The DALI Mentor 1 is a fine sounding speaker system in a neat little package. They are best suited for small to medium sized rooms and highly recommended to be utilized with a dedicated subwoofer. The tweeter array in the Mentor 1’s is exceptionally good, never sounding compressed or strained. But as you can see in my measurements, they have quite a great deal of high frequency energy. As a result, I suggest little to no toe-in, and to install them in a well acoustically controlled room, preferably with a dedicated subwoofer. Don’t even try to use these speakers in a room surrounded by vaulted ceilings, sliding glass doors and tile floors. In fact, if this describes your room, and you aren't planning on doing any treatment, then either select a different room for your home theater, or use headphones (particularly the Sennheiser HD 600s I recently reviewed). Take special care when choosing electronics as well that tend to favor the warmer side of the audio spectrum to help tame the brightness of these speakers.

...with the Mentor 1's, be prepared to be rewarded with a level of detail and transparency not typically found in many competitor speaker systems.

If what you are after is a compact, attractive, well-built speaker system that will reveal all of the subtleties of your recordings, then the DALI Mentor 1’s should be added to your auditioning shortlist. They score big in the WAF department, play nicely with virtually any decent amplifier or receiver on the market, and will likely impress any audiophile with their excellent imaging and 3D spatiality. In my opinion, these speakers favor jazz instrumental type recordings over compressed mainstream pop and rock music. The famous “garbage in = garbage out” saying about the sonic attributes of a speaker system being dependent on the recording quality definitely applies to these speakers. So do your best to pair them with good electronics, an acoustically neutral listening room, and quality source material and be prepared to be rewarded with a level of detail and transparency not typically found in many competitor speaker systems.

Editorial Note from DALI on High Frequency Response of the Mentor 1’s

The excessive high frequency energy that Gene observed in the Mentor 1’s is an intentional design attribute and part of DALI's "flat off-axis" design. DALI speakers are designed to be linear 20 to 30 degrees off-axis. If they are toed-in (should never be done), they will sound "Hot".

The curvature of the DALI wood-pulp cone, combined with a specific crossover design, results in off-axis linearity. For these reasons, DALI speakers must always be set-up "flat" with respect to the listener, so that the signal received is off-axis.

The reason for an off-axis design is to:

• Provide a wide and deeper "sweet spot" (larger listening area).
• Provide better room integration. 60% of all sound heard is reflected. Therefore, if off-axis sound is linear, reflected sound will also be more linear, resulting in better room integration.
• Avoid "beaming" distortion due to "break-up" of the cone (always 1 to 2 degrees "on-axis" in any cone design), directly onto the listener. In an off-axis design, this break-up distortion is harmlessly beamed down the left and right sides of the room, rather than being converged upon the listener.

DALI Loudspeakers

Suite # 201
3957 Irongate Road
Bellingham, WA 98226
tel: 360-733-4446
fax: 360-733-0080
website: www.dali-usa.com
email: beg@dali.dk