DALI Helicon 400 Mk.2 Floor Standing Loudspeaker (Pre-Owned)

A pair of pre-owned DALI Helicon 400 Mk.2 floor standing loudspeaker up for sale. In excellent condition and comes with original box. Previous owner took good care of it.

Pick up only.

The new Helicon 400 Mk.2 is an extensive reworking of the original Helicon 400. Like the original, the Mk.2 is a moderately sized (40.4" high by 10.6" wide by 19.8" deep), bass-reflex floorstander with two rear ports. Its lower-frequency drive-units are two 6.5"-cone woofers, with diaphragms made from coated wood pulp. These units are custom-made by Vifa-ScanSpeak and fitted with low-loss rubber surrounds.

The new woofers used in the Mk.2 include double inverse magnet systems designed to improve magnetic flux density in the gap to better control cone excursion and thus reduce the original 400's excessive midbass bloom, as well as provide shielding for the speaker's use in video systems. DALI claims that the woofer cones' stiffness, light weight, and relatively shallow concavity help provide wideband response as well as good off-axis dispersion, and made it possible to simplify the design of the hardwired crossover.

High frequencies are covered by a tweeter module comprising a 1" silk-dome tweeter and a 2" ribbon, variations of which are used throughout the DALI line. While the online spec sheet lists crossover points of 700Hz, 3kHz, and 13kHz, clearly only one woofer's response is limited to 700Hz. The other crosses over to the tweeter at 3kHz, thus providing double-woofered low-end heft while allowing one of them to extend throughout the midrange. In addition, the 1" tweeter extends from 3kHz to its upper limit (not specified but obviously beyond 20kHz), while the ribbon tweeter is high-pass filtered at 13kHz and extends to beyond 30kHz. So whether the Helicon 400 Mk.2 is a 2½-way or a 3-way design—or perhaps a 2½+½+½-way—is a matter of semantics and/or nomenclature. I call it a 3½-way.

The Mk.2 version also includes a biwirable set of double binding posts, and upgrades to the finish and crossover. DALI claims that the 88dB-sensitive 400 Mk.2 is amplifier-friendly, with a 4 ohm nominal impedance and a linear impedance curve said to not dip below 3 ohms. They also say that all their speakers exhibit "time coherence"—something many manufacturers claim but few speakers actually produce.

The extensively braced cabinet is made (though not by Hornslet) of laminated MDF. With its curvaceous, well-proportioned cabinet, real-wood veneer in high-gloss lacquer, and gloss-black front baffle plate and plinth, the Helicon 400 Mk.2 is a graceful, living-room–friendly loudspeaker that looks as if it costs far more than it does. 

For full review and description, see Stereophile.