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Dali MENUET SE – Tiny bookshelf speaker with technical upgrade and new cabinet finish

A technical upgrade as well as an especially noble finish should distinguish the Dali MENUET in the now available Special Edition, the Dali MENUET SE. Elegance paired with appealing sound is to be offered here in the most compact form.


The Danish loudspeaker specialist Dali Speaker A/S has always had a very wide range of products, which are designed to be easily integrated into the customer’s living environment. This applies equally to home cinema, i.e. multi-channel surround solutions, as well as classic stereo systems, for solutions in the lower, but also in the upper price segment. In addition to the finest speakers with “usual” dimensions, there are also many solutions that are particularly compact, such as the Dali MENUET bookshelf speaker system.

The Dali MENUET is an almost tiny bookshelf speaker system, which presents itself as a mature sound system, even more so in the new Special Edition, which is offered as Dali MENUET SE. A technical upgrade is promised by Dali Speaker A/S for this new Dali MENUET SE, but the most striking new feature is the really very noble design with a finish of real wood veneer in wild walnut.

The special thing about the Dali MENUET has always been that, as already described, it is an especially compact bookshelf speaker system. This speaker system is therefore designed to provide fine sound even where space is really limited. This is achieved by using technologies that have been tried and tested over the years in the Danish company’s other loudspeaker series, and which have been specially optimised for the very, very compact dimensions. The manufacturer himself speaks of the Dali MENUET as an extremely compact, even tiny loudspeaker system, which, in view of this fact, is able to offer an even more remarkable sound.

The new version of the Dali MENUET SE, just like its regular sister model, uses a low/midrange driver with a diameter of 115 mm, whereby the material cellulose reinforced with wood fibres, which is so typical for Dali Speaker A/S, is used. This special material not only provides the red colouring of the diaphragm, it also shows a high stiffness and at the same time a very low weight and a chaotic structure of the diaphragm surface, which is optimal for avoiding unwanted resonances. Micro-vibrations that could falsify the sound are thus prevented right from the start.

This low/midrange driver is driven by a motor based on a voice coil former made of fiberglass, which reduces mechanical losses and distortion to a minimum and is equipped with a powerful magnet for effective operation.

The tweeter of the Dali MENUET SE is also a 28 mm tweeter, designed as a fabric dome driver, just like the normal production model. This type of tweeter provides a silky smooth, clear tweeter range with very good dispersion into the room in a variety of models from Dali Speaker A/S.

The actual special feature from a purely technical point of view in the new Dali MENEUT SE is the crossover, because it is equipped with high-quality Mundorf capacitors and should also have a special electrical shielding to prevent interference between the individual components.

The connection panel has also been “upgraded”, because the Dali MENUET SE uses the same terminals as the high-end Dali EPICON series to guarantee an optimal connection.

As already described, the most obvious innovation of the Dali MENUET SE compared to the standard model is its finish. Here they decided on a noble real wood veneer, which should make the small speaker a real gem. Wild walnut is used here, painted in high gloss, so that each speaker is unique and the extraordinary wood structure is shown to its best advantage. Of course, Dali Speaker A/S makes sure that the grain of stereo pairs harmonises visually, so the cabinets are carefully pre-sorted and assembled accordingly.

From a purely technical point of view, the new Dali MENUT SE is a two-way bass reflex system that can reproduce a frequency range between 59 Hz and 25 kHz. The sensitivity is specified by the manufacturer at 86 dB, the nominal impedance at 4 Ohm. This loudspeaker system is designed for amplifiers with a power output between 20 and 100 Watts.

The Dali MENUET SE measures 250 x 150 x 230 mm and weighs exactly 4 kg. According to the manufacturer, this speaker is not only suitable for free placement on a piece of furniture or a suitable stand, but can also be wall-mounted, which makes the use of the Dali MENUET SE even more flexible. The corresponding holes for the wall mounting device can be found directly on the back of the speaker system.

As an expression of the fact that this is a worthy special model, which is assembled by hand, the speakers receive an individual brass nameplate after the final quality inspection, which contains the initials of the respective employee at Dali Speaker A/S.

The new Dali MENUET SE is now available at specialist dealers. The recommended retail price is given by the manufacturer as € 699,- per piece. The scope of delivery naturally includes a matching speaker grill, which is held in position by magnets alone.

Getting to the point

The Dali MENUET is an almost tiny bookshelf speaker system, which presents itself as a mature sound system, even more so in the new Special Edition, which is offered as Dali MENUET SE. A technical upgrade is promised by Dali Speaker A/S for this new Dali MENUET SE, but the most striking new feature is the really very noble design with a finish of real wood veneer in wild walnut.

Manufacturer:Dali Speaker A/S
Distribution:Audiophil GbR
Price:€ 699,- per piece

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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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