Dali speakers - Page 2

bbtnt,

Thank you, this is very helpful. I agree the Helicons are gorgeous, but at more than twice the price of the IKONs, it starts to add up when buying a 7.1 system. Now I have to find a dealer who carries the IKONs, both to hear them and to see them in person.

Thanks
Bruce

bbtnt,

Based on your listening, do you consider the IKONs to be a good timbre match to the Helicons? I'm wondering how feasible it would be to use IKONs for surrounds and Helicons for Left, Right, and Center.

Thanks
Bruce

I've been considering the Dali line myself - also the Ikon and Helicon 400 - primarily based on the strong reviews. For those that have auditioned these, what are their strengths? Do they image well? Do they work better with particular electronics? Has anyone seen a review where they've posted the frequency performance, Etc. Hope to get to a local dealer to test them out in the near future.

BruceOmega,

The helicons and ikons sound very similar, being detailed but not harsh. This was listening in two separate rooms with different equipment. I would only think that this may be an issue if you listen to multichannel music. If you only watch movies, I doubt you could tell the difference.

madmoose,

The ikons and helicons both sounded good. My auditioning was mostly with the ikon 6, but I did listen to the helicon 800 for a while as well. These speakers do image well, nice separation of instruments, and detailed without being harsh.

I have the Helicon 300 as the main speakers in my system. I did try the center Helicon C200 which had excellent matching sound qualities. (also a beautiful cabinet) The problem was that I could only mount it 8 inches above my Plasma TV. This lead to very distracting directionality of the center channel. It probably would work better mounted below the screen, but this is not an option for me. My speakers are close to the Plasma TV and on the phantom center setting work great. Amazing imaging for HT and music. I do not use my sub or surrounds with music and find the bass very good to excellent for a book shelf speaker. They have a wonderful sound, good depht imaging and have a very broad sound stage. Just thought I would add my $0.02 as there was very little I could find about these speakers when I bought them.

PM me if you haven't heard these already

I use a pair of Dali Evidence 470's for my fronts but my center and surrounds are from the Suite series and they all sound exceptional!!. A great blend for movies and when I want to go 2 channel the 470's are a more dynamic step up than the Suite 1.8's...not that they are any slouch either. The Helicon's are my dream speaker setup and one day I'll make it happen..anyway the Dali's I've seen are very well made and sound awesome and with a sharp eye you can pick up a pair or set on Audiogon usually for a very good price.
Warren

Has anyone had a chance to compare the IKONs to the Boston Acoustics VR series speakers, especially IKON 6 vs. VR3? I would assume there is a similarity due to similar mid and low-frequency transducers, but am curious as to how similar / dissimilar they are.
Yesterday, my wife and I did our first listening to potential new speakers. A friend of mine has VR3-based stereo system and we listened to some classical vocal and piano concerts. We really liked VR3, but so far, I was not able to find the IKONs to compare.

i believe Dali is going to introduce a new line in between the suite and helicon that employ the curved cabinets of the line. these lines would be the: euphonia, helicon and suite.
the new line will have the dual tweeter assembly as well.

probably around christmas season.

How about Piega in comparison to Dali?

Similar style...I listened and like the Piega a bit better about 6 months ago, can't remember the exact series of either. Most likely that relatively mass produced / entry level of both...

ifor,

Do you know where this new line would fit in the Dali lineup compared to the Ikons and Helicons? E.g., could they be Ikon components in curved cabinets with a simpler real wood veneer than the Helicons but priced midway between the Ikons and Helicons?

Thanks
Bruce

well the suites and ikons are similiar in price so , yes the new line would sit exactly between the ikon and helicons.

the wood curved cabinets would be the euphonia 1st, helicon 2nd, the new line 3rd and the suites 4th.

I ended up purchasing a Dali based system to replace my M&Ks:

Helicon 400s for Left and Right
Helicon C200 for Center
IKON On-Walls for Side Surrounds
IKON-2s for Rear Surrounds
Velodyne DD-12 sub

Its going to take me awhile to get them all installed. Because of my room layout, I need to mount the sides and rears suspended from the ceiling, and am waiting for some Omnimounts to come in before I can do that.

The center is a real challenge. The front edge of my RPTV is 30" from the back wall and the C200 weighs 40 pounds. I'm working with a local woodworking firm to see if they can come up with an affordable custom fabricated shelf (30" deep by 97" wide in cherry) that will support the weight cantilevered that far out from the rear wall.

So far, I have the 400s set up and am listening in 2.0 with them. I got the cherry finish and they are gorgeous. They are also very different from the M&Ks.

