Resounding!: loudspeakers from DALI

Superior spaces demand a superior audio experience and for that, designers rely on the quality of the sound system. But loudspeakers also have an aesthetic bearing on interiors. From private homes to commercial environments, no interior architect wants their carefully crafted scheme cluttered up with big, bulky floor-standing speakers. Nor do they want good-looking speakers which underperform.

Increasingly, design professionals are looking for speakers which can be integrated into a room’s walls and ceiling – and in a corner of Denmark, one company is doing just that. Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries (DALI), which was founded in 1983, has spent decades perfecting Hi-Fi sound and bringing it into people’s daily lives. Its Custom Installation (CI) Hi-Fi speakers are an extension of this commitment.

When you think of sound systems, Japan, the US or the UK may spring to mind. Denmark is the industry’s best-kept secret, and has, believe it or not, more such businesses per capita than any other country.

From its HQ in the small northern town of Nørager, DALI has become a world leader in Hi-Fi speaker development, winning awards from ‘EISA’ and ‘What Hi-Fi?’– accolades that are hard-won in such a competitive sector. Ongoing research into the acoustic sciences informs the work of DALI’s engineers, who go on to design, develop and produce their own unique driver technologies, including for woofers and tweeters. The result of this is the optimum audio experience for all sorts of interiors.

This technology sits inside speakers that are slim enough to be inserted easily into walls and ceilings, meaning architects can treat them as part of their design vision. The front grilles can be painted to match a room’s colour palette, at once giving the loudspeaker an unobtrusive appearance and also allowing it to blend seamlessly with the interior. These magnetic, super-slim grilles can be coloured in any shade from two of the world’s biggest colour systems: RAL and NCS, and there is even potential to decorate textile grilles with artwork in order to complement other wall features.

But unassuming looks and great performance aren’t everything. Designers are also usually on the lookout for systems that make the installation process more efficient. To this end, DALI has made its CI Hi-Fi speakers so easy to install that they contribute to – rather than hamper – the smooth running of projects. And because these speakers use ‘wide dispersion’ technology, fewer speakers are needed to fill a room with HI-FI quality sound.

© Architonic