DALI Katch G2 Bluetooth Speaker Review & Comments

Thanks Ed.
I’d honestly get one of these tomorrow IF they were water and dust proof(need something for by the pool).
 
I would get a pair if I lived in a camper van/motorhome or if I sell my current systems. I could charge them from solar and enjoy decent sound quality if they are comparable to a budget separates system.

How does the sound quality compare to a budget separates system, using e.g. Denon dm40 and Dali Spektor 1 or QA 3010i or Bronze 50...

What battery does it have, how many cycles, how do I know how much battery life is left (is there an indicator) and is it replaceable and not too costly to replace?

According to Dali's website, the original katch has two tweeters and two woofers, so not the same if your review states a tweeter and a woofer...
 
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£300 for a pair, done deal, but pricey at the cost, bet they do sound great though based on review only as not heard them...
 
I nearly bought one of these a few years ago, the first gen, but the specialist retailer I sometimes buy from recommended the Dynaudio Music 3 and I'm really grateful they did because the Music 3 sounds amazing.

The problem with the Music 3 when first purchased, up until a year or so ago, was it wasn't capable of utilising Spotify Connect. So, I purchased one of them Chromecast things. An update since means the music Chromecast purchased is no longer required.

If anyone buys a Dali Katch G2 and requires the Chromecast music dongle, I'll send it on if you pay for the post. No good to me, I'd like to help somebody else out, happily.

I know I reboxed it and put it safe, just don't know where 'safe' is, off the top of my head:laugh:. So, please bear with me:).
 
£300 for a pair, done deal, but pricey at the cost, bet they do sound great though based on review only as not heard them...
Where can I get a pair of Dali Katch g2 for £300 a pair?
 
According to Dali's website, the original katch has two tweeters and two woofers, so not the same if your review states a tweeter and a woofer...
just quoting the AVF review of the G1 Katch: “The Katch is fitted with both a pair of 21mm soft dome high frequency drivers and a pair 90mm low frequency units, which are powered by a pair of 25 watt amplifiers. As you might imagine, these can’t all fit on one ‘side’ of the Katch so instead they are arranged on either side to give a complete arc of sound. This means that the DALI is a stereo product but from a single point and with one channel notionally arranged behind the first.
This already sounds quite busy but these drivers are then further bolstered by a pair of rectangular passive radiators. These are mounted back to back and are intended to augment the low end.”

So one tweeter, one woofer and one passive radiator each side.

I think the G2 is fairly mildly updated, so drivers-wise it retains the same basic design as the original model.


I have to say I’m really tempted by one of these. I looked at the Katch G1 when I purchased my Audio Pro C5 for the kitchen / holiday speaker. As the G1 didn‘t support AAC (I have an iPhone), I thought the very limited CODEC for Bluetoothing (is that a word? Is now.) from an iPad/iPhone could blunt its results. And at the time the extra step up in price put me off: but I’m beginning to regret it. And now the G2 has plugged that AAC-lacking gap.

My Audio Pro C5 is OK. But it doesn’t engage me. It can fill a room nicely enough with an extended bass, and has a very good wifi app, along with multi-room, but it lacks decent timing and clarity. Actually my very old Ruark R1 DAB radio is much better judged tonally and is more musically engaging (always a Ruark trait, even from their former passive speaker making era) if not having quite the outright bass heft of the Audio Pro.

As I’m already used to the DALI house sound in my main system, the Katch G2 seems a logical choice.

Also my Audio Pro C5 is quite a chunky rectangular box to take on holiday with, whereas the DALI seems to be usefully much slimmer. Yes, it’s more expensive, but Audio Pro have raised their prices quite a bit so the price gap has narrowed.

Ed’s review isn’t the only one to sing the Katch’s praise pretty highly, so it may be worth a closer look.

DALI Katch G2 review
 
I would get a pair if I lived in a camper van/motorhome or if I sell my current systems. I could charge them from solar and enjoy decent sound quality if they are comparable to a budget separates system.

How does the sound quality compare to a budget separates system, using e.g. Denon dm40 and Dali Spektor 1 or QA 3010i or Bronze 50...

What battery does it have, how many cycles, how do I know how much battery life is left (is there an indicator) and is it replaceable and not too costly to replace?

