DALI Ikon 6 MK2, And that makes three…

It may seem a bit much that the only three loudspeakers from the Danish manufacturer DALI that your humble servant has reviewed for CEC have all ended up with the highest rating, but I assure you that I own no shares in the Danish company, I declare myself neither pro-DALI nor pro-anyone, and I like the good loudspeakers on the market; don't you? But the best loudspeakers on the market are terribly expensive, and their cabinets are usually built from exotic materials based on mysterious resins, certainly with commendable inertness and neutrality, whose composition their creators jealously guard in the strictest secrecy, advertising them under the most curious acronyms.

Natural wood veneer, for its part, is a noble material that can be assembled using powerful presses to form cabinets in the most varied shapes, with curved profiles, or even imitating musical instruments. But a loudspeaker cabinet should not sound like a musical instrument, or like anything at all; it must be absolutely neutral and inert to avoid vibrations, a sine qua non for reproducing low frequencies with maximum linearity. Unless, of course, the opposite effect is intended, that is, to generate some kind of controlled coloration to give a loudspeaker's sound a personal touch, but that is another debate.

It lacks the noble pedigree of natural wood and is cheaper, but medium-density fiberboard, MDF, which is more stable and robust than particleboard (contrary to widespread opinion), is the material most widely used in loudspeaker cabinet construction because of the suitability of its properties, with nothing to envy natural wood in terms of robustness and neutrality, especially when one has the tooling and know-how in woodcraft of Denmark's DALI. With the advantage of lower manufacturing costs when passed on to the final product, which in a time of economic crisis like the one we are suffering becomes decisively important.

Well, our three award winners are built from MDF, first of all the formidable and beautiful DALI Helicon 400 MK2 (CEC 58), although the one reviewed was actually the special edition marking the company's 25th anniversary, technically identical to the standard model, a loudspeaker I did not hesitate to describe as my reference -and I still do- in the 6,000-euro bracket, or even higher, if pressed, given the current loudspeaker landscape. The second to receive the highest rating was the tiny and surprisingly musical DALI Mentor Menuet (CEC 76), about which I share an amusing anecdote in the accompanying sidebar, something more than a compliment to the little one.

My third award winner of the same kind is the protagonist of this article, the DALI Ikon 6 MK2, whose predecessor was a success with enthusiasts and received the best reviews from the specialist press beyond our borders, and whose successor, today's guest, surpasses it in smoothness at the top end of the spectrum and in better bass control, as a result of improvements to the drivers and the crossover, which has also earned it the highest rating in a prestigious German trade publication. You will have no great difficulty checking whether I am right, because DALI's distributor for Spain, the Madrid-based company Sound & Pixel Planet, has made a major push in specialist stores with the laudable aim of putting the brand in the place it always deserved on its own merits. I won't bore you once again by talking about the Danish company (as you know, DALI stands for Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries), but if you have a PC with an Internet connection and take a stroll around its website, www.dali.com, you will see that they are very serious about this.

A WHOLE SAGA

To place them precisely in DALI's extensive catalog, our pair of Ikon 6 MK2 guests belong to the Ikon MK2 series, which sits below the Helicon MK2 and Mentor ranges, which in turn are topped by the Euphonia range and the Megaline model, an imposing modular reference system 2.3 meters tall and weighing 101 kilos. The Ikon MK2 range offers a wide selection for putting together an excellently crafted stereo or audiovisual system, namely: three floorstanding models, the Ikon 7, 6 -our guests- and 5, the Ikon 1 and 2 monitor-type loudspeakers, the Vokal model for the center channel, the On Wall loudspeaker designed specifically for wall-mounted surround effects, and the Sub subwoofer, all with the MK2 suffix identifying the second generation of the Ikon range.

First of all, a clarification. You may be surprised by certain criticisms of a product that receives the highest rating, but you must not lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with a one-meter-tall floorstander packed with the company's excellent cutting-edge technology, intelligently balanced for superb performance, at an unbeatable price. Our Ikon 6 MK2 has a tremendously conventional design because, after all, it is the classic sharp-edged rectangular box, finished in a satin plastic laminate imitating walnut. It is also available in black and in white lacquer, the latter with a price increase to €1,498. On the other hand, it has pleasing proportions, with a narrow front baffle designed to minimize sound wave diffraction by means of an effective panel overlaid on the front, made of some sound-absorbing material, onto which the drivers and the front bass-reflex port are screwed. Because, indeed, our Ikon 6 MK2 is a design based on the bass-reflex principle using two ports, the aforementioned front port and a second one on the rear, each corresponding to a separate enclosure equipped with its own driver.

