Dunlavy ?????

The old website http://www.duntech.com.au/ is pretty static.
Kiat has been working on a new model Senator and has mentioned about a new release of the Princess. Maybe he needs some investors.

New owner of Dunlavy? Thats news to me. Who is it? I can't seem to find anything online

Room size is very important to realize the best from nearly all Duntech/DAL speakers. I've heard them in smaller rooms and in larger rooms and larger was always best.

First, the 10' seated distance from the front baffle that Rcprince mentions. A cornerstone of Dunlavy designs was time/phase coherency. He achieved that with physical set-backs of the front baffle, heavy wool felt damping, and crossover design. For any of his 3-way (or 4-way) speakers, that minimum of 10' is necessary for correct/cohesive arrival time of the drivers. You can listen closer but they will not sound up to their potential.

Second, sidewall distances can be critical and affect clarity. John seemed to prefer long wall placement and I always suspected that was to allow more distance from speakers to sidewalls, even with wide channel separation. And BTW, I've heard L/R from 6' to as much as 14' and with careful set up and a good room, wider can be spectacular. I've heard amazing fill between the speakers and a huge soundstage, but "no hole in the middle" with some wider separation.

Lastly is distance from the front wall. This will be governed by you room and your desired bass response. Every situation may be slightly different but I'd expect 3-4' out from the wall will be minimum.

Where I always disagreed with John was his preference for long wall placement with the listener against the back wall. In my experience at least 3-4' distance is also necessary for the listener's head from the wall to avoid heavy, slower bass.

So they many not be easy but the musical rewards can be exceptional.

PS - A few years ago John Marks reported in Stereophile that Sony Studios NYC went to the trouble of bringing in a new pair of Duntech Princesses from Australia. Considering that Sony makes their own high end speakers that says something I think.

+1 for the Dunlavy SC-IVa. I have had the SC III, IV before switching to Duntech PCL-400 and Sovereign 2001 for both my systems. As Pryso mentioned before, Duntech has much better parts: drivers (mostly Dynaudio) and cross overs so in case you got yourself a Dunlavy, do replace the caps and maybe resistors in the xo. Moreover, you get support from the new owner of Dunlavy (Kiat) to get replacement parts.

The final iteration of the Aletha/Athena was the SC-III.A, which I own. The cabinet is a conventional rectangular shape but it's the same drivers in the same configuration.

Another advantage to the Alethas/Athenas, as I recall, was that they could be used in a smaller room than the IVs and larger models, but would give more bass than the SC IIIs.

If you want a moderate size speaker, get the Dunlavy Aletha or Dunlavy Athena speakers. There the same speakers.
They had that cool hexagon cabinet.
They used a 10 inch Vifa woofer, which is facing downwards.
Then a MTM design using two 6 1/2 Vifa midbase drivers and the Vifa tweeter. The drivers you can get easily on Madisound if you need a replacement driver
The speakers have a really nice soundstage and the bass is very tight.
You'll see the speakers come up on Audiogon every once in awhile.
Here's someone that owns the Dunlavy Aletha speakers at a Music studio.
You can talk to him about the speakers.http://imperialmastering.com/the-studio

One thing not mentioned is your room size. You'll need a good sized room for the larger models, and expect to have to sit about 10 feet away from them for the drivers to integrate at their best. If you don't really need bass below 40 Hz, the SC IIIs might be a good choice, they can work very well in medium-sized rooms. Since they are sealed-box designs they have less room placement problems than a lot of other speakers.

Having owned Duntech Princesses for a long time, I have to agree that the Dunlavy-designed speakers are exceptional--they may not have been the absolutely most transparent speakers, but they did everything at least very well, and they especially got the midrange right. My feeling has been that the Duntechs sounded a little better with solid state amplification, but the Dunlavys really sang with tubes. My opinion, though--YMMV.

One thing to keep in mind of course is that Dunlavy is no longer in business (John having unfortunately passed away), and Duntech is in Australia with a limited distribution network (they were good at getting me matching replacement drivers for my Princesses when I needed them years ago, not sure how they are now).

I've owned the III's and I still am using the IVa's. I agree with Rja that the IVa is a big improvement over the IV's with the use of premium drivers which tightened up the bass. These speakers are big, so you need to have the right room, but I have yet to find a competitor at the price point.

I'm still using a pair of IVA's. Although I have been tempted to buy other speakers, which I may do sometime, I will probably keep the Dunlavys.

They are 6 ft tall and weigh 185lbs so you'll need some help hauling them around. There are always V's and VI's if you really need a workout. Try to find some near you if at all possible to save on shipping cost and headaches.

I would definitely try to find IVA's (originally around $8000) rather than IV's (originally around $4000) because they are so much more coherent, meaning the drivers integrate so much better IMO (I've owned both). Relatively good sensitivity (around 90 or 91 db) and 6ohm, although I could be wrong on this.

If you read numerous Dunlavy threads you've likely seen some of my comments. They come from 19 years owning Duntech Princess speakers, following Duntech and then DAL over those years, and personal conversations with the man himself.

Where Duntech and DAL offered similar models (Princess and SC-IV/A for example) I consider the Duntech to offer a few advantages. John found ways to reduce costs with his DAL products with cabinet construction and driver choices. However the DALs I've heard (most of the line up) are still very good speakers, are more easily found, and apparently are slightly more efficient (since owners report success with smaller amps than I found appropriate for the Princesses).

Like any used gear condition will be everything. But prudent shopping can turn up wonderful musical performance for reasonable money. The biggest drawbacks will always be their size for most models.

I had a pair of sc III's and loved them;drove them with both tubes and solid state and they performed equally well with each.
My only negative was the bass could have been tighter and deeper but I think that was related closely to the 8 inch driver.
If you are looking at sc4 thru sc6 then I believe they will do a fantastic job with any type of music you throw at them.
The build quality is very good and I believe Dunlavy to be a speaker that can still compare with anything made today.
What model are you considering and what will you be driving them with?