To many, the company called Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries (DALI) needs no introduction. Famous for high-quality, hand-made speakers, DALI is represented in India by Sight & Sound India. The speakers that you see here are the Ikon 6. They work best with a good stereo amplifier (with minimal alteration to the clean, stereo sound). All you should play with are bass and treble levels. They're designed to be wide dispersion speakers, which means that you should place them perfectly straight (with no toe-in), unless you're placing them more than 10 feet apart (which you shouldn't do in any case).

As with any brand-new speakers, they need to be broken in before they can sound their best. This break-in period can be anywhere from a few days to a month. Nevertheless, we ran them at mid volumes for a few hours a day, for a total of a week (due to time constraints). We tested them out with music as wide-ranging as Bart6k, Strauss (classical orchestral), to Vertical Horizon to Metallica. The Ikon 6 delivers such a clean and powerful wall of enveloping sound that you'll be looking for additional speakers and subwoofers, which you may believe to be hidden away.

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Interestingly, the tweeter module is originally designed for the more expensive Euphonia line of speakers. That tweeter module alone is responsible for crystal clear highs when you're listening for the strings in Bart6k's. If you have a 5.1 amplifier, you can go in for the complete Ikon set, including the front speakers, center channel, two rears and the subwoofer. With each pair of speakers, DALI has thoughtfully included an accessory kit, which includes spikes (ideal if you're placing them on a carpet) or screws with rubber bottoms for plain floors.

This is necessary to properly 'connect' floor standing speakers. The MDF cabinet mimics the look and feel of real wood very well and is available in a choice of four finishes; light oak, light walnut, black and wenge. Overall, the Ikon 6 has a tendency to sound bright and sharp with certain recordings, but that's easily remedied by adjusting the treble and bass levels. A further bit of advice; don't subject these speakers to IJw bitrate MP3s. Instead, treat them with lossless FLAC recordings or original audio CDs and you'll hear and feel the difference.