Recommendation for a modern Duntech Sovereign 2001 replacement

Jazz what is your budget, how lively is the room, what components do you have?

The Duntech was a physically large speaker and so if you really want to replicate that kind of sound you will also need a physically large speaker which is going to mean spending some good money $15k to $50k and above. 

A fantastic Duntech like speaker is the Dali Epicon 8 which is stunning looking and has a very liquid midrange and still has superb highs The Dali sounds way bigger than its size add a couple of good woofers and you will be in heaven. and the speakers are amazing looking. sleek and curved cabinets. 

Tekton Ulberchets sound like Duntechs but are hardly attractive speakers  but they are a fantastic value. 

Please feel free to reach out to us, we sold Duntech for years.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I am not suggesting a speaker that will sound just like them but will give you a similar feeling. The Dali Epicon 8 are unbelievably musical loudspeakers.

Tone Audio did a story on them saying you don’t need to spend $50k and above on speakers when you have something that is that musical.

There is no speaker that Gershman makes that has a similar feel to the Sovereigns other than the Black Swans,.

Avante Gardes are excellent horns but if you like the smooth laid back Duntech sound the horn colorations willl drive you crazy.

Jazz if you are on the Hudson River in NY State you may want to drive down for a visit. We have some remarkable loudspeakers that will like the Legacy Aeris has a big rich room filling sound, and the Dali’s will be right up your alley. We also have the Kef Blades which are remarkable and work really well in that size room.

We are three miles outside of NYC so we should be easy to get to you

Sincerely,


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor 

Pryso, we dalied with Jantzen for a while, we had the ZA 2.1 and they were great, however, they miss the scale of a much larger speaker, they were superb in terms of coherence, they were also a tad polite in the upper treble, they would not be my first choice for a big room, they are awesome speakers and are quite magical in many ways and we agree they look smashing if you like their retro 50's kind of styling. 

A Vandy Quattro is also way too small sounding, a Vandy 5 would be much closer, but still the added height of the Duntech means that you should look for a similarly large footprint speaker, taller in size.

if you are looking for a stunning looking speaker the KEF Blades look amazing and are way more transparent then the Duntechs, They also throw a huge soundstage, they also have way deeper and tighter bass.

A well setup pair of blades are awesome, we ran a set of Blades at the 2012 and 2013 New York Audio show and compared our setup vs a $107K pair of YG Sonja, and the KEF Blades were easilly just as good. 

The Legay Aeris are quite amazing, and will beat the Duntech's in every way, and as an added bonus come with a room correction processor, preamp and dac, so if the rest of your gear is older you would be gaining in essence a new preamp and dac all you would need to do would be to add your amplifier. 

One major advantage of the Aeris is the room correction feature which can work wonders if you are moving to a NYC apartment and have a less then ideal room. 

As mentioned before we are  probably  1-2 hours away from you and we have a number of speakers that would work including the Kef Blade, the Legacy Aeris and the Blade on active display. 

Contact ABF Freight they do most of our shipping and they are excellent.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

We can also mention we were a Devialet dealer, and the form factor was amazing, the sound was a bit too mechanical for our tastes.

Today there are a number of uber integrated ampifiers that beat most high end separates, we highly recommend the T+A HV 3100 and there are a few other uber integrated amplifiers. 

The HV 3100 is a 300 watt integrated amp, based on $36,000.00 worth of separate components in one elegant box, for $23k they currently have a junior version for $18k which is very similar but not quite as good. 

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/ta-elektroakustik-3100-hv-pdp-3000-hv-sacdcd-...

Here they compare the T+A to a $45k D'agastino integrated  and find the T+A to be its equil 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Pryso we had the Jantzen and they do look retro 50’s with a rectangular panel in the middle with two circles on top and bottom remind people of an Emmes design especially in the wooden finish.

I would also say if someone is looking at keeping a pair of speakers for as long as this gentleman has owned his loudspeakers, he would probably want an even better speaker than the Jantzen, they are a great speaker at the price point but there are a ton of other speakers which are a bit more expensive which will better them in many ways, however, we are big fans of the Jantzen they are very, very good spakers, David Jantzen is a very nice and talented man, and the ZA 2.1 were very musical speakers with a ton of bass in a very compact design.

On our floor the Legacy’s which use an exotic Heil Super tweeter/tweeter and graphite and silk woven midrange, coupled with 2 long throw 10 woofers, sounded bigger and fuller with a bit more upper top end extension and overall for $7k were the hotter ticket, and the Paradigm Persona 3F which are just amazingly holographic loudspeakers with a more extended treble with pure Beryilium tweeters and midrange drivers, offered   a more detailed, faster presentation for $10k were also the hotter property.

As per shipping the gentleman has a few options, hire a local high end audio/custom installation dealer who may have a suitable crew, that can cut and measure carefully and cut and design with wood or find a good handyman or carpenter that does piece work that may want to tackle a day long project and has the man power to move giant heavy boxes easily.

We did this for a client with Wilson X1 the process was simple you wrap the speaker with shrink wrap. With any exposed tweeters you cover them first with pieces of thick cardboard or dense foam, then cut thick foam pink sheets from Home Depot to the size of the speaker and close up the pink sheeting with duck tape and then build a form wooden box to size, paying particular attention to the thikness of the pink sheeting which needs to be 1-2inches and then you use short think screws sunk into 1 by 4 which you put in the corners, shoot the side screws into the 1 by 4 and side by side viola custom crate.

A set of large custom crates with packing matrials will cost $500 plus for pink sheeting, plywood, screws, 1 by 4, and duck tape and labor depending on where you are and local labor rates should add another $500-750 so building custom crates can be expensive, but if you have crated the speakers well a trucking company can pick them up and they will be on their way.

I can totally agree with the wisom of your comments about reasonable size and weight, that concept of practicality can be an elusive quality when it comes to high end audio. I would say with some of the newer loudspeakers technologies you can get stunning sound with a lot less weight. 

Sorry if we were seeming over eager, sometimes people don’t get how close we are to New York state, if we can assist you in any way please let us know.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