If you’re looking for a pair of seriously compact floorstanding speakers, then the Dali Ikon 5 Mk2s are obvious contenders.
At just 15cm wide and only just over 80cm tall, the Dalis look dainty in situ, but this doesn’t prevent them from displaying impressive depth and bass weight.
Integration is between midrange and treble is spot on, too. This is impressive when you consider that Dali has squeezed four driver units into the cabinets: at the top, you’ll see a 45mm ribbon tweeter and a 28mm lightweight dome tweeter.
Beneath these sit dual, 13cm wood fibre cones.
Sparkly highs but disconnected bass
Detail is excellent, with special praise reserved for the treble. The highs during Aloe Blacc’s I Need A Dollar shine and sparkle, displaying a lovely crispness.
Low frequencies sound a little detached from the rest of the track, though; they can’t quite connect with the listener in the same way as the Ikons’ closest rivals.
These speakers are reasonably fussy about positioning. They’re front-ported, but don’t think this means they’re at their happiest hugging a rear wall.
Put them too close and although vocals get richer, the bass becomes overblown and boomy. We’d place them at least 20cm from a rear wall for the best balance.
Biwiring is best
They’ve been designed with wide dispersion in mind, though, so you don’t need to toe them in. We’d also bi-wire them; with the links in place the speakers sound coarse. Take them out, and they show much greater finesse.
They’re not the perfect compact floorstanders, but if size is an issue, then the Dalis will do the job very well indeed.
See all our speaker Best Buys
Follow whathifi on Twitter
Join whathifi on Facebook
