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High-Performance Audio from a Compact Cabinet
The mid-sized OPTICON 2 MK2 speaker is a true two-way compact performer boasting a 6-1/2" wood fiber woofer matched with a new large 29mm (1.14") soft dome tweeter derived from the CALLISTO series.
The OPTICON 2 MK2 offers a level of performance unavailable from any other OPTICON model. The stand mount speaker is a natural distributor of high performance audio in compact to medium sized listening spaces where it has room to breathe and deliver its dynamic and explicitly defined performance.
The manufacturing of the OPTICON 2 MK2 remains fully Danish - as with the MK1 series. Fully assembled at DALI's factory in Denmark - from components produced in-house or sourced from the best local specialist manufacturers and further afield.
New Soft Dome Tweeter
The new unique lightweight 29mm (1.14") soft dome tweeter is derived from CALLISTO C and offers significant advances over the tweeters used in the MK1 series. The relatively small increase in diameter over the previous 28mm tweeter results in a significant increase in dome radiating area. This means lower distortion, higher power handling, and an ability to operate at lower frequencies.
The use of the same 29mm soft dome tweeter across all six OPTICON MK2 models results in consistency of tonal character and provides consistency of dispersion characteristics. The MK2 soft dome tweeter enables crossover frequencies as low as 2kHz to be safely employed with no risk of distortion or power handling limitations.
Low-Loss, Low Distortion, Low Coloration Woofer
The 6-1/2" OPTICON 2 MK2 driver is designed with a consistent focus on the DALI audio principles of low-loss, low distortion, and low coloration. The ideal driver plays only what the amplifier requires, with nothing added and nothing subtracted, and DALI strives to design and manufacture drivers that approach the ideal as closely as possible.
Every component of the driver is carefully designed for its positive contribution towards ideal performance. The diaphragm is made from a mix of paper and wood fiber that ensures minimal break-up resonance and gives the diaphragm its distinctive DALI trademark color. It is terminated by rubber surrounds chosen for its soft and very flexible mechanical properties that enable free movement with minimal low frequency damping.
The driver chassis is manufactured in die-cast aluminum that provides extremely high rigidity and low resonance along with minimal extraneous influence on the internal magnet system. The mechanical design of the chassis is specifically engineered to provide minimal impedance to airflow while at the same time enabling extremely tight mechanical bonding with the speaker enclosures.
Reflex Port System
As a reflex loaded speaker, the OPTICON 2 MK2 employs the otherwise unused acoustic output from the rear of its bass driver to extend low frequency bandwidth and increase low frequency power handling. DALI revisited the port tuning to ensure that the subjective bass performance was absolutely optimized for its likely installation application.
With Dual Flare technique, the MK2 brings port design into the realm of aerodynamics with exit and entry flares carefully designed to minimize turbulence at the airflow rate expected from the port diameter and tuning frequency.
Dual Flare enables the reflex ports to remain laminar and work effectively to reinforce low frequency performance to a significantly higher volume level than would otherwise be the case.
Assembled in Pairs
Speakers used and enjoyed in pairs should also be built as pairs! DALI's manufacturing process is designed to ensure that stereo pairs of speakers are built and tested sequentially by a single manufacturing technician, using components taken in the same order from the same batch. It’s a process that helps ensure ultimate visual and acoustic pair matching.
SMC Technology
The OPTICON 2 MK2 driver magnet system consists of a large ferrite ring magnet surrounding a pole piece manufactured entirely of the unique DALI SMC material. The pole piece and the ferrite magnet are secured between soft iron front and back plates to create the appropriate magnetic field for the voice-coil.
DALI SMC (Soft Magnetic Compound) is a coated magnet granular material that can be formed to almost any desired shape and has many advantages used in driver magnet systems. SMC’s unusual combination of very high magnetic permeability and very low electrical conductivity is exactly what is required for driver magnet systems and results in a significant reduction of electro-acoustic distortion.
SMC works primarily by minimizing eddy currents in the magnet system pole piece, which reduces distortion. SMC also improves flux linearity within the magnet system - reducing magnetic hysteresis. All of these SMC benefits together produce a significant subjective reduction of low-level detail masking and coloration.
A Passion for Detail
The OPTICON series has been at the heart of the DALI product line for over five years and has brought exceptional DALI performance into the homes of countless music lovers and audiophiles. But the time has come for the OPTICON to benefit from some new ideas and technologies, and to be refreshed with a new aesthetic. Welcome to the DALI OPTICON MK2.
Effectively updating and improving such a well-regarded high performance series as the OPTICON is a careful balancing act. How to enhance the existing engineering, aesthetics and performance without degrading or even eradicating the qualities that worked so well the first time around? The answers range from subtle revisions to more fundamental changes, but they have all been implemented the DALI way, with a continual focus on music reproduction, thoughtful design, stylish aesthetics, quality of manufacture and use of the latest technologies and ideas.
As with the original OPTICON series, an important element of the OPTICON MK2 is that it remains fully Danish in manufacture, built at DALI's factory in Denmark from components either produced in-house, or sourced from the best specialist manufacturers locally and further afield.
A Series That Caters to Every Musical Requirement
Just like its predecessor, the OPTICON MK2 is a speaker series that majors on clear, undistorted, enjoyable and coherent audio – perfectly complementing music, radio, streaming, TV or movie sources. A speaker series that caters to every requirement with compact stand or wall mount options, slim to more substantial floor stand options, and a center channel option too. The OPTICON MK2 series offers a speaker for every room and every occasion.
The DALI OPTICON MK2 series comprises six models and marks the point in the DALI passive speaker range where both performance and engineering ambition take a real step up and begin to speak the language of specialist, high-end hi-fi. OPTICON MK2 also introduces the renowned DALI hybrid tweeter, die-cast aluminum driver chassis, full SMC driver pole-pieces, and in-house manufactured enclosures.
Each OPTICON MK2 model is built around in-house manufactured SMC based bass/midrange drivers and employs either a DALI soft dome tweeter or the hybrid soft dome and ribbon tweeter for which DALI has become so well known. OPTICON MK2 models are available in three new finishes; satin white, satin black, and tobacco oak. (The OPTICON 8 MK2 is available in Satin Black Ash and Tobacco Oak only.) Grilles are covered with furniture grade cloth in black for the two darker enclosure options and light grey for the white enclosure option.
