new speaker set

[naughty573]

i got some new speakers in to upgrade the old Acoustic Research stuff that i had - ive always been a fan of Dali stuff and after reading a few reviews of the Ikon range in What Hi-Fi and being very impressed i initially thought i would never ever be able to afford these - but coupled with the fact that the local distributors have decided not to carry too much Dali stuff anymore and due to the fact that they had lots of stock to move (and they were not going to be bringing in the MK2 versions) and coupled also with the additional fact that i could get them at wholesale cost here in South Africa heres what i managed to get

picking up the Ikon 7's from the dealer

the stuff thats arrived - these include the Ikon 7's for the front as well as the Ikon Vokal 2 for the centre channel and then a set of Ikon 2's for rear channel purposes

ikon 7's

Ikon Vokal 2 centre

then for the moment im running in the Ikon 2's in my PC setup with a Pioneer A209 stereo integrated amplifier - also busy building some stands for those - will post some pics of those when the stands are completed

for now the system as it stands in a complete description includes the following :

Pioneer PDS702 CD player

Pioneer BDP 120 Blu-Ray player

Denon DV 1930 dvd player

Pace satellite HD TV decoder with ZA multichoice DSTV subscription + DSTV SD PVR in extraview config (to watch three independent channels and record 3 to hard-drive in 3 rooms)

Denon 2808 AV receiver

Dali Ikon 7 fronts

Dali Ikon Vokal 2 centre

Dali Ikon 2 for rears

Acoustic Research 12" subwoofer

Mit T3 biwirable speaker cable for the fronts - and MIT T2 interconnects between the CD player and amp

mixture of audioquest and AR cables for everything else but all HDMI are audioquest

Samsung 50" Plasma TV

here is a pic of that TV- this is a pic taken when i was trying out my buddy's Martin Logan Vista's while he was busy renovating his home - so i had usage of his Martin Logans as well as one of his pair of Velodyne DD10 subwoofers

future plans for the system include me getting a Pioneer SC-LX83 AV reciever to upgrade from the Denon 2808 thats there now (but the jury is still out on that one) - ive also been experimenting with an old Sony ES70 subwoofer and its loads better than the AR subwoofer so i do have to replace the subwoofer pretty soon

also i have too many sources - so im waiting for the Oppo BDP95 to be released and i will get rid of all the individual optical players and get that one higher end source unit

then in terms of the speakers besides for that obvious subwoofer upgrade im also looking at getting a set of Dali Ikon on-walls to complete the 7.1 setup - that with a better sub should ensure that i dont have to worry about speakers too much - and in terms of price once i purchase the on-walls and as an example a velodyne CHT15Q subwoofer i would have spent only as much as a B&W 683 theatre set would have cost me yet this is a far bigger speaker set - i considered the Monitor audio RX6 setup as well but that as well as the B&W was considerably more expensive due to the clearout nature of this deal that i got - and even though the Pioneer SC-LX83 is normally something out of my price range because of the discounts i get i will be able to manage getting it if i sell my 2808 and get the price im after

 

[naughty573]

apologies for the size of the pictures - what size are they supposed to be so that they dont mess up the coding of the page and make the text over run the borders

 

[Anonymous]

400 wide maximum i think. Them floorstanders look huuuge !
Nice kit you got there

Cheers

 

[ear]

Very nice pioneer amp. bet it sounds food with the ikons

 

[chris hollands]

Love the Martin Logans, was going to get a set myself a few years ago but to much of a sweet spot for me .

Wish my lounge was big enough for the Dalis!!

Enjoy.

 

[naughty573]

the Martin Logans are definitely a dream speaker and i wish i could have kept them but the problem was that if i did keep them i would not have been able to afford to upgrade the amplification but those speakers definitely needed more than my Denon 2808 could possibly give. As they are now they are in a massive room at my buddy's place and he is using some Martin Logan centre and rear speakers with a Denon AVPA1-HDCI pre/pro and PAO-A1HDCI power amp - quite an amazing system

The Dali's definitely need lots of space - the bass seems a little overloaded if you place them too close together - but if you have the space they can sound pretty decent - they are beginning to open up and the transparency is increasing day by day at the moment - as many people claim the speaker is beginning to disappear and all i can hear is the sounds inbetween and beyond the speaker - so they do need a bit of running in time - but i still want to try them out with the additional power of the Pioneer soon - so ive started planning for that upgrade

anyways thanks for the well wishes everyone - im certainly enjoying the speakers very much and it seems like they will definitely be long term keepers - just have to get the rest of the system up to scratch to match up to the quality of the speakers

 

[audioaffair]

Congrats! The Dalis are imporessive and beautiful speakers IMHO. Enjoy in good health

Let us know how they sound after a good run in..

