# DALI IKON 6



## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

I started a thread a while back about searching for monitor speakers. Well, I changed my mind and decided to go for full range floorstanders instead. I auditioned not a few, and loved these. They are neutral, revealing and fast.

They are in boxes at home right now. I'm going to connect them up tonight and take them for a spin. I'll post some impressions in the next few days. [BTW they are reviewed in the new (July '06) Stereophile.]

Mine are light walnut colored.









*DALI IKON 6









*MSRP - $1595/pair (USD)
Frequency Range +/-3dB (Hz) 37 - 30,000 
Crossover Frequencies (Hz) 800 / 3200 / 14000 
Sensitivity (2.83 V/1m) 91.5 
Nominal Impedance (Ohm) 6.0 
Minimum Impedance (Ohm) 4.2 
Maximum SPL (dB) 111 
Recommended amp. power 25 - 150 
Terminal Single-wire / Bi-wire 
High Frequency Drivers - 1 x 28mm soft dome and 1 x 17mm ribbon 
Midrange drivers - 1 x 6½"
 Low Frequency Drivers - 1 x 6½" 
BassReflexSystemResonance(Hz) 36.0 
Finish - Light Oak / Light Walnut 
Dimensions (HxWxD) (cm) 100 x 18.8 x 33.2 
Dimensions (HxWxD) (inch) 39.4 x 7.4 x 13.1 
Weight (kg/lb) 18.6/41


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Sweet... will be looking forward to your impressions.


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## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

I got them set up last night. I didn't have the chance to do any serious listening. But to show them off to my wife I asked her want she wanted to hear. Among other things we listened to Annie Lennox - Into the West from the LotR RotK soundtrack. My wife shed tears. She's sold.

I snapped this early this morning before I left for work.


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## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

First, here’s my auditioning story. I tracked down all the audio “boutiques” in the Richmond area. There are five. I called them all and made a list of all the speakers that I could audition. I did my research on the internet and settled on these.

B&W 600 series
Quad L series
Epos M series
Revel Concerta series
Monitor Silver series
Paradigm Studio series

I assembled a test disc to use for these auditions. 
Some are favorites, some are not. 
Some are great recordings, some aren’t. 
Some are technically revealing, and some are emotional.

1. Christy Baron - Got to Get You into My Life (3:10) 
A great Chesky recording of acoustic jazz.
2. Ayreon - Isis And Osiris (11:11) 
My all time favorite progressive metal (hadn’t you guessed?) Brilliant
3. Umphrey's Mcgee - In the Kitchen (3:59) 
Funky progressive jam band. If your toes don’t tap, you’re dead.
4. The East Village Opera Company - La Donna è Mobile redux (4:56) 
Opera + rock & roll. Great vocal work.
5. Eagles - Learn to be still (4:28) 
From Hell Freezes Over. Lush.
6. kd land - Barefoot (3:54) 
From MTV unplugged, very atmospheric.
7. Joe Hisaishi - The Dragon Boy (2:12) 
From the orchestral Spirited Away soundtrack. Stunning dynamics!
8. Dream Theater - Stream of Consciousness (11:16) 
Virtuoso progressive metal. Very advanced timing. Fascinating
9. Collective Soul - Where The River Flows (3:35) 
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
10. Angra - The Shadow Hunter (8:04) 
Brazilian acoustic, blooms into prog metal, awesome vocalist. Wow.
11. Joe Satriani - The Souls Of Distortion (4:58) 
I love the wah pedal. Great bass too.
12. Alison Krauss - Stars (2:54) 
Good music, bad CD glare. Will that be revealed, tamed or exaggerated?
13. Rebecca Pidgeon - Underground (3:22) 
Great simple rock by Chesky. This one will stick in your head.
14. Joe Hisaishi - The Tatara Women Work Song (1:28) 
Spirited Away again, vocal ensemble. The solo almost makes me cry. Almost.
15. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Telephone Song (3:30) 
Did I mention I love the wah pedal?

I thought this process was going to be very difficult. I thought the differences between these speakers were going to be very subtle, and hard to discern. But on the contrary, I found each speaker’s characteristics (problems) pretty obvious. So don’t be intimidated, get out there and listen.

* B&W DM603 S3*

Many, many reviews that I have read compare speakers to the B&W 600 series. There seems to be a search for a “B&W killer.” It seems that this is the one to beat so I thought to listen to it first. Some reviews concluded that these were very accurate, other people called them overrated. The detractors claimed that there is slight muddiness in the bass among other things. I wondered if I would agree.

