the price. But you have to be willing to give them some extra care in placement, and possibly in EQ (depending on your room). They are also not very forgiving of poor recordings; I was able to differentiate different recording methods and choices much more with these speakers than any others I've owned. If something isn't recorded well, the Dalis won't hide it!