According to Dali's website, the original katch has two tweeters and two woofers, so not the same if your review states a tweeter and a woofer...
Most of what you need to know is in the manuals
 
How does the sound quality compare to a budget separates system, using e.g. Denon dm40 and Dali Spektor 1 or QA 3010i or Bronze 50...

No contest at all , lets be clear here , its best in class "for a blutooth speaker" thats all , and the bar is pretty low in the blutooth speaker category.

They are all essentially mono devices , and they'll do if you have nothing else, in terms of sound quality they range from absolutely dreadful to "kind of OK" at best.

I doubt Ed's going to dump all his hi fi in favour of this :cool:
 
hehe I was meaning if I could get them for £300 for a pair I would dive straight in, sorry for the confusion, Don't think i'll be so lucky. With summer looming would be great for the outdoors, but not at the price..
 
@jacko01 Keep you eye out as they come up s/hand and you probably could get two of the G1 versions for £300. I have one G1 and they are excellent for the job they do, much better than any other bluetooth speaker I have heard
 
I think it's way overpriced for what it is, £330 each or £660 a pair for stereo. A mono speaker with a small battery, no SMC, no wood fibre cone. , sound quality that may not come close to a cheap system.
 
I think it's way overpriced for what it is, £330 each or £660 a pair for stereo. A mono speaker with a small battery, no SMC, no wood fibre cone. , sound quality that may not come close to a cheap system.
I would suggest you listen to it before judging.

Portable sound the quality of Dali isn't for the bluetooth speaker buying masses that purchase from Argos and it comes with the price tag accordingly.

For anyone in the current climate I'd suggest it is hard to justify, but somebody will and appreciate it for what it is. As somebody said above, now is the time to seek out the first gen.
 
I bought the original one a few years back after all the rave reviews & was really disappointed with it tbh so sent it back & kept my Bose soundlink mini 1, which I still have. I wouldn’t expect miracles from this replacement either.
 
I nearly bought one of these a few years ago, the first gen, but the specialist retailer I sometimes buy from recommended the Dynaudio Music 3 and I'm really grateful they did because the Music 3 sounds amazing.

The problem with the Music 3 when first purchased, up until a year or so ago, was it wasn't capable of utilising Spotify Connect. So, I purchased one of them Chromecast things. An update since means the music Chromecast purchased is no longer required.

If anyone buys a Dali Katch G2 and requires the Chromecast music dongle, I'll send it on if you pay for the post. No good to me, I'd like to help somebody else out, happily.

I know I reboxed it and put it safe, just don't know where 'safe' is, off the top of my head:laugh:. So, please bear with me:).
Been looking for a Chromecast, as it happens. For a garden setup. Could I? Happily ping you some cash for it, too.
 
My father purchased one of these from me for his partner. They travel to Spain a lot and wanted a great sounding speaker that would last a day.

Real world tests gives you about 29 hours of battery life after 72 cycles. We’re able to achieve a max distance (line of sight) of 30m range with Bluetooth from a new iPhone.

The DSP modes are sufficient - turning up the volume and the bass drops down to ensure no overwhelming bass at louder volumes. Keeps the output very clean and detailed.

A pair of them is great for a smaller room listening though inputs are naturally limited with a portable unit.

16v power supply from memory - a wide range of travel adapters and a nice quality travel bag.

From all of the Bluetooth speakers we sell at this price point - I’d certainly have the DALI high on the list.
 
Does anyone know how the sound compares to Apple’s HomePod - I have one in the kitchen - which sounds amazing for a one source device? Admittedly the HP is not Bluetooth but it still fits that price bracket/category IMO.
 
Picked up one of these today.

I do really like it, I’ll definitely keep it, and I’m really impressed with it, for what it is, and at its price point.

But that does need to be placed into some kind of context.

Is it an enjoyable listen? Definitely yes.
Does it allow all the fun and character of the music come across. Oh Yes!
Could this replace a proper budget stereo system? Absolutely not.

Using Tidal from my iPhone, I started off with some Stevie Wonder. ‘Sir Duke‘ and ‘I Wish’. What struck me from the off, especially in comparison to my Audio Pro C5, which it was anticipated this would replace, was how much more detailed this is. In terms of detail, you give nothing away here to a conventional system. There’s no shroud or mist over the music: every little thing is laid out before you. it renders John Powell’s “Chicken in the Pot” from Solo, A Star Wars story incredibly well: layered, detailed, clear and clean. Excellent. Really!

