Dali Ikon Sub Mk2 Subwoofer Test

Ikon Series styling, no distortion, deep bass.

Unclear images, lack of drama and aggressiveness in the sound.

Technical parameters

Technical commentary C.p.

It is no exaggeration to place Dali’s Ikon Series in the cult category. Popularity of these loudspeakers largely due to the successful combination of goodness, proper sound and reasonable price policy. It goes without saying that it is impossible to manage without a subwoofer in such a nice lineup. New in appearance and shape of the grille perfectly matches the rest of the Ikon components.

The design is a true classic inverter-phase design. Front-facing radiator with reflex port pointing to the floor. There is a special plate on the legs to ensure sufficient air space. The size of the cone is 305mm, which is not a small amount in the context of this test, the power of the amplifier is an average 250W. The size is quite large, the device weighs considerably too.

A set of ports and adjustable parameters is standard. Cut-off frequency, level and phase can be adjusted with rear panel controls. Power is controlled by a toggle switch or automatics. Low-level stereo and mono LFE inputs are designed as RCA jacks.

The vast experience of Dali’s engineers led to the creation of the most sophisticated acoustic design, which ensures distortion-free operation of the massive loudspeaker and zero stray noises. Part of these advantages can be attributed to the phase-inverter design. But there is another side of the coin. The bass is moderately deep, but somewhat blurred, without dramatic sharpness and weak in the attack.

This kind of features will not be good for movie buffs, whose main repertoire consists of action movies and blockbusters. Lovers of calmer genres will like it for increased comfort and reverent attitude towards the listener. There is also genre specificity in supporting the musical triphonics, heavy rock requires something more articulate. But on the whole, any stereo system will benefit from its presence and guaranteed none will lose. Recommended for jazz and classical music lovers.

Sound A.v.

This subwoofer has a serious speaker with a diameter of 12 inches, so that “the situation obliges”. The bass is deep, as one would expect, – the loudspeaker reproduces the lowest frequencies well, but with significant unevenness of frequency response at certain frequencies notes , but the details of transients transients , sounds of short duration with a sharp attack, – are insufficient.

At the same time, even for bass register sound sources, the HF part of the spectrum of these sounds is outside the operating range of the subwoofer, so when working with good MF/HF speakers, this drawback can be mitigated.

The built-in amplifier underloads the speaker – even when the volume control of the built-in amplifier is set to “maximum” the speaker does not work in the mode that is usually shown by the woofers when the amplifier is working at maximum power.

Perhaps the level of the characteristic sensitivity of this speaker is low, but this again indicates the inconsistency of the built-in amplifier and the speaker. It’s fair to say that such inconsistency is not uncommon in subwoofers.

But the separation of bass and kick drum parts is good, which is not so often met.

42 500 Dollars