Question Small room - Dali Oberon 5 5.1

Jonnyboydub

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Hi, new to the forum, looking for advice on a home cinema/music set up.

I have a small living room (in a fairly open plan apartment). It’s roughly 3.3m by 3.8m. I’m thinking of getting a Dali Oberon 5 5.1 Speaker package with:

- 2 Dali Oberons
- 1 Dali Vokal
- 2 Dali Oberon On-Walls
(Not getting a Sub right now)

Do you think this would be overkill for a room this size? I’ve looked around and these seem to be good value for my budget and their more compact size looks like it would suit my space well.

I’m looking to pair them with a Denon AVR-X2600H. Would this be powerful enough for these speakers? (or even too much?)

Am very new to all this so any advice would be great.
 
I have a similar sized room and running the zensor 5s with vokal centre/ zensor 1s as surrounds. They sound very good but keep the floor standers away from the walls.

Iv had to put mine out wide due to dual pb 2000s and they dont sound that impressive any more.
 
Thanks Andy, glad to hear they sounded good in the small space.

I don’t think I’ll be spreading them too wide, they’ll be on either end of a TV bench, roughly 1.8m-2.0m apart.

I’m in a second floor apartment so I don’t think I’ll be installing a sub for the time being, though may in the future.

What amp are you powering the Zensors with?
 
I’m in a second floor apartment so I don’t think I’ll be installing a sub for the time being, though may in the future.

I would think this carefully. If the apartment is one of those old cheaply built where you can hear steps from upstairs very easily and/or you have some nightmare neighbour who naggs about everything then i agree it might not be good idea. I assume you will be watching some blockbuster movies and might get disappointed that the slim towers with dual 5,25" drivers aren´t putting out much of low frequencies, so certain type of movies will sound anemic. Missing the fun stuff.

You still have option to think about Oberon 1s (350£) + stands (50£) as the Oberon 5s cost 699£ which is lot of money. So the first option leaves you 300£ to play with. That basically get`s you good small forward firing sealed subwoofer which you might be able to fit near couch as in nearfield so you don´t have to run it so loud, recommendation i have seen many times for people that live in apartment. I have never had problems with subwoofer in higher floors, only thing required is common sense. When you run the receivers auto setup it will be matched with the rest of system to sound balanced and you can always tweak it to your liking. You are probably wondering what that tiny sub could be, here is one example:
 
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That little Sub looks great and I’ll definitely think about adding one later. I’ll keep the model bookmarked.

I’m not looking for a massive sound, I’m more interested in everything sounding good rather than loud if that makes sense. I’ll mostly be watching horror, documentaries and arthouse stuff. I do however plan on playing a lot of music through the set-up so I may need more bass sooner rather then later.

What do you think I would need for an amp? I mentioned the Denon 2600 as it seems to be the one most recommended for a mid range set-up but would you recommend anything else? I would love to get something smaller and could probably stretch the budget a little further for a Marantz NR1710 Slimline but I don’t know if that would provide enough power for all 5 speakers.
 
That little Sub looks great and I’ll definitely think about adding one later. I’ll keep the model bookmarked.

I’m not looking for a massive sound, I’m more interested in everything sounding good rather than loud if that makes sense. I’ll mostly be watching horror, documentaries and arthouse stuff. I do however plan on playing a lot of music through the set-up so I may need more bass sooner rather then later.

What do you think I would need for an amp? I mentioned the Denon 2600 as it seems to be the one most recommended for a mid range set-up but would you recommend anything else? I would love to get something smaller and could probably stretch the budget a little further for a Marantz NR1710 Slimline but I don’t know if that would provide enough power for all 5 speakers.

Keep this site bookmarked, you get to see then which finish XLS200 is available as new grade-b to get best deal when you are buying. 2pages. I would personally pick FF (driver orientation as in Front Firing) if you have neighbours under you. DF = downfiring. I don´t believe it makes massive difference as low frequencies will travel easily, but as you can pick one or other then why not pick the lesser evil from the two. Performance is same.


The slimline Marantz is designed for small rooms. It can run 5.2.2/7.2 system in real life not just on paper. Assuming you have powered subwoofer which takes heavy load off from receiver, the Marantz will work fine in apartment where the listening levels are normally kept moderate.

But the Denon offers more for lower price which makes it better buy. It comes down do you have the space for it or no. I would buy receiver + speakers together as bundle deal, you need to ask around which dealer gives you best price. Don´t pay list prices! Peter Tyson, RicherSounds, Exceptional AV, AudioVisualOnline etc. Normally if you would buy the Dali Oberon 5 5.1 system with X2600H you would pay 1800£, without receiver 1700£. So save up until you can purchase them together and then get biggest discount. Bundle deal is the magic word.

Highly recommend you go listen the Dalis first and pick some other similar sized speakers like MA Bronze 5s so you have something to compare, they have banana plugs so it will be fast swapping between speakers. Also important to bring your own music with you and ask either X2600H or Marantz slim line receiver to be used on demo (which ever you choose to buy ask that). Demoing is free you can visit hifi shop any day and no need to buy anything right away.
 
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I have Oberon 5s, 1s zensor 1s and zensor vokal in a room about 5x10-12m, with svs sb2000. It's more than enough for that room.

I'd suggest in a it might be overkill.

It could be seriously worthwhile looking at the Dali Spektor 2s, 1s and vokal. You'll save a load of money. Order the whole lot online via RS and you can try then return. The spektors get a great write up in What Hifi, as do the Oberons (and I do think they're very good).

Also, if you look at ebay you'll see a lot of used zensors flooding the market now. Having been able to do zensor to Oberon direct comparisons, there's little difference, if any. Another value option.

Zensor 3 on the four £100+, zensor 1s from sub £100.
 
Can anyone suggest a pair of Atmos speakers that will match up with this set? I have wood beams on my ceiling and want to install down firing speakers directly on the wood.

Any suggestions?
 
You could buy some zensor 1s or Pico's then pay a joiner to make cabinets with equal volume to the originals but in a shape that better suits your beam dimensions, and get the bass port to fire forwards.
I reckon that would cost you less than £400 total.
 

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