DALI iO-6 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphone Preview

See the full review of the “DALI iO-6 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphone”

Wireless noise-cancelling headphones are no longer strictly the province of the business traveler or the convenience-seeker.

They are the next product segment to be lavished with the “Audiophile” treatment by manufacturers. And frankly, why shouldn’t they be? Audiophiles aren’t cavepeople. We travel and desire the same convenience and style as the average consumer, but we simply expect a higher level of sound quality. The demand is certainly there, and more and more audio companies are pushing the envelope and researching new technology. In the next few years, we are sure to see new Bluetooth chipsets and transmission standards to accommodate the bigger data pipe that lossless and hi-res audio demand.

In the here-and-now, DALI joined the wireless headphone fray with their stylish take on this product category. I have been putting the new DALI iO-6 Noise-Cancelling Wireless headphones through their paces lately and they have been proving to be a superior implementation of the wireless headphone concept. Their clean Danish design and the caramel white color scheme of my review sample have been a welcome visual departure from the expected. Comfort level from repeated and extended usage has been stellar and sound quality is top-notch with a nicely balanced tuning that should appeal to a broad swath of headphone humanity.

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The quality of the fixed-level noise-cancellation has been decent when performing the usual around the house activities and chores. I plan on taking the iO-6 with me to the upcoming CanJam NYC show so that I can properly evaluate the NC system’s usefulness on an airplane. The one thing I didn’t anticipate with the DALI iO-6 headphones is the degree to which I’d have to fight my wife over who gets to use them. She loves the way they both look and sound and is putting up a fuss at the prospect of being without them for the weekend I’m away. My better half has always appreciated good sound but has never cared for the look of any of the raft of headphones I’ve had come through my hands. She’d use one if she needed to, but she typically settles for whatever is handy. The DALI’s time in our house has changed her ambivalence in a big way!

Stay tuned to the Secrets website for a thorough review of these unique new headphones. Coming out after CanJam NYC.

See the full review of the “DALI iO-6 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphone”

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Carlo Lo Raso

A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.