Dali unveils its first ever headphones

Dali unveils its first ever headphones at IFA 2019
(Image credit: Future)

Dali has launched its first ever pairs of headphones at IFA 2019 bringing hi-fi principles to portable audio.

The Dali iO-4 and Dali iO-6 have been created to fit into the fast growing wireless space with the Danish hi-fi company recognising that Bluetooth listening is the popular choice of the age.

Dali has also been sure to make them incredibly durable to cope with the stresses and strains headphones must handle as they are pulled in and out of backpacks and stuffed into coat pockets throughout the day. They're soft, light and the headband is incrediblY flexible.

In terms of acoustics, Dail has approached its headphones with a loudspeaker mindset. The 50mm drivers are custom made and are fitted with paper/fibre cones. The over-ear enclosures are braced and stiff like speaker cabinets and rubber dampeners inside eliminate vibrations. 

The iO headphones support Bluetooth Aptx HD to maximise the wireless music quality but they also have a 3.5mm line, USB-C for charging and remote controls on the right earcup for volume and track pause/play, rewind and forwarding. 

The iO-4 headphones have an astonishing 60 hours of battery life, whereas the iO-6 have noise-cancelling technology and half the playback time. Both will hit the stores in October in Iron Black and Caramel White and will retail for £269 and £349 respectively. 

We were definitely impressed by what we heard with our brief hands-on time. The noise-cancelling feature was very solid and there is obvious quality in both the dynamics and detail on offer but we’ll have more info in our upcoming full review.

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Dan Sung

Dan is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and his job is with product reviews as well as news, feature and advice articles too. He works across both the hi-fi and AV parts of the site and magazine and has a particular interest in home cinema. Dan joined What Hi-Fi? in 2019 and has worked in tech journalism for over a decade, writing for Tech Digest, Pocket-lint, MSN Tech and Wareable as well as freelancing for T3, Metro and the Independent. Dan has a keen interest in playing and watching football. He has also written about it for the Observer and FourFourTwo and ghost authored John Toshack's autobiography, Toshack's Way.

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