 

[naughty573]

audioaffair:
Congrats! The Dalis are imporessive and beautiful speakers IMHO. Enjoy in good health

Let us know how they sound after a good run in..

okay - ive had them playing around a month now - i did nothing special to run them in besides playing them normally for a couple of hours per day and from what ive noticed is that they sound far better with the Denon 2808 than i expected, so it doesnt seem like i need to rush that upgrade to the pioneer SC-LX83 right now

yes ... im sure the system will benefit from the extra power of the pioneer but its beginning to sound really decent with the Denons and my old school CD player on the stereo front - the soundstage is beginning to open up even more than when i stated so above and the high frequencies are really getting to shine tonally - these are definitely the best speakers ive owned personally and they show many strengths over and above most other speakers ive used and IMHO its an acceptable compromise using these speakers with an AV receiver instead of a stereo amplifier for two channel music listening because the sound is still subtle and detailed enough to be considered better than entry level stuff ie it seems more like cheapish mid-fi stuff even though its not truly high end. The highs though are a bit more relaxed than you would get with Monitor Audio or B&W with the stereo aspects so IMHO it will probably be a slightly less exciting listen but as a benefit i will probably experience less listener fatigue during long extended listening sessions.

The multichannel movie sound is absolutely spot on too - it sounds far, far better than most cinema's ive been to exactly as it stands right now and it gets the balance right between power and quality and its a huge and expansive listening experience - its really something that im truly enjoying because it makes movie watching a huge pleasure

in terms of lower frequencies i definitely could use a better subwoofer (to benefit the music aspects since the sony subwoofer is more than adequate for movies) and instead of looking at the receiver upgrade first i might look at getting a velodyne SPL1200 first instead because i think that once i get a decent pacy subwoofer in place the sound quality of the speakers should be more-or-less where i want them to be given that im using amplification that doesnt drive the speakers to their utmost. I have heard a combination of that velodyne sub and the same ikon speakers as im using and it sounds incredible to me with amazing integration between the highs and lows - hence im aiming to replicate that effect .... it sounded better than actually using the matching Dali sub (for some reason or the other)

So im also waiting for the new Oppo stuff to become available in my area and depending on the price i might replace all my source units with a BDP95 before i do the the receiver upgrade too - im also going to be ordering a pair of ikon on-walls right now to make the setup 7.1 so those should also be in soon - that should complete the speaker aspects (ie the 7 bit of the 7.1) and i wont look at speaker replacements for a very long time IMHO

i reckon that once i do the BDP95 upgrade and subwoofer upgrade i will have a very nice sounding 7.1 setup - and when i do the receiver upgrade as well i will be having a pretty decent system that will hold its own in most aspects ie multichannel movies as well as stereo sound so im just going to keep doing one thing at a time till i land up doing those three upgrades - sub first then source units and then receiver - until i land up with a system thats really to my mind the best i can have for the amount that i spent

i wish i could afford to do all these replacement items in one go but right now im strapped for the cash so i will have to do them one at a time but hopefully i have that upgrade path now properly mapped out and will aim toward that ideal one item at a time because thats easier on my wallet .... but for now im happy with how the speakers are settling in to their duties

 

[vinod_david]

Very nice setup.

 

[naughty573]

I have now setup a new business with a partner here in Durban, South Africa to build up basic speaker stands and i will be doing a more audiophile range soon as well as some AV racks

heres some pics of the stuff that we are currently doing but these basically show how the surround system is progressing as well as demoing the stuff we construct- i prefer to have rear speakers far higher then ear level - and this is to create a more diffuse effect for the surround modes for movies - i dont play music in multichannel mode and for now i havent managed to get the Ikon on-walls cos they have been sold out, but i dont have any 7.1 media currently so for now im just going to use some sony speakers to just serve the purpose of rear surrounds ie make it into 7.1

so the ikon 2's have been moved to the main setup on stands that are 1 metre high

we do the stands in various finishes for the bases - heres a few examples of those :

in black ash

in walnut

here is what the speaker on the stand looks like

a 1 metre high stand on its own

the speakers placed on 600mm stands

also because i have removed the ikon 2's from the computer setup i needed some speakers there and i also sold my pioneer CD player as well as my pioneer A209 integrated amplifier from that PC setup and i have replaced those with the following combination of items for the PC/bedroom setup

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pioneer-A-A6/

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pioneer-PD-D6-J/

will add some pics of those at a later stage - but i got the amp and cd player in silver brushed aluminum and the speakers are exactly as pictured in the review above but placed on some smaller stands that are a sample of another range we will be making for small lifestyle sized speakers .... more on that later. The amp and CD player have both received 5 stars in the mag and the speakers definitely sound larger than they actually physically are with a surprising level of bass in a small room but obviously they will benefit from a subwoofer to just shore up things on the low bass aspects and since ive sold my AR sub to help fund the purchase of the combo i will get a velodyne or REL sub at a later stage for this purpose

so some decent progress happening now - a surround setup in the lounge and a decent stereo setup in the bedroom which doubles up as the PC speakers (I dont need surround in the bedroom .... sure - it would be nice to have, but it isnt essential right now)

 

[naughty573]

here are the pics i promised of the bedroom setup up above

amp and cd player

speakers on their stands

close up of speakers

remember that the speakers are extremely small - that yellow cone woofer is only a 4" speaker driver - so its got fairly limited but surprising bass output - yet its totally satisfying as computer speakers and the amp drives these perfectly - for now ive got the amp and CD player together but the CD player will eventually find its way back to the main bigger setup and i will be using a sound card with the PC to improve the sound in the bedroom so i wont be needing the CD player there