anyone have an opinion on the dali helicon 400

I actually heard these speakers today. For my taste, they were much better than the B&W 803's or the Paradigm Signature ($6000, forgot model no) speakers. The B&Ws and the Paradigm definitely had a better soundstage - but these speakers had more tonal accuracy and were much more involving. I thought they sounded a lot like my Aerial 6's. What I didn't like about them was the top end (15K+ frequencies) sounded a bit bright. Probably has something to do with either their ribbon tweeter - or the fact that they were hooked up to Krell KAV seperates and a Krell Reference SACD player.

P.S. I'm new to the high end audio world - so in reality, I may have no idea what I'm talking about :)

I heard them at CES 2004 last year and were very nice, but that is not a true test of the speaker, you've got to hear it in your owm system. They did get a Golden Ear from The Absolute Sound in the Dec/Jan 2005 issue. I own a pair of Dali Grands(since discontinued) and am a true believer in the Dali line. The MS4's are awesome, although quite a bit more expensive.

I own a pair of Helicon 800's and I am quite pleased with them. I had them originally paired with Sim Audio P3/W3 amps but have replaced the amps with some ARC gear lately. The Solid State amps just made some recordings sound to harsh on the top end. They also produced to "much" detail, if there is such a thing. Now everything sounds very natural and live like. Great extension on the top end, good bass and wonderful mids. All that combined with a realistic soundstage and good coherence. If you have the money for the 400's you might as well audition the 800's too. I guess it would also depend on the size of the room you are intending to use them in. My room is 36 by 18 and the 800's have no problem with that.

Hi Mkuhnle
I'm very intrested in the dali speakers but my room is only 12x12. Do you think the 800 are too big ? Also wondering what's your cd player inter connects &speaker wire ?
Scott

The 400s and 800s are too big for your room. These speakers need a little bit of breathing room to shine.

I demoed the Dali 400's. They were NOT broken in and they were well placed in a large room. I distinctly heard Stevie Nicks in Fleetwood Mac singing thru the tweeters. Obvious. New model Mac tube amps. Top of the line. I guess they needed more breaking in since they were kinda bright.

I have a pair of Dali Helicon 400s purchased on Audiogon. I absolutely love them. I cannot immagine them being too large for a room though. I have a medium size living room and they are great. I had B&W 804s and had to get rid of them as they were too harsh to live with although they sounded great in the store before buying them. The Dalis are not too bright although I turned the treble down 2 db and the bass up 2 db to suit my tasts. The bass out of these speakers is great, punchy and accurate. The ribbon and dome tweeter combination are etherial. Spanks the normal B&W tweeter and should easily equal the Diamond B&W series. I back the Helicon 400s full bass up at the lower spectrum when playing music with a relatively cheap but beautiful sounding and acoustically matching Dali SWA8 8 inch sub. My 10" 1250 Watt HGS Velodyne Sub did not blend in well for music and stood out no matter where I put the volume. Not so with the Dali SWA8 which filled in the lower bass wonderfully and in a transparent way. Although the Helicons are not terribly efficient, a 100 watt or higher audiophile grade high current amp will make them shine. My Denon with 135 watts per channel however distorted the bass while my HK cheap 120 watts per channel 2 channel amp drove them nicely and sounded like different speakers. Apparently Denon over rates their wattage relative to HK and Rotel. The Rotel 100 Watt rated Amp weighs more than 20% more than the HK and by reviews outperforms the HK so it or anything with more high current power should definately work extra well with these speakers. By my tasts (and I don't like being needled by exaggerated highs) the Helicon 400s are not bright but rather warm and revealing. However, I turned the treble down 2 db and was then happy and they did indeed sound ever so slightly too bright before then. In other words, even though slightly bright (not harsh) they are close enough for minor adjustment to make them sound wonderfully open and revealing without any unatural or annoying highs. The midrange is warm and slightly forward the way I like my midrange. I strongly recommend these speakers. For the price, they are diamonds in the not so rough. By the way, they are incredibly beautiful with the Rosenut my speaker color of choice. Given the money, I would choose the Helicon 800s but with a good sub, the Helicon 400s come very close. Close enough to wonder about spending $2,000 more for sure (or perhaps I should say $2,000 more less the cost of a sub) since with the Helicon 800s you won't need one.

I own a Dali H 400 for about 4 year got them through Audiogon also. I pare them with Plinius 103. I was and I am happy with them from day one,
recently I was checking for a hum, (purchased a new cables)
and fined out that nothing coming out from ribbons. I checked with paper cone, I checked even with stethoscope-nothing. I removed a twitter section and measured with voltmeter. Ribbon was 5.5 ohm and dome 7.7 ohm -simse like all right. I am confused a lot is it supposed to be that quiet or it is something else? any one got an idea on subject?