Dunlavy SC4 Speakers

Hello 2channeljunkie,

The Dunlavy SCIV's are fantastic speakers! They are very large, but do not seem so dominating because they are narrow and deep. When listening in the sweet spot, they can literally disappear like the best mini monitors, but still have a huge sound with lifelike images of real sized instruments. They are very revealing of upstream components, so you can tailor the sound as you see fit. If you use sterile, solid state equipment....they can sound sterile or bright. If you use quality tubed equipment, they will reveal the beautiful harmonic structures that music has to offer. They have plenty of real bass that is very tuneful, nimble, and very well defined. When used in the right room, with synergistic equipment, they can be quite astounding.


However, when you say "........ My reasoning for this is that I never sit in the sweet spot and listen to music. I typically will turn on my music and listen while i'm cooking dinner or cleaning up stairs. I rarely sit in the man cave and listen to music. I love to turn on my music and listen to it throughout the house while I go about my day to day activites......." I feel that you will miss out on how great these Dunlavy's truly are. Yes, they will emanate beautiful sound throughout the house, but I think you may be splitting hairs over these different speakers when you do not even sit in the same room (or same floor of the house for that matter) that they are playing in.

If there was a chance that you were going to change you listening habits in the future, I would definitely recommend buying the Dunlavys. If not, I think it may be money wasted...... keep your current speakers, buy more music to enjoy, and let someone else buy the Dunlavy's who will be better able to appreciate and enjoy the musical magic that the SCIV's can give.

That would be my two cents worth at least.

Warmest regards,

Hi Drubin,

Remember that old saying?....."don't fix what's not broken".

If you have the magic right now, why mess with it? John Dunlavy was one of the greatest speaker builders of all times, in my humble opinion. He could take inexpensive drivers, match them, and design crossovers that were custom to those specific drivers, and create "magic".

I've owned my SCIV Signatures for a very long time and have no desire to change anything about them. Why? Because to my ears, they already have the majic that you referred to. I am not going to pretend that I know more about this "art" than a man like John Dunlavy!

Sure, I could change parts out and get a different sound....but will it be better? I doubt it. It really doesn't matter though to me as I love the sound I am getting right now.

Take the money you'd spend on all the parts/labor/time and buy more music and continue to enjoy them.

Just my three cents worth.

It started with the original Dunlavy IV, then towards the end of that run John made improvements to this speaker. He did not make any designation changes, but simply referred to it as the Dunlavy IV improved version. Shortly after this, he made additional changes that could not revert back to the original SCIV and therefore named it the SCIVA.

It has been such a long time, my memory fades....I cannot remember if all three versions say Signature on them or not. Mine are the SCIV improved and does says Signature on them.

I'm sorry that I cannot remember more specifics on all of the three versions. What I can say is that any of the three are fantastic speakers. You seriously can not go wrong with any of them.