Ground Sound

Activating Dali Evidence 870

Thorbjørn is a younger guy that has a big interest in both stereo and surround. For more than a year he has owned a DCN23 / PSU DCN to filter his Tymphany LAT 500 subwoofers driven by his huge Vincent SAV- P200. The time had come to make new improvements - so he contacted me about the possibilities of activating his Dali Evidence 870. Thorbjørn have had the Dali speakers for about 6 years and he is a fan of multi-way speakers in the Dali range of loudspeakers - Dali Grand is the favourite.
Anyway based upon his experience with the DCN23 - he decided that active was the thing to do before replacing the loudspeakers - probably more to gain. I were able to offer him two Chassis 603 to make the transition as easy as possible - he only had to switch the connector plate on the back of the Dali speakers to a plate with an 8-pol SpeakOn connector and cabling to each of the drivers.

Thorbjørn's system under the comparison test - "passisve versus active"

Thorbjørn tells about the process of making his passive loudspeakers into active:

I bought the two amplifiers from Robert and the upgrade of my Dali's could begin. I dwelled for a moment - those speakers sure are nice, but soon everything was taken apart. It was actually pretty easy. I chopped my Taralabs Prime 1000 in half using them as internal wiring. A little overkill some may say, but the old cables has low value on the second hand marked and I would not need heavy cables outside the speakers anymore, since they was going to become active now.
8-pin Neutrik plugs will be used for easy connection and cables inside the speakers are soldered directly to driver terminals. I have not finished the terminals for the rear of the speakers, but for now I manage with some soft clothing, stuffed in beside the cables, coming out of the cabinet. Of course not perfect, but I couldn't wait to start listening :o) I've always heard that Dali speakers like loads of power. Now they finally got 3 * 200 watts per speaker - and it works perfectly. It was around midnight, and the first speaker was assembled and put back in its place. Now I sat down in my sofa, ready to try out the difference between the now active left speaker, and the, at that time, passive right speaker. With the XOverWizard, I could easily and fast adjust the tweeter to go from 2900 Hz and up, the midrange between 250 and 2900Hz and the bas from 250 down to 50 Hz, below this point my two subs takes over. That done:

WOW, what a sound
Short after I did the same thing to the right speaker. And again WOW!! Now for the first time ever in any of my setups, the sound now had a rock solid deep sound stage and stereo perspective beyond my dreams. Bass reproduction was now agile and detailed, which gave music a never before heard, fantastic rhythm. And that midrange suddenly became alive. Horns, voices and string-instruments were no longer boring and muffled listening to. My old Dali's look the same, but sound so enormously different - Perfect!! Still some adjusting to do though, but the XOverWizard makes that easy

Active amplifier solutions like this, is definitely the way to go, if you don't want to be locked down by expensive and boring standard consumer products, with low upgrade potential !!

My system:

Pioneer DV-400V DVD player
JBL SDP-3 Surround Sound Processor
Ground Sound DCN23 DIY filter
Ground Sound Chassis 603 Active 3-way mono amplifier 600W
Vincent SAV-P200 Power Amplifier (6 * 200 Watt in 8 ohms) for Rear and Subs
Vincent SP-996 Power Amplifier for Center
Dali Evidence 870 Front speakers
Amadeus DIY (Dansk Audio Teknik) Center speaker
Dali Suite R0.8 Rear speakers
Tymphany LAT 500 DIY subs

Disassembling the Dali Evidence 870 loudspeaker

You know how it is - you simply can't waite to get the system going
- so is the case with Thorbjørn, but the connectors has been bought...

It's a very nice feedback by Thorbjørn, thanks
- you might think that I payed him, but NO

active@groundsound.com