Dali Ikon7 MK2 or Acoustic Energy Aelite 3 ?

[baltun]

Good evening,

I am considering buying either Dali Ikon7 MK2 or Acoustic Energy Aelite 3.

Since I am living in the countryside, I don't have the opportinity to listen to these speakers before buying, and therefore would be grateful for any inputs regarding them.

The music I most listen to is 70s Rock, Hard rock, blues, and acoustic guitar instrumentals.

The room is about 30 square meters, and the system will be positioned somewhat in the middle of the room, thus far from walls.

I often listen to music when walking the room, not sitting in front of the system.

The sound I'm looking for should be dynamic, yet not agressive or tiring. Bass should be consistent and punchy, not 'boomy'.

My current amp, which I will replace in due course, is an old Yamaha AX-492. The CD player is the old (yet still quite capable) Pioneer SD-S06.

Given these details, could anyone please share their views/experiences regarding the above-mentioned speakers?

Thank you in advance.

 

[ISAC69]

I am not sure that your Yamaha AX-492 has enogh power to move the speakers you mention above

better look for their " younger brother " Acoustic Energy Aelite Neo 3V 2 or Dali Ikon 5 MK2 .

I demo once the Dali Ikon 5 MK2 lovely sound : musical and warm- great value for money . Never heard the Acoustic Energy .

 

[baltun]

Thank you for your input, ISAC69.

I'm aware that my current amp is not powerful and sophsticated enough for such speakers. This is why I said I will eventually replace it with a better one. Thus I don't want to be choosing my new speakers according to the current amp. Rather, I aim to get some good speakers first, and then choose a new amp that will be up to the speakers.

Could anyone please share their experiences/impressions about the sound of these spakers playing records of bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, A Perfect Circle, Tool?

 

[ISAC69]

Hi

Take into consideration that to move such speakers you will need a powerful amp and preper to spend a lot of money to move them .

also you need a lot of space for them , What is the size of your room ?

I really think the speakers I recommended you will be better for your needs than you can upgrade to resonable amp price such as the Roksan

Kandy K2( I heard it with the DALI 5 and the sound was very good indeed) or other amps on the same level price more or less .

THE FORMULA IS SIPMLE : HIGH POWER HANDLING SPEAKERS NEED HIGH POWER OUTPUT AMPS .

 

[Campaign]

For that sized room I think that the Ikon 7 are a better idea than the ikon 5. Your amp won't have enough to really drive them hard, but it'll do it's job. Never heard the MK2 versions but the original was a great speaker so I'm sure it'll be a great speaker. Personally though I'd go for ProAc 140 mk2 over either of your preferences as I'm sure they are worth the extra saving

 

[baltun]

Thank you. In fact, I had just measured the room, and it's 45m2 (5x9). Therefore, I agree with Campaign that anything smaller than Ikon7 most probably won't be capable enough for such a room.

Regarding amplification, I'm reiterating that I am aware better amplification will be necessary. By 'better' obviously one means not only more powerful, but also of better sound quality.

At this point, it would be much more productive if someone could share their experiences listening the music styles I mentioned above, on these speakers.

For example, those who enjoy listening to Led Zeppelin told me ProAc are not the best speakers for that kind of music (that's just their opinion, not mine).

Would appreciate similar inputs, not discussing my awareness of the need to buy a better amp.

 

[ISAC69]

Sorry my mistake I did't notice your room size in your first comment . A really big space you have !

If you really want good speakers you should consider better speakers than the two above , What is your budget ?

Fo example - speakers : Proac Studio 140MK2 , Proac D18 or D28 , Spendor A6r or A9 , PMC Twenty 23 , Monitor Audio Silver RX8 ,Quad Classic 25L .

Amps : Rotel 1580 + 1582 (pre+power) , Audiolab 8200Q (pre) + 2 *mono's 8200MB , or Quad 99 Pre + 909 power .

 

[baltun]

Firstly, I don't know what you mean by someone "really wanting" good speakers (or anything else, for that matter).

Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "good speakers". Both are abstract notions, and there is no clarification in your post as to what or which criteria underpin your understanding of them. In particular, I don’t know which music you listen to and haven’t heard your opinion about how do particular speakers behave with particular kinds of music, - what are their pros and cons. To say “I prefer speakers X in combination with the amp Z” gives me nothing.

 

[baltun]

Conversely, if you’d say “Ikon7 are good at playing Classical music, but they don’t handle Hard Rock so well” would be quite different, and of much greater value for me. Also, your post tells me nothing about the sonic improvement additional hundreds of pounds would bring (Dali vs ProAc, etc…). Furthermore, I think the topic is clear: ‘Dali Ikon7 MK2 or AE Aelite3’. If you believe any other speakers are better, and take into consideration the details I first mentioned, then please justify why are they better, or why Dali or AE are worse. That said, my budget for the speakers alone is around 1800 Euros (c.1500GBP). The maximum is 2000 Euros (c.1700GBP).

 

[Campaign]

Well i have nothing to comment on in regards to the AE's but I think the Ikon 7 will sound particularly good with accoustic guitar and blues because the tweeter is such a smooth sounding unit. I would say the overall Ikon 7 sound is big and smooth, lots of texture to the bass but it doesn't hit quite as hard as you'd imagine. If you love deep hard hitting bass I actually think you'd be slightly underwealmed by the Ikon floorstanders, the bass certainly isn't anemic but they don't punch as hard as say a Monitor Audio floorstander will in my opinion.

The reason I suggested the ProAc 140s is because I have heard the original mk1 ProAc 140s on the end of a modest Marantz PM-6002 amplifier and they sounded wonderful to me. To me ProAcs speakers in this line are just so musical and fun sounding and in my opinion worth the extra ask over the Ikons. The Marantz PM-6002 was only a 45w amplifier so it suggested to me that they were relatively easy to drive but probably would get even better being fed with more power.