These are two excellent 165 mm drivers made by DALI, with cast aluminum baskets and cones made of varnish-impregnated wood fiber, whose suspensions -a rubber surround on the cone- allow long voice coil excursions. The two drivers are assigned different ranges within the low and mid frequencies, one of them reaching 700 Hz, the frequency at which the second takes over, up to 2,600 Hz. From here, one of DALI's key technological developments comes into play, a hybrid driver that combines in a single chassis a tweeter with a 28 mm soft textile dome, responsible for reproducing up to 14,000 Hz, and a second, ribbon transducer capable of reaching 30,000 Hz.

This design is fitted to a large number of the Danish company's models, in this case with ferrite magnets instead of the more powerful neodymium used in the higher-end Helicon 400 MK2. As you will have noticed, this is a four-way system, and I only have information about the crossover frequencies of its crossover, but it is probably relatively complex, judging by the sensitivity of 89 dB and nominal impedance of 6 ohms, figures easily handled by any minimally decent power electronics. The Ikon 6 MK2 comes as standard with four decoupling spikes to be fitted to metal bases, and with the same number of capable binding posts ready for any cable termination.

INTO BATTLE

For logistical reasons, I carried out the listening session at the specialist dealer J&S Aplicaciones Electrónicas, located in the shopping arcade at Calle del Barquillo 15, units 10, 11 and 12, in Madrid, where the ever-efficient Keni Parra had everything ready after running in the loudspeakers for several days. By the way, thank you, Keni. The electronics, all from Norway's Electrocompaniet, consisted of an EC4.7 preamplifier, an AW 2x120 power amplifier and an EMC1 CD-DA player, a level above what our guests demand. The system was wired with various models from Britain's WireWorld, also distributed by Sound & Pixel Planet.

Because of the special dispersion angle of the treble module, and following DALI's instructions, the loudspeakers were set up with their front baffles parallel to the rear wall, at a generous distance from it, which recreates an exceptionally open soundstage with almost perfect precision in the placement of instruments and voices. This did not surprise me, even considering the level of the loudspeakers, because an excellent soundstage is one of the strong points of every DALI loudspeaker. Another outstanding aspect is the linearity (subjective, in the absence of measurements) and neutrality of the response curve, in which I did not detect any anomaly that caught my attention. From bass that descends with authority and cleanness without the slightest trace of loss of control, and a seamless midrange, as the excellent strings and voices demonstrate, to smooth, clear treble and extreme treble with hints of warmth and delicacy.

I sensed which way things were going while initially listening to the track Georgia on my mind from the formidable CD-DA Audiophile Reference III (FIM XRCD018), when, halfway through the track, the magnificent and beautiful voice of Mari Nakamoto enters, taking up the song in a whisper, after a dialogue between the rounded, clean phrasing of Isao Suzuki's double bass and the smooth, warm guitar of Kazumi Watanabe. A scene that makes your hair stand on end when the playback system manages to move you. It is obvious, and I must mention it so that no one is misled, that our Ikon 6 MK2 do not achieve the formidable transparency of their big sisters, the Helicon 400 MK2, but it is also true that they do not cost the almost €6,000 of their sisters.

As an example of what I mean, the CD-DA Murray Perahia plays Franck & Liszt, a reference recording from Sony (SK 47180), is an acid test for serious systems or for loudspeakers that like to show off, because only on rare occasions have I managed to hear that piano as if it were live. Obviously I did not manage it with our Ikon 6 MK2, but Mr. Perahia's intense, devilish fingerwork in Liszt's Rapsodie espagnole is reproduced by our guests with magnificently quick reflexes, as a result of their excellent transient response, transients that the piano's strings generate in industrial quantities.

