IKON® MK2 TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
IKON 1 MK2 IKON 2 MK2 IKON 5 MK2 IKON 6 MK2 IKON 7 MK2 INTRODUCTION A full five-year lifespan as market leader in its segment is an amazing and exceedingly rare achievement for any consumer audio product. The longevity of the original DALI IKON series is proof positive of DALI’s engineering skill and foresight. Not content to rest on our laurels, the DALI design team seized the opportunity - and the challenge to do far more than merely update the cosmetics of the speakers’ exterior.
TARGET After a remarkable five-year lifespan, the time was deemed right for a significant upgrade of the IKON series, both inside and out. DALI was looking for specific audible changes, especially refining reproduction capabilities in the lower frequency area. A slightly increased bass level, generating a full-bodied tonal balance has been the aim. Equally important was to avoid touching the fine resolution in the high frequency area and the balance of the entire speaker.
50.0 180.0 Deg 40.0 108.0 30.0 36.0 20.0 -36.0 10.0 -108.0 Phase [°] Impedance [Ώ] Ohm 0.0 10 20 50 100 200 500 1k Hz 2k 5k 10k 20k -180.0 Frequency [Hz] SOUND DESIGN PRINCIPLES DALI’s design and engineering philosophy is based on a set of principles – sound design principles.
CABINET Our large and efficient woodworking facility handles everything from cutting out the cabinet and applying the vinyl to mounting the drivers and performing the final tests and approvals on each and every speaker. The floorstanding cabinets employ a very rigid construction with solid bracings across the inside of the cabinet for reinforcement. This contributes to the stiffness and practically eliminates resonance within the cabinet.
The baffle consists of two layers of MDF bonded together by means of a special vibration-damping assembly adhesive. This construction dissipates vibrations and resonance, forming a solid, rigid, and acoustically inert platform for the drivers. A superior working environment for the drivers plays an important part in maintaining the clarity and purity of the signal by minimizing coloration. FRONT BAFFLE The new baffle sports a darker, silk mat surface, for a more exclusive look and feel.
BASS REFLEX PORT Except for IKON ON-WALL MK2 all speakers in this series rely on the bass reflex principle. The bass reflex port has been tuned to minimize distortion from the woofers, and to control the time response of the roll-off from the bass system. The diameter, length, placement and mounting of all IKON MK2 reflex ports are carefully calculated to ensure ideal, seamless integration of port output with the output of the drivers, so that the port contribution enhances overall system performance.
IKON MK2 crossover CROSSOVER The shorter the signal path, the better. That is why we have mounted the crossover directly onto the terminals – minimizing potential signal loss from the terminal to the crossover. In the floorstanding models - IKON 5, 6, and 7 MK2 - we have constructed the crossover from two vibration-absorbing wood fibre boards to reduce mechanically transferred vibrations.
DALI drivers are all proprietary designs, developed from scratch. Tooled and engineered exclusively for each product, all performance characteristics are tailored to meet the individual speaker requirements. WOOFER A major contribution to the sonic improvement from the original IKON to the MK2 series derives from the brand new woofer. With the design experience from the MENTOR series in mind we have developed two new woofers – a 5” and a 6½” chassis.
The same attention was paid to the voice coil, the magnetic system etc. Even the slightest change of a driver in the development process has meant hundreds of hours of verification, and in getting it all working together seamlessly. Combined with careful milling of the front baffle, the optimized airflow ensures very limited loss of energy within the driver, minimizing compression – resulting in uncolored, transparent and time coherent reproduction.
The long-throw ratio design of the chassis provides headroom for extreme cone excursions. Even when the cone is pushed to the maximum, it will not reach physical limits of motion. The motor system within the woofer is based on a solid ferrite magnet. The magnetic saturation of the centre pole prevents distortion through a stable magnetic flux density in the voice coil gap. On top of this, the drilled and chamfered ventilation in the centre pole provides total ventilation behind the dust cap.
HYBRID TWEETER MODULE Just as important as it was to improve certain aspects of bass reproduction, it was crucial to preserve the fine performance of the proprietary DALI hybrid tweeter module in the IKON series. We wanted to maintain the transparent and solid rendering of even the most subtle high frequency details. The IKON MK2 series employs a tweeter solution inherited from our high end EUPHONIA and HELICON series.
28 mm voice coil Ultra light fabric dome Foam damping Main neodymium magnet Soft iron top plate Felt damping Front neodymium magnet Heat sink Soft iron outer pole Under the dome, we have meticulously damped the cavity. The damping material consists of two dedicated parts positioned directly in the pole opening and on the edge of the centre pole. All this makes the dome tweeter perform in a smooth and stable manner – adding to the overall quality of reproduction of high frequencies.
RIBBON The ribbon tweeter features a broad frequency band and superb dispersion in the higher frequencies. Gently rolled in above 10 kHz, the ribbon reaches full contribution from 14 kHz to well beyond 30 kHz, far above the audible range. Equipped with a rear chamber fitted with rigid bracing, the ribbon is shielded from the disruptive Rear chamber Acoustical damping Magnet assembly plate Developing the DALI ribbon tweeter was no easy task.
ACCESSORIES All floorstanding IKON speakers come with spikes made of black chrome steel. These are mounted in the aluminum cast ‘feet’. For use on ‘sensitive’ floors, we have also included vibration absorbing feet which will leave soft surfaces - such as a wooden floor - untouched. Tools for mounting the aluminum feet and spikes are included. Accessories for IKON 5, 6 and 7 MK2.
IKON MK2 SERIES TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 1 2 5 6 7 ON-WALL VOKAL 2 SUB Frequency Range (+/-3dB) [Hz] 45 30.000 41 30.000 43 30.000 39 30.000 40 30.000 58 30.000 47 30.000 26-200 Crossover Frequency [Hz] 2.500 / 14.000 2.500 / 14.000 700 / 2.500 / 14.000 700 / 2.600 / 14.000 700 / 2.500 / 14.000 2.600 / 14.000 3.200 / 14.000 50-130 Input Impedance [kohm] - - - - - - - 30k (L/R) 20k LFE Sensitivity (2.83V/1m) [dB] 86.0 86.5 87.0 89.0 90.5 88.5 90.
