Dali Helicon 800. What components match with it?

Hello,

I have owned the 400s for over a year and just bought a used pair of 800s on Audiogon this weekend. A couple of things I have noticed in 3 days listening to both. 1) the 800s are clearly better (IMHO) than the 400s. The mids on the 800s are more vivid and pronounced. I also have listened to both in a medium sized room and the 800s do sound more "full" than the 400s. The timber of music (upright bass, snare drums, etc) seems more realistic and hits you in the chest with more feeling (even at low volume). I did notice you have to be at least 10 feet away to let the drivers integrate on the 800s where the 400s come together at about 8 feet. However, the 400s are no slouch and are not miles behind the 800s. They have enough deep bass and such a airy open top end that they are very enjoyable to listen to. Given the opportunity, I would buy the 400s again in a heart beat. 2) I have seen a few comments that the 800s are power hungy speakers. I thought I would have fun and try a couple of low powered tube integrateds with them (Cayin TA30 & Dared VP-845). On both amps the 800s were surprisingly open & VERY dynamic without showing any congestion or signs of stress from the amps. Both the 400s and 800s seem VERY amplifier friendly. Dali's specs even show a relatively high efficiency with flat impedance curves. The 800s actually required noticably less turning of the volume knob to play as dynamic as the 400s. My question is, do the people using beefy amps with these speakers ever have to turn it up past 9:00 on the volume knob? I know more high quality power is usually best but is it over kill with these speakers? Thoughts?

Thanks,

Bud

This from Dali when I was looking to power my Euphonia MS5's, close enough, no?; I went from SS to tubes as recommended and consequently just fell in love with what tube amplification did for my speakers. My amp is the McIntosh MC2102 w/ 100 or so watts per ch., and as they say at Bentley "power is sufficient".

John:

The MS 5's perform best with tubes (IMHO). The flat impedance curve of the MS 5's, and virtually zero impedance phase shift, provides an extremely fat, easy curve for the amplifier to drive.

As a result, tubes power the MS 5's effortlessly, and the sonic performance is outstanding.

Best of all, due to the high speed of the DALI low-loss drivers, very little is sacrificed in terms of mid to low-end speed in exchange for the sweet bloom of the tubes.

A perfect match!!

Best wishes,

Ben
Ben Gosvig
National Sales Manager
DALI USA
3957 Irongate Road
Bellingham, WA 98226
tel: 360-733-4446
fax: 360-733-0080
website: www.dali-usa.com
email: beg@dali.dk

Jamnesta,

Thanks for the feeback. "A perfect match" - I could not agree with Ben more! I can see where people would be confused on what to use to drive the 400s and 800s (and MS5s). Of the 2 local dealers selling Dali, one pushes high output Mcintosh SS amps (and says they need lots and lots of power) and the other sells Cary tube amps and demonstrates with 50wpc SET amps (my preference). Both are dynamic and great sounding but the realism of the tubes is for me.

Thanks,

Bud

I have always liked the sound of the 800s powered by Macintosh gear. Very good match there, IMO.

---Dave

Whoops... that should have read "Mcintosh"... not the Mac computers. ;-)

Doh!

Sorry,

---Dave