Dali Helicon 400 or Acoustic Zen Adagio?

Sounds like you have a wonderful set up and great speakers. I havent heard the Baby Grands myself.
I listened tonight to some of my test classical tracks eg Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Schubert's 9th, and specifically listened to the deep base harmonics/tonality, and I am still impressed. Must be my set up and room etc. The speakers I listened to before buying the Helicons included Thiel, Revel, Triangle, Dynaudio, Focal, B&W, Elac, Sonus Faber...that i can remember. I also listened to some extreme high end speakers. It took me ages. It is so hard to find what works well for your taste, your equipment, your room, and last (and definitely least), your budget. I am extremely fussy.
Sounds like you are too :-) so if yours are doing it for you already, why change? You are winning! I rare thing in this game in my books.

Mike, this issue that I experienced was in very low bass, below string orchestra levels typically. So it was synthesizers playing below the five-string electric bass range. I only ran into it on some of my light jazz albums. Also, you if you heard it you might not know it was limited, because there's a strong signal there, but it just doesn't show it's full character. You have to hear it on another speaker and then you'll realize your missing it.

My guess is that well under 10% of my CD/LP collection would expose the issue. So, your odds are pretty good that it will NOT interfere with your enjoyment. The mids and particularly the highs near the top of the heap with the DALIs, IME.

Dcstep, this is not intended as some sort of challenge, but perhaps you're asking the Helicons to reproduce sounds they're not really designed to reproduce. Do you know the frequency you're focusing on?

If that frequency range is especially important to anyone, then unless they have a true full-range speaker, the would likely be well served by adding a subwoofer.

I too have been impressed with the Helicon 400s from top to bottom, though perhaps not quite bottom bottom...

05-07-08: Steidlguitars said:
"Dcstep, this is not intended as some sort of challenge, but perhaps you're asking the Helicons to reproduce sounds they're not really designed to reproduce. Do you know the frequency you're focusing on?

If that frequency range is especially important to anyone, then unless they have a true full-range speaker, the would likely be well served by adding a subwoofer.

I too have been impressed with the Helicon 400s from top to bottom, though perhaps not quite bottom bottom... "

Thanks for your comment.

I haven't brought both my tuner and SPL meter into the room to figure out the exact frequencies, but yes they are very low, like 30-40 hz. I've got a test CD with sine waves and these seem in that range, without using instruments to absolutely verify that.

Yes, you're right, these speakers may not be designed to go that low and one may want to try the 800s if they otherwise like the DALIs but need more depth. However, I would point out that there are speakers that are smaller than these and cost much less that do play those notes, which is probably the source of my surprise.

Dave

Dcstep, you're a good sport, thanks.

My point was that every speaker design represents trade offs, especially those that are priced within reach of many listeners. For me, 30 hz would be nice, but it is never my principal focus; if that is especially important to you or anyone else, then you'd be better served looking elsewhere.

But to get those low lows--and to hold price constant--you'd trade away something else. For me, it is a speaker that gets the mids right -- vocals and guitar -- everything else is a little less important.

With a tube amp, the Helicons do the mids quite well (not perfectly by any means) and they excel in detail, soundstage, and imaging where I have found them as good as some excellent monitors. Their ribbon tweeter gives them a bit more air then typical, almost like an electrostat to some degree. Their lower mids can be a bit congested, but a change in speaker cables cleared that up for me.

All of that is to say that it's all about trade-offs and knowing what you're after. Like flavors of ice cream!