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Haselsh1
09-06-2011, 12:01
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I make no secret of the fact that during the latter stages of last year my business went belly up and that during the period of being out of work I had to sell my precious hi-fi to survive. That meant that my Croft pre/power was sold and my Dali floorstanders were sold to finance a very unsure period of time.

Now that I am a Senior Laboratory Technician and Systems Analyst within the aerosol industry I am in a much better position to start getting things back together again and to this end, I recently bought a pair of Dali Ikon 1 loudspeakers to kick start the whole ethos of buying a decent hi-fi.

The Dali’s were bought because I was quite simply so impressed by the floorstanders I used to own. Sevenoaks in Brighton had a few pairs for disposal at £299 but I thought as usual I would push my luck and wait. Two days later the same speakers were £249 so I pushed the button that said ‘OK’ and sure enough, they were mine. The loudspeakers arrived in record time with very little communication from the seller and were sat upon my Atacama stands and wired up to the NVA LS5 cables.

Immediate impression…? Very spacey sound with a fabulous treble sparkle. OK so they have a ribbon supertweeter. This obviously helps no end were the crystal clear, sparkly treble is concerned but that is not all there is to these speakers. The midrange is also crystal clear and highly neutral with no artificial warmth and the bass is highly detailed although not very extended. The stereo imaging is just gorgeous as I guess one would expect from a very narrow stand mount speaker. The positioning of the central characters is extremely precise and when listening to ‘Q’ sound recordings the imaging is scary.

I highly recommend these loudspeakers to anyone who is contemplating a pair of small stand mounts. Of course they are now onto the Mk 2 version at around £650 but if you are in the market, they do deserve a listen. Tie them up with some fine cables and stands and they sound absolutely awesome.

Haselsh1
09-06-2011, 13:58
For the rest of 2011, I am hoping that my new found job will continue to be as interesting as it started out, and that I can either upgrade my amplifier or get back into playing vinyl. Given that my vinyl collection consists of around 70% brand new vinyl, it would be a real shame to turn my back on it completely. I may buy a brand new Rega Planar 3 or turn a cheap ebay turntable into a bit of a project.

If I go the route of a new amplifier, I shall look at going back to valves and possibly getting Nick Gorham to design one for me but I know that would be expensive.

Slippershod
15-06-2011, 08:59
The Nikon F3 with MD-4 :)

liked it just as well without the 'drive too.

Haselsh1
16-06-2011, 11:36
The Nikon F3 with MD-4 :)

liked it just as well without the 'drive too.

The Nikon F3 is my favourite camera even though I also own a Nikon F5, Pentax MX and Bronica SQA. I just love this old world way of doing things with great precision.

Reid Malenfant
16-06-2011, 17:42
Nice mini review Shaun :) By the way, you might be interested in this (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/pair-Famous-DAL-IKO-Ribbon-Dome-integrative-tweeter-/220795403665?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudio HiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item33686e7d91) :eyebrows: Just remember that China is where just about everything is made these days. Keep your eye on that guy as i'm sure he'll be listing the Neodymium magnet version with the smaller faceplate which is what you have there ;)

Yes i know you don't intend to pop them, but just in case :eyebrows:

Someone else put a picture or two of a pair of speakers up on here earlier & matey there in China (that i have purchased off of myself) is selling the same tweeters :cool: They both work fine by the way :lol:

£13.98 inclusive of postage if i remember right :eek: Unbelievable...