Dali Rubicon 8 Floorstanding Tower Speaker Overview

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HTKamikazee

Audioholics Sheriff
I've always been a fan of DALI. It has been one of my favorite speaker companies for many years. Not only they build some of the most beautiful speakers I have seen; they are very well made too (which is of great importance to me). As a fan, I'm always paying close attention their designs and innovations and not long ago, they introduced their new Rubicon 8 Floorstanding Tower Speaker.
rubicon-8-finishes.jpg

This system contains three large bass reflex ports on the back right behind each woofer to minimize time delay.
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This beautiful design contains a ribbon super-tweeter, a textile dome tweeter, and three 6.5" wood fiber cone woofers. According to the company, the included textile dome in this design goes down to 2.4Khz because of its wide/unusual diameter of 1.15". On the other hand, that may be a limitation at higher frequencies. But, do not be troubled! Dali's ribbon tweeter operates above 14Khz, and is intended to widen the horizontal radiation pattern in the top octaves, to give wider accuracy, dispersion and speed while providing a wider range of seating positions. This explains why DALI decided to use the ribbon tweeter on top.
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The two lower woofers work in parallel up to 500Hz while the top woofer goes up to 800Hz and takes over the midrange from 800Hz to 2.5Khz. It is important to note that the top woofer continues its upper-frequency output to 2.5kHz, where it's crossed over to the dome tweeter. The middle woofer is rolled off earlier than the top one, and the bottom woofer has been rolled off earlier. All three cone drivers are identical for optimum time alignment and are optimized for large cone excursions and wide frequency range.
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While many would consider this a 4.5-way vented system, Dali has decided to call it a 2 ½+ ½ + ½ way system just because of the way the crossover works. Let me explain:
  • The midwoofer plus the tweeter are the 2, and the other ½ goes to the ribbon.
  • The second woofer is represented by the ½ and the other ½ belongs to the lower woofer.
Another important aspect to note is that all five drivers are made by DALI and that the tweeter and super-tweeter are constructed on one chassis.
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SPECIFICATIONS:
  • Frequency Range (+/-3 dB) [Hz]: 38Hz - 34Khz
  • Sensitivity (2,83 V/1 m): 90.5 dB
  • Nominal Impedance: 4 Ω
  • SPL: 112 dB
  • Recommended Amplifier Power: 40 -250 watts
  • Crossover Frequency: 500Hz/800Hz/2.5Khz/14Khz
  • High Frequency Drivers: 1 x 17 x 45 mm Ribbon / 1 x 29 mm Soft Textile Dome.
  • Low Frequency Drivers: Three 6-½" Wood Fiber Cone Woofer.
  • Enclosure Type: Bass Reflex
  • Bass Reflex Tuning Frequency: 33.5Khz
  • Connection input: Bi-Wire
  • Dimensions With Base (HxWxD): 43.3" x 8.6" x 17.5".
  • Weight: 60 lbs.
  • Accessories Included: Manual, Micro Fiber Cloth, Rubber Bumpers, and Spikes M8.
  • Finish: Black High Gloss Lacquer, Rosso Veneer, Walnut Veneer, and White High Gloss Lacquer.
Price: $7,995.00/pair.

What do you think about the Rubicon 8 model? If I had the funds, I'd buy a pair of these in a heart beat. Would you?
 

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shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I definitely would not mind owning some Dalis. Haven't had the oppurtunity to hear some Rubicons but I did hear some Epicons which sounded superb. One of the most fascinating things about the new Rubicons is the SMS driver technology used. It's a way of better 'guiding' the magnetic force of the permanent magnets in the drivers. Here is an interesting lecture discussing the technology of SMS for those nerds who have 20 minutes to kill and are interested in driver technology:
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
Seems overpriced to me @ $8K. I've heard their $15K speakers at a dealer. They sounded pretty good, but I didn't think they sounded as good as the Def Tech BP7000SC I used to own.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
The off axis performance is very good. Even the vertical off-axis response is better than many speaker's horizontal off axis response. That is a relatively good set of measurements, but yeah, you can do better with some JBL M2s. They don't look as nice though.
 
Cos

Cos

Audioholic Samurai
I am going to through a little fire on this, so even when some manufacturers put +- 3db, doesn't necessarily mean they measure +-3db. oh the Travisity!!
So the on-axis FR is about +4dB/ -5dB. Definitely nothing special there. :D
I guess this is a case where published speaker measurements listed as +-3db, maybe don't measure up? :eek:
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
I am going to through a little fire on this, so even when some manufacturers put +- 3db, doesn't necessarily mean they measure +-3db. oh the Travisity!!


I guess this is a case where published speaker measurements listed as +-3db, maybe don't measure up? :eek:
There are a lot of those cases. That's why if we care about measurements at all, I think we should look at independent 3rd party measurements (although I completely trust measurements from Dennis Murphy and Ascend). Otherwise, I say just enjoy the music and not worry about it. :D

But there is disparity among 3rd party measurements as well. For example, before the merge of HTM & S&V Magazine, Home Theater Magazine measured the NHT Absolute Zero as +/- 0.9dB, while Sound & Vision measured the Absolute Zero as +/-3.0dB.
 

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