Amp for Dali Hellicon 400 mk2

The Dalis demand a lot of power to control the bass. I'd be concerned about a tube amp having the desired muscle unless you spend big, big bucks.

I've heard them with about five different amps and the bass didn't really clean up until we got to around 200 watts into 8 ohms. The CJ CA200 mentioned earlier is one of the amps that it sounded pretty good with. It sounded even better with a couple of 500 watt amps (Rowlands). With a 100 wpc Primare the bass was loose and bloated.

Those speakers really need a few hundred hours to break in. The ribbon tweeter can be very unforgiving of less than stellar sources, etc. I'm afraid that when you opted for those speakers you upped the anti on the rest of your system.

Dave

ya Dave..thats exactly what i am thinking as well...but..im a bit perplexed as when i had the ati running them i had it bridged to 400 wpc..and on one of the speakers..it blew the mid range drivers??..i was shocked..and diappointed..as..it wasnt playing like crazy loud......because..i have to really turn it up to really feel them....ahhh..its a long road

Damn, I hate stories about blowing drivers. That really surprises me because I was driving them with amps capable of 1000 watts into 4 ohms, with no problemo in a large, well damped room.

When you say "crazy loud" were you sitting there in front of them and actually listening when the driver crapped out?? You shouldn't be turning them way up and listening from another part of the house. You should be able to get 85+dB averages and peaks of say 105 or so without blowing things up. Compressed rock can be played over 90dB averages, generally without harm. Usually a speaker will blow because of a short with power on or underpowered clipping blowing the tweeters. I'm surprised that a speaker of this quality blew at any kind of level that you'd actually listen to.

Dave

ya..u summed it up Dave..i was shocked when they blew..and yes..i was in front of them..i have like a family room then the kitchen..all one room..so..i was about 20 ft away...and really..no excuses from a spker like that..im starting to think that the spker is more hype than anything..as i have yet to be really moved by them..strange..like i say..i was at my bros last night..we finnished off the night..after too many beers with some bocceli..man it was mesmorizing..from 800 dollar spkers..and here..mine blew at volumes less than he played his at..he has some great synergy with the nad i guess...we'll seehow this dreadnaught 2 plays out

I've got a Conrad Johnson CA200 that I'm going to put up for sale in the next few days (trying figure out where I left the silly remote). Anyway, that'll work with you DALIs.

Still, I'm wondering about ATI incident. 20 feet away means you've got a large room. If you've got a lot of furniture, thick rugs, then you may be driving them too hard. You may need to consider something way more sensitive or move up a lot closer to the speakers. You might move them to the long wall and not sit so far away. That'll give you a wider image and get rid of side-wall reflections. A large room can suck up a ton of power. You might have had them running over 100dB average at 10-ft. That'll do in many speakers.

Dave