Well I didn’t agree. The bass was downright problematic. Bloated, loose, slow, pick a metaphor. This audition lasted about five minutes as I quickly skipped through my play list. I was distracted on every track by the bass coloration. I was too distracted to find the midrange or treble particularly redeeming.

The salesman acted like he couldn’t hear the problem, but flattered me by calling me “discerning” and suggested I listen to the floorstanders from the next series up:

* B&W CM 4*

These have the exact same size cabinet and drivers as the 603s. Listening to these revealed that they were tighter in the bass (not as bloated). They were arranged in the showroom hallway very badly and it was hard to get a good listen. But I concluded that while better than the 603s, they were still ambiguous. It’s like watching standard def TV and straining to make out details that aren’t reproduced. 

I listened to the 703s before I left, powered by a McIntosh amp and CD player. They were way out of my price range, but I wanted to hear them for fun. I only listened to one track, Stream of Consciousness. At 0:21, this song explodes with a heavy metal chord, but on this system, it didn’t explode. It was like someone reached out and turned the volume knob down. Now I hate dynamic compression in recordings and am pretty good at recognizing it, and I thought that either this combination of speakers and amp were dynamically challenged, or that this track is more compressed than I had ever noticed before. Perhaps it was the latter, but I want a system that makes my music sound better, not worse. Combined with a smoothness that’s also inappropriate for rock, I decided that the 703s weren’t my cup of tea.

Boy, I thought, how much am I going to have to spend to be thrilled?

* Quad 21L*

I went downtown to a new store in the shopping district to check out the Quads. I had nothing but high hopes, having read nothing negative about them and a lot positive. When I saw them, my first thought was “Boy, are they short.” My sofa and love seat are arranged in an L with the end of the sofa pretty close to the right speaker location. You can see the end of it in the photo above. So I wanted a speaker with the tweeter and midrange drivers above the level of the armrest, so that the dispersion will not be severely impacted. But I gave the Quads a listen anyway.

If anything, these were warmer than the B&W 603s. I’ve read that British speakers are “warm” as if that’s a compliment. Now that I’ve auditioned some “warm” speakers, I think that it’s a euphemism for bloated bass or midbass. That FR hump makes me think of a fat booty. “Junk in the trunk,” as my friend Eric says. In this case “warm” is not a compliment. I only listened to these for a minute before I stopped and asked the owner what else he had.

I told him that I was after a far more natural, detailed and leaner sound. He said he had just the thing.


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## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

*DALI IKON 6*

When you really agree with what someone is saying, you may find yourself nodding yes. 

The first minute that I started playing music through the IKONs, I found myself nodding like that. I completely agreed with them. In real life sound is seamless; I don’t think about bass, midrange and treble. The IKONs didn’t present these as separate, but instead as a whole. There was no bass bloat or leanness, no harshness in the highs, and nothing weird in the midrange. I found myself enjoying the music. I listened to every track and heard nothing I didn’t like. Everything was spot on.

When I forced myself to concentrate on aspects of the sound, I noticed the qualities of the recordings like the openness of the Chesky jazz recordings, the richness of Don Henley’s voice, and the grandness and space of the big orchestral pieces. Pace was excellent, rollicking rhythms were irresistible, and details were not hidden. The textures of the plucked bass strings were clearly heard. Dynamics were uncompressed, and crescendos were exhilarating. (CDs with glare were not tamed, but not exaggerated or nasty.) 

After I bought them and set them up at home I posted this in a comment on my amp:



> While my wife was out I popped in a bunch of action movies and listened to them all at reference level very comfortably. It seemed so natural that I wondered why I had ever listened at levels below this. (except LotR FotR. That movie is recorded HOT.) When my wife came home I played part of the DVD Spirited Away for the kids. Incredible. My wife walked into the room and began watching it with us, smiling. After a minute I remarked to her that we were listening to this at reference level. The volume is set to 0. She hardly believed it, and said "Really?!" She knew that 0 had been unlistenable, yet here we were listening to it and it was completely natural. I'm still astounded. We watched Star Wars III last night at reference level. Awesome, awesome, awesome. She never asked me to turn it down.:heartbeat:


 When I measured the in-room response of the IKON 6, they were a few dB hot on the treble side. That didn’t bother me at all on well recorded material, but some CDs and TV shows can be mixed too bright, and sound harsh. I set my receiver treble control to -2 dB. (I like too much content which is less than excellently recorded to allow myself to worry about purist taboos.) A measurement of the response afterward revealed that my Denon receiver’s treble control lines up perfectly with the in-room treble plateau of my IKON 6 and has exactly the desired effect. This little tweak eliminated any harshness I was hearing from bright recordings.

