Guided by picturesque landscapes we are on our landing approach. Flying past farmsteads and small, forested swathes our plane goes down lower and lower. Silently the i-fidelity.net editors are clinging to the hope that at least the pilots will spot a runway in this nowhere land in the midst of nature. At last we are standing at the airport of Billund. We are traveling to one of the world’s largest loudspeaker manufacturing companies, located in one of Denmark’s northernmost areas, to catch up behind the scenes on the technical development of the new Dali Epicon loudspeakers.

Because in the run-up to the journey we were told that the R&D department had made quite a few technical changes and achieved a breakthrough especially with the chassis drives. If you are acquainted with the Danes who rather tend to modesty, you will know that there must be something substantial behind this announcement. In total the new series consists of four models: the centre speaker (Vokal) and the two floorstanders Epicon 6 and Epicon 8 plus the compact two-way speaker Epicon 2, the only model that goes without the hybrid tweeter which has become known as a Dali trademark.

About 4,500 EUR are called up for a pair of the Epicon 2, and Dali grants a 60-month warranty period on the zero-defect operation. Another 700 EUR are due for matching speakers stands if you opt for the original stands from Dali. By the way, the compact high-end monitor should not be used other than free standing, the degree of sonic impairment would be too high. On the other hand there is also no obligation to use the Dali stand exclusively, for with a design height of 54 centimetres it’s more or less in the lower range of what is sensible.

Consummate form

At present Dali offers the colour options black, walnut and ruby red macassar wood for the Epicons. The real wood veneers are coated up to ten (!) times with a clear lacquer which covers the surface under a layer of a full two millimetres thickness. One can see already at first sight that the enormous effort pays off. Its outward appearance is noble, luxurious and covetable. Even the connection terminal and the bass reflex port on the rear side don’t interfere with the harmonic line. Hence Dali surpasses the usual very good quality of workmanship and gets the »superb« grade for the Epicon 2.