DALI OPTICON 2 MK2

The OPTICON 2 MK2 is a mid-sized stand mount speaker with 6½" woofer and a 29 mm soft dome tweeter. It's a natural for high performance audio in compact to medium size listening spaces where it has room to breathe and deliver its dynamic and explicitly defined performance.

The mid-sized OPTICON 2 MK2 speaker is a true 2-way compact performer holding a 6½" wood fibre woofer matched with a new large 29 mm 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 our factory in Denmark - from components produced in-house or sourced from the best local specialist manufacturers and further afield.

REFLEX PORT

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. We revisited the port tuning to ensure that the subjective bass performance was absolutely optimised 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 minimise 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.

SMC

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 minimising 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 colouration.

SOFT DOME TWEETER

The new unique light-weight 29 mm 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 28 mm 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 29 mm 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.

WOOFER

Every component of the 6½" MK2 driver is carefully designed for its positive contribution towards ideal performance. The diaphragms are made from a mix of paper and wood fibre that ensures minimal break-up resonance and gives the diaphragms their distinctive DALI trademark colour. They are terminated by rubber surrounds chosen for their soft and very flexible mechanical properties that enable free movement with minimal low frequency damping.

The driver chassis for each driver is manufactured in die-cast aluminium 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.

The driver were designed with a consistent focus on the DALI audio principles of low-loss, low distortion and low colouration. The ideal driver plays only what the amplifier requires, with nothing added and nothing subtracted, and at DALI we strive to design and manufacture drivers that approach the ideal as closely as possible.

CABINET

The enclosure of the OPTICON 2 MK2 is designed to optimise rigidity and minimise panel resonance. The 25mm thick front baffle provides massively rigid foundations for the drivers. The floorstanding speaker employs extra internal bracing further to ensure rigidity and practically eliminate panel resonance.

The manufacturing of the OPTICON MK2 series has been retained firmly at the DALI factory in Denmark. Our in-house woodworking facility handles everything from cutting and routing the MDF panels to the driver and crossover installation. The final test and quality approval on each and every speaker is also handled on our own assembly lines.