And the sheer speed and propulsive energy. Wow! This thing has rhythm in spades. And this is probably my Audio Pro C5’s major Achilles heel: it had plenty of bass weight, but it just didn’t transmit the energy and fun of the recording, so what the DALI can offer is precisely what I was looking for. Fun and speed are high priorities for me regardless of price or purpose.

Well recorded funky music: Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘September’, ’Siempre me quedará’ by Bebe, are all lapped up with gusto by the DALI.

I then tried Röyksopp’s ‘Skulls’. It was great, but this is where its perfectly understandable limitations did show. There’s only so low this little thing can go in comparison to a more conventional set of box speakers. And certainly my Audio Pro C5 could go lower and deeper. But despite that limitation, which would I prefer listening to? The DALI. No contest really. Of course, the RRP is somewhere north of the C5 so it’s not an especially fair comparison.

I then tried some orchestral music: John Williams’ Solo: A Star Wars Story OST, and the very testing track ‘Marauders Arrive’. It copes with this surprisingly well. Again, it loses the lower octaves, but it’s detail, resolution and speed that save it: it manages to play the music without this becoming an unintelligible mess. Placing a little closer to the rear wall does help give a little more reinforcement. Its EQ2 bass boost setting doesn’t help. It does boost the bass, but just makes everything sound muddy: it clouds the midrange quite badly, so if you do want a little more bass, just place it closer to a wall instead.

I ought to mention tonal balance though. In the alkali / acid scale of warm to forward, the DALI is definitely forward of neutral to my ears. And its sheer detail may make certain kinds of music, especially electric lead guitar, or badly recorded rock grate your teeth somewhat. It loves bass guitar mind: Marcus Miller’s ’Water Dancer’ sounds superb through the DALI: you truly hear every bass note. I would say this track shows off the DALI’s abilities in its best light.

For the type of music I enjoy, it’s spot on though. And for me, the energy and speed and joy factor is worth paying for a little bit of tonality, on a system like this. I would be less forgiving of a more expensive system. The fact that a bluetooth speaker can transmit such joy at all is worthy of considerable credit.

So tonally, I’d say that my Audio Pro C5 is definitely on the alkali warm side and may suit you better if you were into poorly recorded rock. The DALI is slightly acidicly forward, so suits my taste in jazz, funk, disco, OST’s and electronica, which all tend to be pretty well mastered.

If you were after something more neutrally balanced tonally, I’d go for the Ruark R1 mk4 and save yourself some cash. And this may suit you better too if you were after something you might be listening to all day. I have a Ruark R1 at work and it’s very well suited to this: its not fatiguing in the slightest. But the Katch might be a little tiring after an hour or two with so much detail being rocketed in your direction.

If you were asking yourself, “could this replace my mini system with stereo speakers?”, I would say no. Look at Ruark MR1‘s little powered speaker pair for that. Add a little sub and you could get some astonishing performance out of them.

if you were thinking of getting two DALI Katches for a stereo pair, again, I think you’d ultimately do better with the Ruark MR1’s and a subwoofer.

But I wanted something more easily portable so I could use it for holidays and weekends away in addition to using in the kitchen, and for that the DALI Katch G2 is spot on, especially as its so thin and much less boxy than the Audio Pro.

There is a danger when reviews use superlatives with speakers like this, that you can get carried away and fail to consider the caveat “for a system like this.” If you keep your expectations reasonable for the price and size of this product, then I doubt you would be disappointed.
 
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Great mini review.
Picked up one of these today.

I do really like it, I’ll definitely keep it, and I’m really impressed with it, for what it is, and at its price point.

But that does need to be placed into some kind of context.

Is it an enjoyable listen? Definitely yes.
Does it allow all the fun and character of the music come across. Oh Yes!
Could this replace a proper budget stereo system? Absolutely not.

Using Tidal from my iPhone, I started off with some Stevie Wonder. ‘Sir Duke‘ and ‘I Wish’. What struck me from the off, especially in comparison to my Audio Pro C5, which it was anticipated this would replace, was how much more detailed this is. In terms of detail, you give nothing away here to a conventional system. There’s no shroud or mist over the music: every little thing is laid out before you. it renders John Powell’s “Chicken in the Pot” from Solo, A Star Wars story incredibly well: layered, detailed, clear and clean. Excellent. Really!

