By The product category of higher-end wireless over-the-ear headphones is one near and dear to my heart. After selling HomeTheaterReview.com and AudiophileReview.com in late 2019, I was looking for some new challenges in my career, so my partner and I looked into what it would take to design and manufacture a truly luxurious set of headphones, which at the time were not found anywhere in the market. Sennheiser made some rock-solid wireless headphones, but Beats, Bose and Sony were some of the other players in the game. Back then, the best of the best was priced around $400 per pair. The likes of Mark Levinson No. 5909s (read my review of my reference wireless headphones) or the exotic and quite excellent T+A Solitaire headphones were not to market at this point. The short version of the story is that, even with true expert to help me navigate making a product in China (or anywhere, really), I couldn’t explain to these OEM manufactures how to make something with big speaker drivers, unique battery technologies and exotic materials. Today, there are a whole bunch of headphones that deliver on luxury as much as sound in the wireless space. Add the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones to that list.
The Dali IO-8s are well-made audiophile headphones that are designed to offer upmarket performance over the many respectable players at the magic $399 price point. They come from a loudspeaker company that makes some truly fine transducers, thus it should come as no surprise that they could do well in the headphone business, too. At $1,250, you need to pay to get into the club, but if you do, how good is what you get? That’s what we are here to discuss …
What Makes the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones So Special?
- The Dali IO-8 wireless headphones use the largest driver (50mm) that I’ve seen in the category to date and, while I am not an engineer, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that this is exactly why the Dali IO-8s have such low and dynamic bass.
- The battery life is super-long at 35 hours, but it was how fast they charge that most impressed me. You can hear how much battery that you have left from one of the buttons on the ear cups and you can charge the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones back up to full in a pretty short period of time. 30 min gets you quite a bit of charge.
- The Dali IO-8 wireless headphones connect via Bluetooth 5.2. They power up with a USB-C cable, like your phone and other modern devices.
- Fashion is a key reason why mainstream people actually buy headphones like the Dali IO-8. The review pair that I have are a pretty standard black, which doesn’t stand out very much aesthetically. Dali offers a much sexier brown/tan combination that has an “Apple Beige” retro feel, but with vastly upgraded style and modern design cues.
- You don’t need an app or any complex setup software to make the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones work, which is nice. I’ve reviewed nearly every headphone in this category, and some make things super-complicated to get started. The Dali IO-8 wireless headphones were a piece of cake to get working. Go to settings, the headphone pop up, press the pairing button on the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones, and boom – you are done.
- The protective case is a little bit more premium than that of your average headphones, which is what you should expect at these prices.
- You can connect the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones with a wire if you want, but I am not sure why you would, as there are really good wired headphones at far less cost. I guess if you wanted to try to find the best of both headphones, then it might make sense, but I listened to the Dali IO-8 headphones wirelessly.
Why Should You Care About the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones?
The person who buys Dali IO-8 wireless headphones is looking for just a little bit more. More performance. More design. This audiophile-minded client doesn’t necessarily want to rock the same headphones as every kid at school or the guy sitting next to you on the plane. They are willing to pay for more technology, such as a 50mm driver. They demand a sexy form factor and are willing to pay for it.
Some Things You Might Not Like About the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones
- The round ear cups on the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones didn’t fit my ears as well as other less round options in this lofty price range of headphones. What I did like is that these headphones don’t need to be super-tight to your head to get good bass because good bass aside, physical fatigue is another issue that you need to consider with high end wireless headphones like this.
- I loved the HI-FI Mode EQ and hated the Bass Mode. I am not sure what the curve looks like for the HI-FI Mode for the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones, but it is 10 times more appealing to my ears than the Bass Mode, which sounded just terrible to me. “Muddy and disconnected,” I noted from my listening tests. Nobody has to listen to Bass Mode, and I bet that none of our readers will opt for Bass Mode, but the HI-FI Mode is great, especially in a quiet location, and/or with ANC noise cancellation engaged.
Listening to the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones …
There are about 20 albums that I know every note and nuance of because of my background as a stereo salesman. Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms is one of them and while the MTV-tastic album has a number of hits, some of the deeper tracks are excellent. “Your Latest Truck” is a perfect example of that from Brothers in Arms. On the Dali IO-8s, the presentation of this chill and a little bit jazzy track is spacious and elegant. The depth of soundstage was excellent. I could hear every instrument so clearly. The bass, which is one of the strongest draws for the Dali IO-8s, was among the deepest and tightest that I’ve heard in the expensive wireless category. Mind you, this sound came in HI-FI Mode, not Bass Mode, which gives you more of that Beats sound for those who are looking for that. I have a hunch, like me, that isn’t the vibe you are going for, as I am betting that you are more into that clean, open, accurate, more audiophile sound. The Dali IO8s deliver very nicely. The bass guitar was sliding all over the place and super-fun to hear. The tinkling keyboard sounds in the outro sounded as I’ve never heard them before on a track that I might have heard 1,000 times in my life.
