The Dali Katch One is a little less expensive than the Kubik One. It’s equally stylish, in a rather different way, and is intended to be a hub for all your living room audio needs.

DALI KATCH G2 | award-winning portable speaker | DALI Loudspeakers DALI KATCH G2 | award-winning portable speaker | DALI

Having seen DALI’s jaw-dropping full-size speakers, it comes as no surprise that KATCH is a beautifully designed unit. Its pill-shaped aluminium cabinet oozes class, with a glinting chamfered edge lending a little razzle dazzle. The main body feels remarkably solid too, the use of aluminium and ABS/polycarbonate baffles allowing DALI’s engineers to create a structure that maximises internal volume without compromising on rigidity. What jumps out is how loud it plays. Hold down the volume “+” key and it just keeps going up and up and up. Before you know it there’s a huge, authoritative sound filling the room, with none of the chuffing or hardness you’d normally associate with a cheap Bluetooth speaker. It holds its composure with ease; the sound remains clear and focused. The most striking aspect of the KATCH’s design is the sheer slimness of the cabinet – 47mm to be precise. That makes it compact and easy to carry around, despite the inherent heft of the high-quality cabinet. There’s a leather carry handle at one end that slides away from the main body, which not only aids portability, but also looks nice when stowed away. You’ll also notice an EQ button, which toggles between the Dali Katch’s two placement profiles: one for freestanding play – on a table or whatnot – and another for a shelf that uses walls to reflect the sound and utilise its position. A swift glance across the top of the speaker and you’ll find buttons for power, volume and pairing via Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, which is made even swifter with the option of NFC.

Drivers 4x 50W Class-D amplifiers, 4x 11.5cm passive drivers, 4x 9cm low-frequency drivers, 2x 21mm tweeters Old favourite “Blue In Green” by Miles Davis is an absolute treat in that respect – Coltrane’s sax lines are solid and substantial, but they’re also laced with silky, expressive detail. Treble reproduction is smooth and refined, making hi-hats sound like they’re being played rather than spat out. Let’s not get carried away, you won’t be replacing your entire hi-fi with this one speaker, but you’ll certainly be clearing bookshelves to find it a permanent home. Dali has improved on pretty much every aspect of KEF's standard; and that is not to do the Muo a disservice, only that the Katch has raised the bar so significantly in the same way KEF did before it.

Dali Katch Review | Trusted Reviews Dali Katch Review | Trusted Reviews

And it doesn’t matter where you put it, either. With a trio of drivers beneath the grilles on both sides – one low-profile 3.5in aluminium dome woofer, a 21mm tweeter and a rectangular passive membrane for the bass – this is a speaker that sounds as good from behind as it does from the front. Often we might consider it too harsh a task for a portable wireless speaker, even one costing this much; they’re really just for spitting out dance music at parties, right? Switch to Ghostpoet’s remarkable Shedding Skin and Dali’s aptitude is proven to go beyond the instrumental. If you don’t want to play your music via Bluetooth, Dali has also included a 3.5mm aux connection, and there's a USB connector into which it suggests plugging a Chromecast Audio dongle to integrate your home network. When we first tested the Katch, we already had an inkling that the Award-winning KEF Muo might be in trouble, but we weren’t sure just how much until we set the pair head-to-head.Meanwhile, the dual 3.5-inch woofers use a specially designed chassis, inverted aluminium membranes and special spider suspension. These may sound like comic book super powers but they’re actually things that help produce the bass of a traditional woofer within the confines of the shallow cabinet. The woofers are reinforced by two 73 x 52mm passive bass radiators. The speaker’s fully digital Class-D amp musters 2 x 25W of power. There’s a Bluetooth 4.0 receiver with high-quality aptX streaming from compatible devices and, thanks to NFC, owners of Android phones will save themselves precious seconds when pairing. The Danish-made Dali Katch is possibly the best of the lot, though, at least in terms of the way it sounds. Dali Katch review: What you need to know Running along the top edge are five firm, responsive buttons that govern volume, power, Bluetooth pairing and sound modes (more on those later). Four lights surround the standby button, which light up incrementally to indicate the volume level, as well as denoting the sound mode, pairing and power status. Not only because the Dali Katch seemingly always has room to go further, defying its size with colossal thumps, but also because dynamically it fills us with anticipation for the grimy waltz-like riff that is to come.

Dali Katch G2 review - What Hi-Fi? Dali Katch G2 review - What Hi-Fi?

KATCH comes in a choice of three colours – Cloud Grey, Moss Green and Dark Shadow, the latter a sort of bluey/grey shade that adorned my test sample. If truth be told, it isn’t the most electrifying selection of colours – the speaker equivalent of GAP clothing – but all three look perfectly tasteful. There are two audio profiles that cater for use in different surroundings. The Clear mode has a more neutral frequency response suitable for most listening situations, while Warm mode boosts the bass frequencies for larger rooms. To find out, we connect a Mac via Bluetooth, which is easily found and connects automatically each subsequent time both devices are powered on. If you’re in the market for a superb-sounding Bluetooth speaker, and money is no object, then I haven’t heard many better performers than the DALI KATCH. Its ability to produce a powerful, detailed and composed sound from a slender cabinet is nothing short of miraculous, while lengthy battery life, suave design and fuss-free operation further justify the price tag.These days it’s pretty easy to find cheap Bluetooth speakers that sound reasonably good, but a great-sounding speaker will still cost you a pretty penny. That’s the category of audio products in which the Dali Katch competes, alongside rivals from Bose, Libratone and KEF. Even Apple has joined the party in recent times with the HomePod, a smart speaker that also happens to sound absolutely stunning. There’s no network connectivity or apps with the Katch One –this is pure audio – soHDMI ARC is likely to be your method of connection. This takes the audio straight from your TV and supports CEC so that you can still use your TV’s remote to change the volume. There’s a small Dali remote included in the box for more functionality.