And the sheer speed and propulsive energy. Wow! This thing has rhythm in spades. And this is probably my Audio Pro C5’s major Achilles heel: it had plenty of bass weight, but it just didn’t transmit the energy and fun of the recording, so what the DALI can offer is precisely what I was looking for. Fun and speed are high priorities for me regardless of price or purpose.

Well recorded funky music: Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘September’, ’Siempre me quedará’ by Bebe, are all lapped up with gusto by the DALI.

I then tried Röyksopp’s ‘Skulls’. It was great, but this is where its perfectly understandable limitations did show. There’s only so low this little thing can go in comparison to a more conventional set of box speakers. And certainly my Audio Pro C5 could go lower and deeper. But despite that limitation, which would I prefer listening to? The DALI. No contest really. Of course, the RRP is somewhere north of the C5 so it’s not an especially fair comparison.

I then tried some orchestral music: John Williams’ Solo: A Star Wars Story OST, and the very testing track ‘Marauders Arrive’. It copes with this surprisingly well. Again, it loses the lower octaves, but it’s detail, resolution and speed that save it: it manages to play the music without this becoming an unintelligible mess. Placing a little closer to the rear wall does help give a little more reinforcement. Its EQ2 bass boost setting doesn’t help. It does boost the bass, but just makes everything sound muddy: it clouds the midrange quite badly, so if you do want a little more bass, just place it closer to a wall instead.

I ought to mention tonal balance though. In the alkali / acid scale of warm to forward, the DALI is definitely forward of neutral to my ears. And its sheer detail may make certain kinds of music, especially electric lead guitar, or badly recorded rock grate your teeth somewhat. It loves bass guitar mind: Marcus Miller’s ’Water Dancer’ sounds superb through the DALI: you truly hear every bass note. I would say this track shows off the DALI’s abilities in its best light.

For the type of music I enjoy, it’s spot on though. And for me, the energy and speed and joy factor is worth paying for a little bit of tonality, on a system like this. I would be less forgiving of a more expensive system. The fact that a bluetooth speaker can transmit such joy at all is worthy of considerable credit.

So tonally, I’d say that my Audio Pro C5 is definitely on the alkali warm side and may suit you better if you were into poorly recorded rock. The DALI is slightly acidicly forward, so suits my taste in jazz, funk, disco, OST’s and electronica, which all tend to be pretty well mastered.

If you were after something more neutrally balanced tonally, I’d go for the Ruark R1 mk4 and save yourself some cash. And this may suit you better too if you were after something you might be listening to all day. I have a Ruark R1 at work and it’s very well suited to this: its not fatiguing in the slightest. But the Katch might be a little tiring after an hour or two with so much detail being rocketed in your direction.

If you were asking yourself, “could this replace my mini system with stereo speakers?”, I would say no. Look at Ruark MR1‘s little powered speaker pair for that. Add a little sub and you could get some astonishing performance out of them.

if you were thinking of getting two DALI Katches for a stereo pair, again, I think you’d ultimately do better with the Ruark MR1’s and a subwoofer.

But I wanted something more easily portable so I could use it for holidays and weekends away in addition to using in the kitchen, and for that the DALI Katch G2 is spot on, especially as its so thin and much less boxy than the Audio Pro.

There is a danger when reviews use superlatives with speakers like this, that you can get carried away and fail to consider the caveat “for a system like this.” If you keep your expectations reasonable for the price and size of this product, then I doubt you would be disappointed.
 
A quick addendum to my previous post. The size of your room may also factor in your choice.

If you have a large room to fill, maybe the Audio Pro C5 or larger C10 may suit better and be able to play louder without strain. And the Audio Pro does add multiroom and wifi if that‘s important to you.

Having heard the DALI Katch G2 this afternoon though, playing a wide variety of material, it is really impressive. But like Naim does the Muso QB and larger Muso, I would really like to see what DALI could do with a bigger Katch. Some bigger drivers and a bit more bass weight would make this into a really excellent product, especially if it retained its similar slim form factor, but just scaled up a bit.

Of course they do make the Katch One Soundbar. Ordinarily I am a proper rabid soundbar hater. I think most of these are abominable things that can easily be bettered by cheaper but superior sounding systems. But on the strength of hearing the Katch G2, I can truly say I’d really be interested to see what the DALI Katch One could be capable of.

Just listening to “The Landing” from the OST, “First Man” on the Katch G2. It really is a lovely listen. Its treble is really very very good. Delicate, detailed, capable.

