Somewhere around step 30,000 of our day at Dutch Audio Event, we turned a corner and found ourselves on a promenade lined with trophies. Not just any trophies: EISA Awards, the yearly verdict of Europe’s leading audio and video press. Welcome to the EISA Promenade of DALI Benelux, home of DALI, NAD and Bluesound in the Benelux. Erik of DALI Benelux gave us the tour.
DALI Benelux: eight EISA Awards, three brands, one record
This year, the brands that DALI Benelux represents collected no fewer than eight EISA Awards for 2026-2027, spread over DALI, NAD and Bluesound. “That’s a world record to us,” says Erik. And rather than hide them in a cabinet, the DALI Benelux team lined up every award-winning product along one corridor. A walk through it is a quick tour of what is happening in hi-fi and home audio right now.
Bluesound Pulse Cinema: home cinema made simple
We started with Bluesound and its Pulse Cinema, the brand’s biggest soundbar, with Dolby decoding on board. Add two compact Pulse Flex speakers at the back and you have a complete wireless home cinema system. Together they earned the EISA Streaming Soundbar award.
DALI Sonik: DALI DNA at entry level
Next up: the all-new DALI Sonik series, which replaces the successful Oberon range and won the EISA Loudspeaker Series award. What makes Sonik special? For the first time, DALI brings its signature hybrid tweeter, combining a soft dome with a ribbon tweeter, into an entry-level speaker. “That’s a huge improvement,” says Erik. At the show, the Sonik range was playing in DALI’s demo room.
DALI Vega: not a soundbar
Then something new, and Erik is very clear about it: the DALI Vega is not a soundbar. You can use it as one, but that is not what it was designed for. Vega is an all-in-one music system for people who value design and ease of use, and who want a piece of furniture that blends into their home.
It is remarkably complete: eight drivers, 300 watts of amplification and full integration with Bluesound’s BluOS, so it slots straight into a multi-room system. A technology called adaptive stereo enhancement widens the stereo image for a sound that fills the whole room. Vega comes in light oak and dark oak, is being introduced market by market in Europe, and won the EISA Lifestyle Music System award. A dark oak version is already waiting in our studio for a First Look video.
NAD C 3030 and M33 V2: two faces of NAD
NAD took two awards. The first went to the NAD C 3030, a retro-styled integrated amplifier with an in-between size, smaller than the usual 44 centimetres, and those lovely VU meters. Behind the classic face sits modern technology: digital amplification and every input you need. Why does it say “stereophonic amplifier” on the front? Because it is a tribute to the original 3030, and NAD wanted to keep the link with that model from so many years ago. The C 3030 won the EISA Best Value Integrated Amplifier award.
The second NAD winner is the M33 V2, the new version of NAD’s well-known streaming amplifier. It gets the latest Purifi amplifier module, with power raised to 200 watts, and a brand-new ESS Sabre DAC. According to Erik, the difference in sound compared to the previous version is quite impressive. EISA named it Smart Amplifier of the year.
DALI Kupid: small, colourful and seriously good
And then the little ones. The DALI Kupid has been DALI’s entry-level speaker for over a year, and it won the EISA Compact Loudspeaker award. We did a First Look on the Kupid ourselves and listened to it on several amplifiers: feed it with good amplification and, for the price, the sound is frankly ridiculous. At the DALI Benelux stand, the price tag read €175.
The Kupid comes in five colours, and one of them is a clear favourite across almost every European market: yellow. Not the obvious choice, perhaps, but it brings colour into the home. “And music,” as Erik adds.
DALI Sub V-16 F: the beast
At the other end of the scale stands what Erik simply calls “the beast”: the DALI Sub V-16 F, DALI’s statement subwoofer and winner of the EISA Premium Subwoofer award. It is the first subwoofer where DALI went all the way to show what it can do: a 16-inch driver with a new woofer design, 1,500 watts of on-board amplification, and a fast, genuinely hi-fi sound. It works in a stereo system as well as in a big home cinema, and it never seems to run out of breath. You could, quite literally, shake your house down.
Bluesound Powernode: a home cinema in a box
EISA Award number eight went to the new Bluesound Powernode, named Multi-Room Amplifier of the year. It delivers more power than its predecessor, 2 x 100 watts, but what makes it unique is the Dolby Digital decoder on board and the option to connect a centre speaker. That turns this compact streaming amplifier into the heart of a small home cinema. It is available in white and black, like almost every Bluesound model.
Our take
Eight EISA Awards in one year is something you rarely see, and walking the EISA Promenade made it clear why. From a €175 compact speaker to a 1,500-watt subwoofer, from a retro amplifier with VU meters to a design-led music system, the line-up of DALI Benelux covers almost every way people listen at home today. As Erik put it: it might never happen again. So congratulations to the DALI Benelux team, and we look forward to the DALI Vega First Look in our studio.
More from Dutch Audio Event 2026: read our reports on Aequo Audio Ensium, System Audio Silverback and Vitus Audio. More information: dali-speakers.com