I will second the comments about them being very detailed without harshness. My wife and I both hear things now that we did not notice before, even on run of the mill CD sources. The other big difference to me is the dispersion of sound. The 400s spread detailed sound across a much, much wider area while at the same time having a focused, 3-D soundstage if I am in the sweetspot. I know the M&Ks (S-150 THX) limit vertical dispersion, but didn't expect such a big difference. I even notice a big difference in an adjoining room!

I have not yet listened to them in HT mode; e.g., an action movie with wide dynamic range sound effects. This is an area where the M&Ks are very good.

Thanks
Bruce

Bruce,

I used a TV mount to mount my center above my RPTV. It works great. It holds over 100lbs.

May be a cheaper option that will allow for tilt, etc.

Budd

BuddF

Thanks for the information. Do you have a particular brand you would recommend? I looked through a lot of TV mounts in the past, and none seemed to be able to reach out 30" from the wall, but I am open to suggestions.

The only thing I was able to come up with, which is my back up plan, is to get an Omnimount WBX-120, which has a 5" x 7" base plate whose center is 18" out from the wall, and securely bolt a 24" deep shelf centered on it so the front edge is 30" out from the wall. Its rated for 120 pounds, so speaker weight should not be an issue. But I would need to use their steel wall mount bracket that spans across several wall studs, and I think that would look a litle klugy. My HT is in my living room, so I would prefer the cleaner look of the custom shelf.

Thanks
Bruce

Bruce,

Now that you have had some time to run them in and wire it all up, care to share any thoughts?

I'm torn between Helicon and IKON... are they reasonably timbre matched?

I saw the IKONs today in the flesh and I must admit they look absolutely stunning in walnut... sounded fantastic too. (Can't believe people consider them bright - they were extremely musical and had a fantastic midrange).

Cheers.

I am wondering what the Dali Suite 2.8, C0.8 speakers wold be comparable to for HT... Anyone have any ideas?

gallium,

Sorry for not responding sooner, I missed this post. I have not hooked up my IKONs yet, so I have not heard them. I'm still running just the Helicon 400s in stereo.

I finally got in the Omnimount brackets I ordered to mount both the IKON On-Walls and IKON 2s as side and rear surrounds respectively, all suspended from the ceiling. Started working on it this weekend, but still more to do.

For the Helicon C200 center, I ended up contracting with the local woodworking company for a custom built 26" wide by 30" deep shelf in natural cherry. Its going to be several weeks before they finish building it and then installing it, after which I'll hook up the C200 and start using that.

Thanks
Bruce

Bruce Omega and others interested in Dali speakers,

You have left me in suspense as I was about to order a pair of Ikon 1s as surround speakers and the Ikon Vokal 2 as the center unit to match my Helicon 400s, which serve as the main speakers of my setup. I won't get a sub-woofer because there is plenty of musical low frequency material available with the 400s. My main reason for not completing the setup with the Helicons is that the marginal value of my last 1000 dollars is probably zero. I have decided to wait until I read your report. So, please give us your honest opinion.

This might be of interest to others who are considering to buy the Helicon 400s: For my musically well trained (at least I like to think so!) ears they are as accurate and therefore brutal as you can get. All the flaws in my less-than-perfect CDs, which I didn't even notice when using my Carver Amazing Speakers, are revealed in full detail. I am driving the Helicon 400s with Denon AVR 4306, which has two additional back channels one can assign to any pair of speakers that can be bi-amplified. The Helicons can. So, I have bi-amped them. Dali's manual strongly recommends bi-amping (or bi-wiring) for opennes and greater dynamic range. I could easily hear the difference between before and after. I can't tell if the difference is "greater openness and dynamic range" but the honesty of the speakers in reproducing exactly what has been recorded is probably partly due to bi-amplification.

Celik

i have a full piano system set-up in my bedroom. perfect system for any room that needs a lot of waf.
same great imaging as there other speakers. good top end with a little missing lower to mid bass, and they do not a try to compensate for it in the crossover by adding a midbass bump, thank you dali, but i can remedy by my subwoofer. i have a monitor audio fb212 for my sub btw.
i love them.

Celik Parkan,

I will get back to you with listening impressions once I get things running. I did make progress over the last 2 weekends, finally getting the IKON 2s physically installed as rear surround speakers (ceiling mounted, and involved more trial and error than I anticipated). Now, I just need to connect the speaker wiring to them. My C200 center is installed and wiring is connected, but hasn't been played yet.

Once I connect the IKON 2s, I'll set this up as a 5.0 system to start, and can provide some initial impressions of IKON surrounds mixed with Helicons.