In the end of the day though you're getting peoples value judgements here and in my opinion only you can tell what sound you like by hearing it. Even if its really a big trip to get into a hifi dealer I would suggest that it will clear this all up in a way a hifi forum never will, and it may save you some money if you buy something on a recommendation and then get it in your own home and don't really love it.

Use peoples opinions to create a shortlist of speakers but then hear em in store because 1500 pounds is too much money to make a mistake with. I understand that this doesn't answer your original question but honestly if I had of bought my speakers blind I would own B&W speakers, and as it happens after hearing them I don't actually like B&Ws speakers except the 800 series that I could never afford.

 

[ISAC69]

Hi

The Proac , Spendor and PMC are a great speakers , natural and neutral so they suite for all kind of music . I proudly own the Proac Studio 140 mk2

and I listen to all kind of music from punk and pop to classical and jazz . I must adnit that they do need a good amp thus I am going to upgrade

my Rokasn Kandy K2 soon to probably pre +power Rotel 1582 + 1580 , this combination is certanly on the netral side of the music so it can

suite all kind of music . I am not looking for warm or smppth sound .

 

[baltun]

Campaign, thank you very much for such a comprehensive input. It was of help.

Certainly, I agree that a trip to a hifi dealer would be the best thing to do. In my case, however, it would mean a 3-hour flight + accommodation, since I live in the Azores islands and the nearest proper hifi stores are located in Spain (there are some in the Portuguese mainland, but they seldom have all those speakers available at once). Hence the money I would save by choosing speakers online (around 400-500 Euros) would allow me get more expensive, and probably better ones. It sounds almost like a gamble...

Your reference to the B&W 800 series is interesting. Once I listened to the 801 at an audio show, in a large hall, back in 1998 or 1999. If my memory serves me well, they were being driven by Mark Levinson monoblocks. At that point I realized THAT is how good speakers should sound like.

Talking about other more expensive alternatives to Dali and AE, did anyone listened to the Heco the Statement or Heco Celan GT 902? Would very much appreciate any comments on them.

 

[Campaign]

Certainly, I agree that a trip to a hifi dealer would be the best thing to do. In my case, however, it would mean a 3-hour flight + accommodation, since I live in the Azores islands and the nearest proper hifi stores are located in Spain (there are some in the Portuguese mainland, but they seldom have all those speakers available at once). Hence the money I would save by choosing speakers online (around 400-500 Euros) would allow me get more expensive, and probably better ones. It sounds almost like a gamble...

Ohhhh, ok I thought you might be perhaps a 5-6 hour drive from a hifi dealer in which case I was just trying to suggest it would be worth the hastle but that geographic situation makes your position completely understandable. Well we really need someone to chime in with some personal perspective on the AE Aelite 3, surely someone here has heard them and could offer an insight?

What I found with B&W is that the 600/CM range has the sound signature of the 800 series but is just made down to a price that comes with great losses in quality. The 684s sound just plain indistinct and wooly to me, the CM range are better but still not quite balanced for mine. Then when you hear the 800 series you realise that B&W speakers are actually fantastic... just not the ones I can afford.

 

[ISAC69]

Certainly, I agree that a trip to a hifi dealer would be the best thing to do. In my case, however, it would mean a 3-hour flight + accommodation, since I live in the Azores islands and the nearest proper hifi stores are located in Spain (there are some in the Portuguese mainland, but they seldom have all those speakers available at once). Hence the money I would save by choosing speakers online (around 400-500 Euros) would allow me get more expensive, and probably better ones. It sounds almost like a gamble...

Ohhhh, ok I thought you might be perhaps a 5-6 hour drive from a hifi dealer in which case I was just trying to suggest it would be worth the hastle but that geographic situation makes your position completely understandable. Well we really need someone to chime in with some personal perspective on the AE Aelite 3, surely someone here has heard them and could offer an insight?

What I found with B&W is that the 600/CM range has the sound signature of the 800 series but is just made down to a price that comes with great losses in quality. The 684s sound just plain indistinct and wooly to me, the CM range are better but still not quite balanced for mine. Then when you hear the 800 series you realise that B&W speakers are actually fantastic... just not the ones I can afford.

Hi

Totaly agree the 800 series is excellent -the bset of the best but do needs a very good amplification . the 684 is not bad at all but is not in the same leauge as the 800.

the CM series is very disapointing the speakers look great but sounds anemic and dry .

 

[baltun]

the CM series is very disapointing the speakers look great but sounds anemic and dry .

Yes, many people have expressed the same or similar opinion about CM, which is why I excluded this series from my list from the very beginning.

 

[roguemodel]

Just came across this post. I have the Aelite-3. It is a vastly underrated speaker. AE changed to tweeter a couple of years ago and the issue of non defined highs were erradicated. The Icon 7 is a very good speaker, don't care much for the B&W line....to much of a British "house sound." I would suspect that the AE would be a Stereophile class B recommended component, and, it has been around for nine years which demonstrates its populatirty......staying power in the field of low to mid-priced speaker. I use the speaker in a stereo application, and have yet not found a speaker up to $6000 that can beat it enough for a change.

 

[baltun]

Thank you, roguemodel.

Unfortunately, your input came a bit too late, since I already bought Heco The New Statement.

The sound is awesome! And German craftmanship is 5+!

However, now I'm choosing an amp for it, and it seems like my final choice will be Musical Fidelity M6i.

Has anyone heard this combination? Any particular comments on MF M6i, especially for Rock/Metal?