DLS Reference 6A

A two-way component speaker system with separate tweeter units, midbass drivers and passive crossovers. Complete with a mounting kit to fit the tweeters in more than one application and screws and fixings. The magnets on the midbasses are much bigger than either the Vibe or the Rainbow offerings, even allowing for the nice rubbery boots on them and the cones are honest paper pulp. The passives are high power designs with massive, thick-wired inductors, despite the very low declared nominal power handling of 50w RMS.
– Power Handling 50wRMS
– Sensitivity 92dB 1w/1M
– Own Pink noise test figure 114.0dB (Vol @20 @ trk 9 dB Drag Vol III)
– Passband 50 Hz to 20kHz
– Tweeter diameter 25mm
– Tweeter Mounting Depth 18mm
– Midbass Mounting Depth 76mm
– Cone: Non-pressed paper pulp
– Tweeter: T25 Hand treated fabric
– Crossover slope & point: 6dB per octave lowpass, 12dB per octave highpass @ 4.5kHz
– Chassis: pressed steel
– Complete with: fixings and tweeter mounting kits
Review by Adam Rayner
The distributors of these speakers stock an amazingly wide range of the DLS milieu. They have a number of ranges and while they do sell more expensive sets, these were supplied when the original review brief was stated as a much narrower one and they reckoned that these would spank any opposition up to a full £200 worth and were happy to put these in a group that started at £200. They were not wrong to feel that they had a strong product as these are truly high end in concept and execution. They look like nothing less than small drivers from a set of studio nearfield monitors. This is mostly resonant with me because of the paper pulp cones that look so rough in places – almost like it was papier mache yet the sound is rich, warm and involving.
The passives have big old high power inductor coils which is probably something to do with the thunderous rich bass these speakers can generate. Big choke coils don’t saturate under big wattages. These speakers really move air and even allowed for the chest-thump sensation to start up on full chat while yet retaining melodic control of the material as well as sounding sweet when at normal listening levels. In a range that goes so far up, there has to be somewhere that the cost is kept at bay for the cheaper things and again it is the tweeter that you can hear is the weakest link. That said, it’s still reasonably fast and potent and so the overall result is absurdly excellent for the money asked. A 10 for VFM. Great for those who care about their SQ like crazy yet haven’t got huge funds and are still prone to the odd bout of ‘all the way on.’
Overall 8.6
Sound Quality 8
Build Quality 8
Power Handling 9
Efficiency 8
Value For Money 10