Description
DALI MENUET SE Crown Prince Special Edition 2024 Speaker
The DALI MENUET packs powerful sound quality into a compact size, delivering a magnificent soundstage and rich detail for an immersive listening experience.
The newly launched MENUET SE
The DALI MENUET SE is based on the original DALI MENUET, featuring a more modern look and significantly improved components, resulting in a stunning and unique appearance. To achieve the highest quality standards, each DALI MENUET SE is meticulously hand-assembled, tested, and packaged by the same DALI employee. After a final test, each speaker is adorned with a nameplate, for the first time made of pure copper and bearing the initials of the DALI employee who assembled the speaker.
Appearance features
- The DALI MENUET SE boasts a striking color scheme we call "WILD WALNUT HIGH GLOSS VENEER," crafted from the burl grain of walnut wood. This is a representative example of walnut wood grain, characterized by its high density, vibrant texture, hardness, fine grain, and superior quality, making it the ideal material for crafting walnut handicrafts. Each pair of DALI MENUET SE speakers has a unique appearance. Each pair of cabinets is carefully selected with similar natural colors and grain patterns, making each pair of speakers truly one-of-a-kind.
High-performance components
- If the DALI MENUET SE already impresses with its appearance alone, then the high-fidelity components inside will surely bring joy. The DALI MENUET SE is built to the same high standards as DALI's flagship EPICON series.
- The internal wiring of the DALI MENUET SE uses 74 strands of silver-plated high-purity oxygen-free copper material, concentric winding technology, and low dielectric insulation material to minimize impedance and distortion and transmit the purest sound signal.
- The crossover uses carefully selected high-quality Mundorf™ capacitors, and the crossover motherboard material has also been upgraded to a material with ultra-high insulation and fast heat dissipation, which can greatly reduce current interference between crossover components.
- It uses the same gold-plated terminals as DALI's flagship EPICON series, which ensures that the DALI MENUET SE will have the best performance no matter what kind of speaker wire is used.
- The DALI MENUET SE woofer uses a voice coil made of glass fiber, which makes the voice coil lighter and more sensitive, helps reduce mechanical loss of the voice coil, and also keeps sound distortion to a minimum.
Speaking of the Danish DALI loudspeaker
I'm sure everyone knows the beloved ROYAL MENUET "Crown Prince" bookshelf speaker. Smaller than the LS3/5a, it boasts sonic power that transcends the physical limitations of its size, making it highly acclaimed by audiophiles and achieving astonishing global sales records for DALI audio equipment.
Many people regard the "Crown Prince" as the symbol of DALI. After its discontinuation, there were many calls for a reissue. It has now undergone six generations of evolution and remains one of DALI's best-selling standalone models, becoming another legend in the mini speaker market after the LS3/5a.
Initially, it used a Danish Vifa 3/4-inch tweeter and a Norwegian Seas 4.5-inch mid-bass driver, with a frequency response of 70-25kHz, significantly surpassing the LS3/5a in high-frequency response. DALI, striving for perfection, even employed a hand-soldered crossover within such a small enclosure, using bakelite as the substrate to avoid sound coloration from the circuit board. Given Denmark's high labor costs, this unwavering dedication demonstrates DALI's philosophy of equating the "Crown Prince" with high-priced Hi-End products.
The second-generation "Prince" driver remained unchanged, but the crossover components were significantly improved. The Bennic capacitors on the crossover were replaced with larger Solen capacitors. Solen's MKP series is widely recognized as a high-quality capacitor, thus enhancing the sound performance. The later third-generation Limited Edition commemorative edition replaced the standard wiring terminals with German WBT ones, and DALI designed a dedicated Royal Stand S70 stand for it, allowing the "Prince" to perform even better. The fourth-generation MENTOR MENUET and the fifth-generation MENTOR MENUET SE both received a five-star rating from the authoritative British magazine *What HiFi*. Since 2015, DALI has simply named the "Prince" an independent DALI MENUET, showing its importance to this evergreen model. The MENUET still features a compact and exquisite two-way, two-driver bass-reflex design, and the diameter of the mid-bass driver remains at 4.5 inches, now using DALI's signature wood fiber diaphragm. The tweeter uses a 28mm diameter soft dome diaphragm with neodymium magnets, resulting in a purer and more natural sound with a better sense of density.
DALI MENUET SPECS
| Product Series | DALI MENUET |
|---|---|
| Frequency Range (+/-3 dB) [Hz] | 59 - 25,000 |
| Sensitivity (2.83 V/1 m) [dB] | 86.0 |
| Nominal Impedance [ohms] | 4 |
| Maximum SPL [dB] | 105 |
| Recommended Amplifier Power [W] | 20 - 100 |
| Crossover Frequency [Hz] | 3 |
| High frequency driver, Quantity | 1 x 28 mm |
| High frequency driver, Diaphragm type | Soft Textile Dome |
| Low frequency driver, Quantity | 1 x 4½" |
| Low frequency driver, Diaphragm type | Wood Fibre Cone |
| Enclosure type | Bass Reflex |
| Bass Reflex Tuning Frequency [Hz] | 63.0 |
| Connection Input | Single Wire |
| Magnetic Shielding | No |
| Recommended Placement | On-Wall Shelf or stand |
| Recommended Distance From Wall [cm] | > 2 |
| Dimensions With Base (HxWxD) [mm] | 250 x 150 x 230 |
| Accessories Included | Manual Rubber Bumpers |
| Optional Accessories | Wall Bracket |
| Weight [kg] | 4.1 |