I am waiting for a mounting bracket for one of my IKON On-Walls. They will also be ceiling mounted, and will be my side surrounds.

My sub is ready to be installed, and then I'll have a full 7.1.

Thanks
Bruce

As of late last night, I now have a 5.0 system up and running: Helicon 400s for L and R, Helicon C200 for C, and a pair of IKON 2s as rear surrounds. Only had time to listen to a few concert DVD selections before it was time to retire. My impressions from this limited, initial listening are:

The C200 blends beautifully with the 400s, it presents a seamless soundstage.

The IKON 2s seem to match perfectly well as surrounds.

I much prefer MC surround presentation over 2.0, even if its only 5.0 MC.

On some selections, the content in the rear speakers was low level ambience type information and I 'm not sure it really matters how well the IKONs match with the Helicons. But on several selections from Roy Orbison B&W Night and Pink Floyd Pulse, there was content in the rear speakers such that if there were a timbre matching issue, I think I would have noticed, and I did not.

On one particular track on Pulse, I kept toggling between 2.0 and 5.0. One guitar would play in the front right in 2.0, but play from the right side in 5.0; i.e., coming from both the Helicon and the IKON in 5.0 rather than just the Helicon in 2.0. I could not detect any difference in timbre when the IKONs were switched in and out. I make no claim to golden ear hearing, but I do know I really liked what I heard.

My wife and I continue to be impressed by the detail and clarity of the sound. What I still need to do is play some movies to check on clarity of dialog, and ability to handle action movie sound track dynamics.

Thanks
Bruce

I have followed Dali closely for the past few years and it was the one brand that I wanted to be able to demo when I upgraded my hometheater speakers last year. There were no dealers within three states of Louisiana. At the time I was looking the Ikon series was not out yet.

What I do know is that strictly from looking at photos, the Helicon's have the prettiest cabinets I have ever seen in a speaker. I'm talking about the shape, color of the finish, etc. I know with the Helicon 300's the stands that match are very very expensive but they would be a must have as the stands are just as beautiful as the speakers. Although I would have likely have purchased the floor standers... 400. The reviews of those are outstanding.

I spoke with a dealer in New Orleans who said he was considering picking up the line as he had heard them at a show and was impressed. He made some comment about being concerned about what the humidity in Louisiana would do to the paper cone drivers...... not sure what to make of that comment or if he was just giving me some dealer mumbo jumbo.

As soon as the Ikon's hit the market, folks were saying that they were outstanding and that in a blind test you would have a bit of a tough time trying to tell the difference between them and the more expensive Helicon's.

Anyways, I ended up with the Tyler Linbrooks and I'm tickled pink with them after demo'ing Von Schweikert, Vienna Acoustics, Dynaudio, Usher and a few others.

However, I so wanted to see and listen to the Dali's more than any other brand I was unable too. Spendor and the Sonus Faber Domus were also in that category but down here in Louisiana we essentially have BestBuy, Circuit City and not much else.

I think Dalis are good speakers but what makes them special, for me at least, is ribbons. My suggestion would be to listen to any good ribbon design you can find around your area and see if you like the sound. If you have already listened to some good ribbons and still ended up with Tyler's than it would be really interesting to find your opinion on the Dali line.

The ribbons don't kick in until about 13khz. You must have dog ears.

BruceOmega,

Thank you for sharing your first impressions of how the Helicons and Ikons matched in your HT system. I will go ahead and get a couple of Ikon 1s for the surround effect and the Vokal 2 for the center.

I was a bit puzzled about your comment on the guitar's moving from front-right to middle-right when you switched from 2.0 to 5.0. I thought the purpose of a HT arrangement was to take you to the the concert hall or jazz club or where ever the musicians are rather than move the instruments or singers around! I won't be too happy if I experience the same effect when I set up my HT. I need to verify that my Denon AVR provides the controls to prevent it.

Thanks again.

Celik

P.S. Tom Huffman's comment was funny. I'm still chuckling.

I auditioned a pair of Euphonias once....

Now I own seven of them!

I don't think you need to have dog ears to hear 13kHz

Besides differentiating the ribbons from another tweeter design is not rocket science anyway.

hi
Dali indeed makes superbe speakers but the marketing needs a BIG BIG push so that people can hear them at many more dealers.
i have the MS5 +Helicon center 200 (which really shines when biwired), the Helicon Sub and the Helicon Surrounds. finish is exceptional (but so is BW high end).
the real wood and weight clearly plays major role, so does the ribbon.
listening to the MS5 +sub H600 in 2.1 stereo is a threat !! scary

match these with powerful but not harsh hamps: Audio Analogue, Passlabs, NAD for instance.