i compared the Dunlavy SC III and the athenas against the 10Ts and went with the Athenas. I listented to the IV but not a lot. The fact that the SCIIIs had some advantages over the 10Ts is what sent me listening to the larger Dunlavys. For almost twice the price the Aerials should have been much better than the SCIII. I got the athenas because they were a bit warmer than the IV, look a lot better and are easier to place. You NEED to put the Dunlavy speakers on a long wall with at least 3 or 4 ft to the outsides before you hit wall to really make them work, at least 8 ft between them. Do that and they have a great sound stage, a lot taller than the aerials. The Dunlavy speakers are much more open sounding than the aerials (very close to electrostaic sounding but with bass) and to me they had a lot better bass control. The 10Ts had a boominess that put me off them thou others dispute this and it may have been a room thing. They also just didn't sound as real as the Dunlavys.
I listened to the 10Ts a lot and they were fed by a top end Mark Levison system (39 cd player into ref pre into 33 monos) wired by transparent ref xl. The dunlavies were auditioned with a wadia 860 direct into either a pass labs 60 watter or an ARC VT100 wired by synergistic. I liked tubes way better. The Much cheaper Dunlavy system killed the aerial system IMHO. First listen to the athenas sucked me in and the second listen sold them whereas i had spent a couple of months trying to convince myself i wanted the 10Ts (and they were cheap)i use the Dunlavys with VTL and an ACR CD-2 all harmonic tech cables and can't see the need for much upgrading in the future
There is a pair of athenas in lt cherry on a-gon for mid $3k best deal you can get on a speaker if you ask me and you don't end up with small robots (10T) or coffins (IVs) in you r room.
I listened to the 10Ts a lot and they were fed by a top end Mark Levison system (39 cd player into ref pre into 33 monos) wired by transparent ref xl. The dunlavies were auditioned with a wadia 860 direct into either a pass labs 60 watter or an ARC VT100 wired by synergistic. I liked tubes way better. The Much cheaper Dunlavy system killed the aerial system IMHO. First listen to the athenas sucked me in and the second listen sold them whereas i had spent a couple of months trying to convince myself i wanted the 10Ts (and they were cheap)i use the Dunlavys with VTL and an ACR CD-2 all harmonic tech cables and can't see the need for much upgrading in the future
There is a pair of athenas in lt cherry on a-gon for mid $3k best deal you can get on a speaker if you ask me and you don't end up with small robots (10T) or coffins (IVs) in you r room.