My 13-year-old son recently asked me about regrets as I was driving him to school in the morning and, while I try to wallow in mine, my somewhat flippant answer was that I didn’t write “Welcome to the Jungle” for Guns N’ Roses. (I didn’t want to explain to him how foolish it was to sell my $10,000 of AAPL four days after I bought it at $9.15 per share pre-splits and how it would be worth like $4,000,000 today.) Every sporting event that you’ve ever been to likely has played “Welcome to the Jungle” and, every time it plays, that could be making me my Apple money back, but I digress. I liked the crunchy sound of the reverb on Slash’s guitar at the opening. Axl Rose’s primal screams in the background of the opening are often lost in the noise/mix when listening to the recording from lesser-quality sources. There was a little bit of that Bluetooth congestion on the bass guitar, but the vocals sounded clean and crisp. The layering of the two guitars was as good as on the Dire Straits track mentioned earlier. Bluetooth headphones don’t normally have this wonderful depth of soundstage. Wired headphones do, but rarely do wireless ones. That they did here caught my attention.
I recently added some U2 to my playlist, and “Until the End of the World” jumped out at me as a specifically good-sounding track. The bass was strong in the voicing of these headphones. Perhaps more than I would have liked in a perfect world. You really want to avoid Bass Mode on a bass-heavy track like this one. The delayed and reverbed guitars sounded different than those Les Pauls into Marshall JCM 800 heads on the Guns N’ Roses track. Bono’s voice was engagingly gravelly and enough to get me totally bought into this recently added but truly classic (and a bit underrated) U2 experience.
Will the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones Hold Their Value?
I will give this question a Bjork-like “Definitely Maybe” answer. These are expensive, well-constructed wireless headphones that, if cared for with love, could retain some value. On the other hand, wireless headphones in my world take a physical beating and rarely end up looking good after a few months. Technology changes fast in the world of headphones, but the audiophile legacy of Dali traditional audiophile loudspeakers will help deliver a core clientele for a product like the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones on the used market. With that said, I’ve seen very few, if any, of the headphones come up for sale used in the past few weeks.
What Is the Competition for the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones?
Mark Levinson No. 5909s ($999 buy at Crutchfield) come to mind first, as they are my reference wireless headphones. The Harman Curve isn’t flat, but it is pretty much the benchmark for consumer (and many pro) headphones. The idea is to make headphones that sound like speakers do in the real world, and the Mark Levinson No. 5909s deliver on that promise. The driver isn’t as big on the Mark Levinson No. 5909s (read my review), but they have good bass. The Dali IO-8 wireless headphones sound like they go lower, however.
The T+A Solitaire headphones are $1,600 (read my review) and come from one of my favorite audiophile electronics companies, which also happens to make speakers and headphones as well. These Chinese-made but German-designed headphones are slick as spit and sound simply fantastic. Like the Mark Levinsons and the Dalis, the T+A Solitaire headphones have a dry, accurate and studio-like sound. The T+A Solitaires’ fit and finish are even more high-end than Dali’s, which is saying something because the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones are quite luxurious.
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8s ($799 buy at Crutchfield) are another worthy contender. They are significantly less money than all of the above competition and possibly look the best. Sonically, the Px8s don’t have the same depth and clarity when it comes to the bass. They are much more comfortable on my ears. They are also gorgeous-looking headphones. On a past trip to Capital Audiofest on a flight from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., my United flight attendant fell in love with my headphones. She and all her colleagues ended up trying them on and getting into some jams in the front galley of a fine Boeing Dreamliner. The Bowers & Wilkins Px8s (read my review) strike a really nice balance between good looks and good sound, as the Px8s are vastly upgraded in terms of sound over even the new Bowers & Wilkins Px7s (a far less expensive pair of headphones).
Final Thoughts on the Dali IO-8 Wireless Headphones …
There is a new player in the world of high-end over-the-ear wireless headphones, and that is Dali IO-8. They come packing strong technology. They have good looks. They have very capable ANC noise correction. They have a great battery life and, most of all, they sound notably good.
There are far less expensive wireless headphones in the market to consider and many of them are worthy competitors, but you do get your money’s worth if you buck up for something like the Dali IO-8 wireless headphones. They are a luxury lifestyle product that also meet your audiophile needs. That’s a really good place to end up, as this was the stated goal of our project all those years ago. Dali has delivered what we were dreaming about better than we ever dreamed possible.