I’ve lived with the IKON 6 for the better part of a year now, and I enjoy them very much. I have an IB subwoofer, and between the two, I never think about speakers any more. They just disappear, and I listen to recordings, not equipment.

* Highly Recommended.*


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## Geoff Gunnell (Jul 20, 2006)

Since you are in the middle of posting, you may get to this, but did you happen to audition the Revel Concerto F12's or Monitor Audio Silver RS6s?


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

Good work, Ayreonaut. Sounds like a winner of a speaker. I've never heard any Dalis myself. I enjoy auditioning speakers, so I'll be sure to check them out next time I'm doing that kind of thing.

Excellent review.


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## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

Geoff Gunnell said:


> Since you are in the middle of posting, you may get to this, but did you happen to audition the Revel Concerto F12's or Monitor Audio Silver RS6s?


* Revel Concerta F12*

This is a nice set of speakers. They were the largest speakers I auditioned and the color and finish looks very nice. Four drivers also looks really cool. My friend Eric went with me to most of my auditions, including the DALI and Revel auditions and in the end he preferred the Revel Concerta F12. It was a matter of taste.

I felt that the integreation of the sound from the bass up to the treble was not as well done as I could have hoped. It sounded to me like a discrete treble, midrange and bass rather than a cohesive whole. (Eric didn't hear this at all.) The Concerta had a bass hump that tipped the balance the wrong way for my taste. I also felt that the bass lacked definition so that the bass line of progressive rock masked the kick drum impact. (Eric preferred this bassier balance.)

But the Revel was best in class for dynamics. I craked the volume know on the track Dragon Boy. The crescendo blew us back in our chairs and stood our hair on end. There was no harshness, it was just like sitting in the frount row of a concert hall. Absolutely stunning. But I don't often listen at volume levels like that. The other things about the Concerto that I disliked would bug me every day, and so I was willing to forgo that awesome dynamic performance.

The store owner that had the Revels also had the Monitors, but I didn't listen to them. He felt that they were inferior, and so I did not insist that he set them up.

* Paradigm Studio 60*

Sometime after I purchased the DALI IKON I went with Eric while he auditioned subwoofers. He auditioned the Paradigm subwoofers with the Paradigm Studio 60 and I listened intently to the 60 while he paid attention to the sub.

The Studio 60 performs pretty close to the IKON 6. It does begin to sound harsh if you push the volume levels up too high. "The Fellowship of the Ring" at DTS reference level (!) sounded pretty bad. OK, I never listen that loud either. But while the overall tone seemed pretty natural, there was just a magical musical quality that was missing from the Studio 60, that I love about the IKON 6.

If you're thinking about buying either the Studio 60 or the IKON 6, you should audition both and decide for yourself.


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## ranjeetrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Ayreonaut said:


> In real life sound is seamless; I don’t think about bass, midrange and treble. The IKONs didn’t present these as separate, but instead as a whole.


Couldn't agree more. Most transparent speakers anywhere near its price range. Would take a significantly bigger money to beat this one. Bought these after a long research and must say the wait for "near perfect" speakers was worth it. Dali IKONs are too good to be true.


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## Funkmonkey (Jan 13, 2008)

Nice job Ayreonaut. I have been listening in this range too. I have yet to hear the Dali Icons, and the Revel F-12's but they are next on my list, sounds like they would be good to hear side by side. Now if only I can find a dealer that sells both. One thing I feel I should note, though: "The store owner that had the Revels also had the Monitors, but I didn't listen to them. He felt that they were inferior, and so I did not insist that he set them up." I believe that the price of the Monitors is lower than the Revel (I have heard them and they were a pretty good speaker. I thought the RS-8's were much more full sounding than the RS-6). So, of course the guys would say they are inferior. I ran into this twice now, most notably when I auditioned the Monitors, Martin Logans, and Vienna Acoustic Bach's. The salesman discouraged me from listening to the models with the lower price tag, offering negative comments toward those speakers, rather than letting me decide on my own... So if anyone is reading this and finds themselves in a similar situation, I would suggest that you start listening with the low dollar speakers and increase accordingly. just my 2¢.
cheers


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