I bought them sight unseen. My dealer got me a pair new for $1200, very happy with them. I intend to build a 7.1 system around them. The good, they love great material. Poor source and they sound ok, if you hit them with really good recordings they open up and disapear. I am very happy with them,

detail
cherence
dynamics

balance
bass extention

In some magazines (english) the speakers were described almost as the next best thing since sliced bread, which actually persuaded me to buy them. Unfortunatelly they did not turn out as good in real life.
I would not describe the speakers as great allrounders but there are some areas where the speakers perform way above their price tag. In my opinion this would be acoustical music and classical. Speakers are very detailed. Guitars are reproduced with extreme precision and detail almost as listening to live instruments. Voices are also very precise and convincing you can actually hear the pressure coming out of singers lungs. If you put enough care setting up the speakers, leave some room behind them and hook them up to quality components they will do dissapearing act when listening to classical music. They will also satisfy with dynamics and power.
As I already pointed out in the beginnig there is a price to pay for all this detail and precision. Some revievers call it treble and upper mids forwardness, bright sounding speakers etc. I would rather put it this way. The speakers can sound and do sound annoying at times. The reason is treble forwardness and lack of bass. Since the treble is vey sweet in absolute terms, you will not hear any forwardness listening to Norah Jones, Miles Davies or Bach. When listening to Zucchero, U2 not to mention Metallica and alike you will notice that the balance of this speakers is not neutral at all but on the annoying side. There is way too much treble in the balance and not enough bass. Toe-out will help to reduce treble forwardness. I cannot comment soft furnishing and heavy curtains since my living room was "soft" in the first place. Anyway partnering with care, toe out and soft furnishing will not be enough to get rid of the treble. If you own an amplifier without tone controls (as I do) I would not recommend this speakers to you. You will also miss bass if you listen to rock. If you preffer acoustical music the speakers are highly recommended. To sum it up: buy Dynaudio's.

Similar Products Used:

b&w 603
dynaudio focus 220

Great build, made in Denmark what means quality, natural sound, strong bass line. Price!

Big, can show their best with higher level electronics.
It is difficult to believe they can play so good since they are so nonexpensive. :-)

Icon 7 work for me as the second system together with Rotel 02 electronics. Cables from Supra and Audioquest, relatively big room - 50 m2.
I have used before Ruark Prelude II speakers for the system, the same price but smaller floorstanding pair. Selling them I was surprised how good they can play with other system (valve amp.) But with Rotel they were simply to bright.
Moving to Icon 7 all problems with harshness in high frequencies disappear! Great. But it is not all! Dali Icon 7 brought to my system more musicality, grace and clarity. Listening at least is a pure pleasure. Especially high tones are smooth and classy. Maybe combination of soft dome and ribbon tweeter works this way? Midrange is clean and contains a lot of details. What is different from hi-end top speakers – very small coloration could be detected by very careful listeners. It works quite interesting for some reasons – for example Bob Dylan’s vocals on ‘PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID’ get kind of church echoes what is normal not so impressive on some other speakers. But it is very small impact and Icon 7 sound very neutral, natural and dragging you into the heart of music.
Bass – did you see these speakers? They are the biggest ones in Icon series and it says everything. Do not afraid they can hide any bass note. It can not happen. But still, the bass range is not over the rest of music and tonal balance in these speakers is really perfect. Of course, they are too big to very small room but in any other situation full body sound is very nice and welcome. Oomps are lively and speed of all drivers is more than proper. All sound seamless and with great musical pleasure. Really great speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Ruark Prelude II, Jamo D590, Audio Physic Tempo, many others