They did remind me of their big sisters, the Helicon 400 MK2, with the brilliant third movement of Rachmaninov's Third, you know, with Volodos at the piano, the Berlin Philharmonic and James Levine conducting. On these occasions, the Ikon 6 MK2 ask for more and are grateful when you crank up the volume control, responding to the fortes at the end of the concerto with fullness, solidity and elegance, never losing their composure at any time. Quite the contrary: I was left with the feeling that they are in their element, given their dynamic capability and the speed of their transient response. The conclusion will be very brief. If you are looking for floorstanding loudspeakers for serious music listening on a tight budget, listen to the DALI Ikon 6 MK2. What's more, I doubt you will find a pair of floorstanders that outperforms them for 1,338 euros, because as of today I don't know of any.

WE LIKE

Electroacoustic design.

Hybrid tweeter (dome and ribbon).

Soundstage.

Overall performance and transient response.

Price.

COULD BE IMPROVED

Nothing to report, given its price.

Specialists' rating: 6

I would have liked to tell you the following anecdote in a sidebar within the article on the DALI Mentor Menuet loudspeakers published in CEC issue 76, but that issue was already at the printer's when what I describe below happened. A fact that speaks for itself about the potential of these tiny, incredible DALIs.

I was listening to them before returning them to their packaging when a relative arrived at my home, also a lover of good music in general, although classical music predominates in his collection. He plays it on a decent little system, with no further ambitions in the short or medium term because he couldn't care less about technology. He was struck by the fact that the two little ones had pushed my two usual loudspeakers into a corner, and I invited him to listen to them. What follows is an account of what happened with the DALIs.



Your humble servant: Sit here (pointing to my favorite spot), listen to them and give me your opinion. I played him the first track of the magnificent CD-DA Jan Lundgren Trio plays the music of Victor Young (Swedish label SITTEL), with Jan Lundgren (piano), Mattias Svensson (double bass), Rasmus Kihlberg (percussion) and the voice of Stacey Kent.



Relative: while listening attentively, he kept looking at the excellent B&W HTM 800 center-channel loudspeaker of my audiovisual system, and after a while he exclaimed: that loudspeaker -pointing to the center- eats the little ones alive.



Your humble servant: no, sorry, that loudspeaker isn't active and its amplifier is switched off. You're listening to an image created by two stereo channels. He didn't believe me and got up to put his ear to the center loudspeaker. He made a gesture of disbelief and sat down again. And shortly afterwards he blurted out, like someone who has discovered he has been set up:



Relative: but switch off the subwoofer, because like that any loudspeaker can deliver that bass.



Your humble servant: sorry again, but you're listening exclusively to those two loudspeakers. ONLY -I stressed it so that there would be no doubt- those two little loudspeakers.



I think any further comment is superfluous.

Gustavo Roales-Nieto, Sound&Pixel Planet.



Without doubt, when a range such as DALI's IKON is renewed, it causes a small revolution in this world, because of the doubts that changing a range that has enjoyed so much success can raise. But we received the first reviews with relief and breathed easy on hearing and reading that what was already good can be improved. With the IKON MK2, the definition has been retained and the quality and reach of the bass have also been extended. Congratulations to DALI and to CEC, and also to Aplicaciones Electrónicas J&S for letting us carry out the tests with their units.

DALI Ikon 6 MK2, And that makes three…

Specifications

FREQUENCY RANGE 39-30,000 Hz (+/- 3dB). SENSITIVITY 89 dB (2.83 V/1 m). NOMINAL IMPEDANCE 6 Ohms. MAXIMUM SPL 110 dB. RECOMMENDED AMPLIFIER 25-180 W. CROSSOVER FREQUENCIES 700/2,600/14,000. HYBRID TWEETER, super-high-frequency driver: 1 ribbon, 17 X 45 mm. HYBRID TWEETER, high-frequency driver: 1 soft textile dome, 28 mm. LOW-FREQUENCY DRIVERS 2 x 6.5'' with wood fiber cones. ENCLOSURE TYPE bass reflex. TUNING FREQUENCY 39.5 Hz. INPUT CONNECTIONS for bi-wiring. RECOMMENDED PLACEMENT floor. LOUDSPEAKER TYPE front, rear, surround. DIMENSIONS 1000 x 190 x 355. WEIGHT 17.8 kg.



DISTRIBUTOR Sound&Pixel Planet (918259954).