Full marks to DALI’s engineers. Well done!
 
I got one of these yesterday too. I was looking for something with a much better battery life than my current B&O A1 (gen 1) for my travels with decent sound quality. For the most part it does not disappoint.

First off - of the two EQ settings indoors, warm is more neutral sounding to me than DALI’s neutral EQ. The neutral setting is bright with lower to mid treble elevated approx 2-3dB and with less bass output than warm. This suits lower listening levels and gives a false sense of clarity at higher volumes but it is just a bit too hot for me and grates after a while. Warm is less fatiguing to my ears so far.

Bass is surprisingly OK for a speaker this size but the inbuilt bass limiter is fairly aggressive when you go past low level listening. I set at a moderate level last night and it couldn’t make its mind up - it sounded like someone was fiddling with the bass every 20 seconds or so and bass ‘weight’ would fade out and back in again.

Midrange is sublime and relatively uncoloured. Pairing it with some iPlayer stuff in warm EQ via my iPhone showed just how good it was with speech - body and warmth with no peaks and siblance. There was no latency either and audio & visual were in sync.

Build quality is very high. Feels solid with no rattles even at high volume - and it does go loud! As loud as it is this is at the expense of bass as the limiter kicks in to stop it disintegrating into a mess of distortion.

Cons - no two way Bluetooth and mic so no hands free / conference calling or communicating battery charge to the phone. No charging via USB so you have to also carry the charge plug when travelling. Limited to two EQ presets - you cannot create your own profiles. Feature wise score is therefore a 5 from me - basic.

Overall it is undoubtedly a good speaker (if you accept the obvious limitations that speakers of this small size bring and appreciate what engineers have achieved through compromise) and I will be keeping it for sure.

8/10 from me overall.

HB
 
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I got one of these yesterday too. I was looking for something with a much better battery life than my current B&O A1 (gen 1) for my travels with decent sound quality. For the most part it does not disappoint.

First off - of the two EQ settings indoors, warm is more neutral sounding to me than DALI’s neutral EQ. The neutral setting is bright with lower to mid treble elevated approx 2-3dB and with less bass output than warm. This suits lower listening levels and gives a false sense of clarity at higher volumes but it is just a bit too hot for me and grates after a while. Warm is less fatiguing to my ears so far.

Bass is surprisingly OK for a speaker this size but the inbuilt bass limiter is fairly aggressive when you go past low level listening. I set at a moderate level last night and it couldn’t make its mind up - it sounded like someone was fiddling with the bass every 20 seconds or so and bass ‘weight’ would fade out and back in again.

Midrange is sublime and relatively uncoloured. Pairing it with some iPlayer stuff in warm EQ via my iPhone showed just how good it was with speech - body and warmth with no peaks and siblance. There was no latency either and audio & visual were in sync.

Build quality is very high. Feels solid with no rattles even at high volume - and it does go loud! As loud as it is this is at the expense of bass as the limiter kicks in to stop it disintegrating into a mess of distortion.

Cons - no two way Bluetooth and mic so no hands free / conference calling or communicating battery charge to the phone. No charging via USB so you have to also carry the charge plug when travelling. Limited to two EQ presets - you cannot create your own profiles. Feature wise score is therefore a 5 from me - basic.

Overall it is undoubtedly a good speaker (if you accept the obvious limitations that speakers of this small size bring and appreciate what engineers have achieved through compromise) and I will be keeping it for sure.

8/10 from me overall.

HB

Really interesting as I have a B&O A1 second generation which I like a lot but I’m tempted by this. How would you say the Dali compares to the B&O?
 
Really interesting as I have a B&O A1 second generation which I like a lot but I’m tempted by this. How would you say the Dali compares to the B&O?
They are similar in sound to a degree but the DALI is more even in it’s overall tone (in warm EQ) and sounds more controlled with a slightly tighter and less flabby sound. However, you can tweak the A1’s sound to your personal preference to some degree using the B&O app. The DALI does go a fair bit louder though.

If the DALI had two way BT, a mic and the ability to charge via USB I would have said it’s an easy winner vs the A1 but it doesn’t.

What the DALI does have is a slightly better SQ (IMO, but this is subjective of course!) and a much longer battery life. It is also beautifully engineered and made and feels a bit more premium compared to the A1.

Both are great BT speakers IMO so it will maybe come down to your overall needs (slightly better SQ, better battery life vs extra features).

HB
 

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