Bonus Round 6: RBH MC-6C vs. Dali Mentor-1
Bonus Round 6 Price Category: $800-$1800
Clint DeBoer: In what has to be described as the most profound moment of the evening, the Dali Mentor-1's were pitted against the RBH Sound MC-6C speakers - just for fun. After all, they cost about $1000 more (over twice as much). We didn't know what to expect (at least I didn't having never heard them before.) The MC-6C's continued their excellent performance, though they also continued to fatigue my ears a bit. I did enjoy the additional top-end response, but combined with the mids it was a tad overbearing at high volumes. When we switched over to the Dali speakers it was as if the music took on a more natural sound. We had queued up Fourplay and the vocals, which I had thought sounded good before, sounded ABSOLUTELY LIVE. It was as if the lead vocals skipped over the whole A-to-D process and ignored the electronics to simply come straight at your chair. It sounded "realistic" for lack of a better term. So much so that I was consciously aware of my mind calculating how much time it would take to allocate the funds to pick up a pair of these speakers. When measuring these speakers we showed a 7dB bump at 10kHz from the ribbon tweeter (on-axis). When playing them back we didn't toe them in at all, which allowed the additional high frequency gain to be rolled off considerably. I never felt that they were fatiguing in the least or that they presented any sort of artificial distorted highs. They simply rang true and were the most transparent speakers I had listened to all evening - with a super-wide soundstage and a very pleasing sound. Save your money, these are worth it.
Gene DellaSala: I guess I am a lone wolf in my reporting here. I do however come from a unique perspective in that I spent over 3 months listening to these speakers and comparing them to everything that entered my listening space. When I first heard these speakers, I had many of the same experiences shared by the other listeners. WOW, these speakers were super detailed and very open sounding. The problem however is that over time, I found the top end to be too colored. I’d hate to use the word “bright” because the tweeters sounded so smooth and effortless regardless of playback volume. But the 7dB bump above 10kHz really wore down on me, especially for female vocals and string instruments. It was almost like cranking the last slider of a parametric EQ all the way up. At first it sounds more pleasing, but overtime… irritating.
Oddly during our face off, I wasn’t hearing this coloration. To me, the Dali’s seemed to have an infinitely wide soundstage with very precise imaging, definitely the best I heard in the face off. This puzzled me as during my listening session, I was clearly favoring the Dali's over the RBH’s which was the exact opposite conclusion I had while formally reviewing both speakers.
The next day, I went back and ran the comparison on my own with no distractions. I again was hearing an infinitely wide soundstage from the Dali’s that was impressive. I decided to switch over to music I was familiar with such as Dianne Reeves, Special EFX and Pat Metheny. I soon heard the high frequency coloration I remembered during my reviews. The vocals had too much lisp and the guitars just didn’t sound quite right tonally.
I then ran critical listening sessions of each speaker optimally placed. I again heard the coloration in the Dali's. While it never sounded harsh, it just didn’t sound right. The Dali’s had amazing bass extension and tightness. In fact, they had the most pleasing and accurate bass response of any of the speakers in this review. But, they couldn’t play loudly without bottoming out. I had to really watch the volume control on them, especially when listening to Pat Metheny “We Live Here”. The simple solution here, is, bass manage them and use a sub.
Overall, although the RBH’s didn’t have nearly the top end detail and presence of the Dali’s, but to me they sounded tonally more accurate and real. But the vocals rang truer with the RBH’s and the guitars sounded more like real guitars should sound. If Dali would have provided a compensation POT or switch to tone down that ribbon, I would have likely picked them as the winner. As it stands now, the Dali’s do so many things incredibly well, but their high frequency tonal balance is too hot for my liking. As a trained listener and an amateur musician that plays by ear I am blessed with good pitch and timber, perhaps in this case it’s my Achilles heel for not preferring the Dali's. For those who listening preferences favor a speaker with a lot of top end energy, the Dali’s are the one for you.
Tom Andry: Let me just give you my notes, verbatim so that you can understand my thoughts at the time.
RBH MC-6C = Recorded
Dali 1 = Live
'Nuff said.
J. Walker Clarke: Let me start with the RBH. I found them to have a wider upper end, but for my ears it was too bright, and borderlined on being harsh. As for the Dali's, they were very authentic and well-balanced, and had amazingly well-defined bass. I could not believe I was hearing this from a bookshelf sized speaker. The toms and timbale in a song we listened to was especially detailed. I can sum up the Dali's with this comment: they are possibly the most musical speakers I have ever heard. I would LOVE to have a pair of these in my study (even thought I don't have a study) for a system dedicated to two-channel listening. Amazing - this is truly a case of 'you get what you pay for'.
