Dunlavy resurrection?

vine, I owned and enjoyed a pair of Duntech Princess (older sibling to the SC-IV/a) for 19 years.  No problem with the Dynaudio tweeter in all that time.

After John moved back to the US and opened DAL I spoke with him a few times at the Vegas CES.  He was an old school engineer and did not believe in "exotic" components.  Seeing how complex the crossover was in my Princesses (visual look, I'm not an engineer) I always wondered if better parts might have offered improvements to an already wonderful speaker.

Regarding resurrecting DAL, I can foresee two problems.

The obvious one being the size and weight of most of his models.  It seems that trends are demanding smaller speakers.  Whatever market that still exists for such large speakers may already be filled by current companies.  Also there is how much shipping costs have increased.  JD initially moved back to the US from OZ to build a new Duntech model in the US to save shipping costs so it could be priced more competitively.  When that failed he separated from Duntech and opened DAL.  I offer that only as an example of impacts of distribution costs.

The other problem is potentially what "evolution" in design have you developed?  Have you retained John's basic critical time/phase principles?  If not then you really wouldn't have a new Dunlavy speaker.

vine, while I've heard different DAL models I don't know as much about them as the Duntechs.  My impression was that John cut some corners in producing his DAL models to keep prices as competitive as possible.  With a casual glance the comparable models between the two companies looked very much alike, but there were important differences.

The two best examples were drivers and cabinet design.  I believe the DAL utilized Vifa and Scanspeak.  Those may be less expensive than the Dynaudio drivers in Duntechs.  And the cabinets for DAL had straight side panels, rather than step back sides for the mids and tweeter (even with heavy felt surrounds, less side reflections).  I don't know about internal bracing in the DALs but my Duntechs had separate compartments for each driver and all were heavily braced.  Each Princess weighed at least 180 pounds.  What does the sibling DAL SC-IV/IVa weigh?

For all that, while I never heard comparable models side by side, I always thought the DAL models sounded very good.  I was just a bit prejudiced that my Duntechs performed a little better. ;^)

@dronepunk, thanks for that.  Hardly any difference in weight then.

However I think the simpler box design for the DAL was possibly a compromise in performance, even if it was less expensive to build.

m-db, I don't know specific years but this is the historical overview as I know it.

John Dunlavy started Duntech Audio in the 1970 in Texas.  His top model was tested by Bert White for Audio magazine and after a glowing review White chose them as his reference speaker.  That helped establish the Duntech name.

In the very early '80s John moved to Australia with his company and expanded the line up.  However one problem was the resulting cost elsewhere due to the size and weight of shipping most models.  So around 1990 John returned to the US and opened a facility in Utah.  One model was produced there, the Black Knight, which had mixed success.  John encountered manufacturing issues and relocated to Colorado Springs where he opened a new company, Dunlavy Audio Labs (DAL).  I believe he separated from Duntech then but don't know the details.  He continued designing and producing DAL speakers until health issues forced him to sell.  The new owner was not successful and closed within about a year.

I owned a pair of Duntech Princess from 1990 to 2009, by far the longest of any speakers I've had.  I had the pleasure of chatting with John a few times in Las Vegas during the CES in his DAL room.  The two companies produce similar models in their line ups and Duntech continues on to today.