Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Dali speakers?

A friend’s neighbor is moving to Europe and is selling his home and everything in it. I don’t know what this guy is worth, but to put his worth into perspective, he just sold one of his two Gulf Streams and he has a personal helicopter that he parks on the hello pad in his front yard. I’ve never seen anything like this….some of the stuff this guy has is just difficult to fathom until you actually see it. He has a room in his basement that must be 40 X 40 that is a complete, wall to wall, custom built train set. All the trains are controlled by touch screen monitors, incredible. He has remote controlled air planes and helicopters all over the place and these things are huge. I don’t know what scale, but one plane has at least a 12’ wing span.

He’s been having yard sales for the past couple of months and he’s down to his last remaining items, including some A/V gear and the rest of his wine cellar. I bought a couple cases of French first and second growths and burgundy’s a few weeks ago. Now I’m thinking about buying some speakers. I have absolutely no use for them, but they seem to be one heck of a bargain, and they look gorgeous. He bought these less than a year ago and I bet they have less than 100 hours of use. I need to make an offer within the next couple of days, and figured I’d ask this crowd for some input before I jump on this. He has a McIntosh seven channel pre and amp he’s selling too. I did not get to listen to these as the system was broke down and ready to be carried out the door.

This is what he’s selling and the prices he is asking:

McIntosh MC207 7 channel amplifier
McIntosh MX120 AudioVideo preamplifier
Asking $8000 for the pair of McIntosh pieces.

Dali S600 sub $2000 (purchase price)
Dali C200 Mark 2 center channel $2000 (purchase price)
Dali 800 Mark 2 floor speakers, $10,000 (purchase price)
Dali W200 on wall, $6000 (purchase price)
Asking $15,000 for the whole set.

http://dali-speakers.com/display_content.php/USA/speakers.html/95/483

I would def. offer less for the audio eq. than he is asking, but as far as specifics I am not sure. Sounds like this guy is loaded (or was). I wonder why he isn't taking some of this stuff with him...

Very nice speakers, but still, at that price I'd expect them to make me breakfast as well.

I didn’t speak to the owner. His personal assistant is the one who is selling everything. I did ask why he’s selling everything instead of taking it, and the reason given was that it was not cost advantageous seeing how he’s moving to northern Europe. There are always three sides or more to every story, and I have my suspicions, but I was told his girlfriend is going to be in the next Olympics as a cross country skier and they are moving so she can train 12 months per years. If I were to tell you his name and you Google the guy, it’s pretty obvious why he’s moving out of the country, and I don’t think it has much to do with skiing.

I was primarily interested in the towers and the sub for my great room and was thinking about offering him 50 cents on the dollar for them. I had not heard of Dali speakers before seeing these. I figured someone on this board would know something about them, or had at least heard them. I have no interest in the McIntosh stuff.

Well I do know one damn fact for sure Mike, his name ain't RickF.

The guy I work for has a Robinson R44, four seat helicopter parked in his yard (hangered) right next to his very nice RV6 homebuilt airplane ... not nearly the money that you are speaking of with your guy though.

Hey BTW Mike I keep meaning to email you regarding the great and extremely informative information you gave me regarding the projectors ... that was just a ton of help for me, thanks a million and I'll get you an email sent out here in the next day or two.

50 cents on the dollar is a reasonable price for the Dali's from what I can find on the Net and from different reviews they are top notch speakers.

I see on Dali's web site the Helicon Mark series runs a dual hybrid tweeter, interesting........

I'm not sure I could bring myself to buy them without hearing them. That's still a lot of coin. For me, anyway.

Mike, did you check AVS?

I have not been able to find a lot of user feedback on these speakers anywhere. I suspect that folks who buy speakers at this price range, probably, not all, but probably most, don’t really care what they sound like as long as they impress visitors. Or in other words, they don’t buy them for SQ. This guy has McIntosh driving every system in his home, and he has MANY, including his kitchen. These speakers were in his “study”. He has a very elaborate home theater that had all custom built in speakers and one of those sub woofer systems built into its one room with duct work.

But I hear ya Tom, I’m pretty hesitant to just buy them. It’s just difficult for me to pass up a good deal. I’m an impulse buyer…… Costco is my worst enemy. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked out of that store with crap I’ll never use, and just wonder later why in the world I bought it.

I know what you mean, I have resolved myself to never go in there without my wife, she keeps me under control

Sometimes I feel like spending money at Costco, sometimes I don't. The worst thing is to go in hungry.