2. member-reviews
  3. 1028246710

Review: Dunlavy Audio Labs SC-IVa

Category: Speakers

When I decided seven years ago to upgrade my audio system, I started by finding a speaker I loved. I searched for almost a year listening to every speaker available in the Minneapolis area. I found Magnepan and MartinLogan to be stunning but too dry and fatiguing for my taste. The midrange was not as deep and rich as I was looking for. Wilson had great sound but beyond the budget I was hoping to stay in. B&W sounded thick and boomy to me and Meridian was electronic and artificial. Thiel, Audio Physics and Dunlavy became the finalists. Being a late ‘60s early ‘70s guy, I came from Marantz and MaIntosh electronics and JBL and Altec Lansing speakers. The size and depth of the sound of Dunlavy along with the exceptional midrange were the final factors in my choosing Dunlavy IV as the speaker I wanted. The problem was I could only afford the Dunlavy III, exceptional midrange but not the ultimate bottom end of the IV.
It was about two years after buying the III's that I had the opportunity to upgrade to the IV's. It turned out that over those two years Dunlavy had improved the IV's and had a new model, IVa. They amazed me to find the IVa was even richer and deeper than the old IV model. The Dunlavy IVa speaker consists of two 10" woofers, two 5" mids and one 1" composite textile dome tweeter. Frequency response is 25Hz to 20 kHz, and Sensitivity is 91 dB with an Impedance of 5 ohms. Size is 72" high, 15" deep and 12" wide with a weigh of 190 lbs. each. $8495/pr
I believe Dunlavy speakers have no rivals within their price category. John Dunlavy is obsessed with designing the most accurate reproductions of sound. To meet this stringent standard Dunlavy has built one of the worlds best-equipped laboratories in order to test his designs. This has lead to some very harsh discussions between John Atkinson of Stereophile and John Dunlavy. It seems that JA does not like being out engineered by one of the great loudspeaker designers and the result was punishing JD by putting the once Stereophile "product of the year" Class A component into their B class after Dunlavy improved the speaker to JA's recommendation. Despite the politics of Stereophile Magazine, this speaker will hold its own with speakers two and three times its cost.
The highs are clear, grain less and extremely extended. JA spoke of them appearing a bit forward but I have never felt that was the case with this speaker, and can hardly believe a comment like that when compared with some of Stereophiles favorites MartinLogan and Meridian. Comments like these only strengthen my lack of trust for this Magazine. The midrange on all Dunlavy speakers is amazingly magical. I have not tried any other speaker that is as pure and life like with the female voice than Dunlavy. They display all the color and texture of the midrange with a crispness and transparency. Bass has long been the contention point of the IV series. The fact that they rate them at 25Hz meaning that it cuts off one organ pedal is hardly an issue for me. On the double bass, even the lowest note is crisply defined with no bloating or smear. The famous subway as heard on Water Lilly Acoustics "Natures Realm" with the Philadelphia Orchestra is deep under my floor forward and to the right. On Cowboy Junkies "Trinity Sessions" the foot pounding on the stage is as if he were in my livingroom pounding on my floor. I have no lack for bass from my speakers, in fact any more might be too much. Sound stage is wide and very deep. Excellent transient speeds, superb impact yet with an effortless smoothness. I truly believe these are the best speakers I can afford and is very much at home in my system. They have never left me lacking or longing for something better. That says a lot for a guy who is always looking for more, but never from my speakers. These are simply great speakers, and their service is exceptional as I found out with my III's, I twice had drivers replaced although it turned out the speakers had nothing to do with the problems I was having.


Associated gear
Sony SCD-1 SACD player
Placette active pre-amp
Plinius SA-102 amps
Nordost Valhalla speaker cable
Nordost Valhalla and NBS Statement interconnects
NBS Statement power cords
Hydra power conditioner

Similar products
Thiel CS7 series
Audio Physic Virgo
Wilson Watt/puppy
128x128jadem6
gregm
3,405 posts
 
Interesting & well-documented post J-D (may I add, "as usual"?).
You have obviously licked the dual matter of a) driving the IV, b) and setting them up,
thereby relieved them of a slight "boxiness" I had heard some time ago.
I felt this "boxiness" was out of character with the speaker per se. It seemed to be located in the lower mids while the upper mids were engaging & the bass very clear -- though not extended: as it turned out, we didn't have enough amp power to drive the speakers full-range & the 5-Ohm nominal wasn't helping. When we switched to an YBA Passion stereo, we no longer had boxiness -- but we had phasing!
So, we came to the logical conclusion that placement (good for the previous amp) was wrong. It took us the best part of an hr, in a LONG room (~25x15) to get them to play a a full orchestra.
When we placed them to satisfaction (or so we thought) we felt we weren't getting the most out of them -- phasing problems (or so we thought).
So, we tried different cables (speaker). The only "other" cables at hand were short valhallas. After some weight-lifting (the YBA is heavy & not mover friendly), we managed to connect the valhallas. Bingo! (Then, we had to re-position the speakers, another weight-lifting excercise)

Your Plinius must have fallen in love with the Dunlavy's!
snook2's avatar
snook2
626 posts
 
Drubin, I now have the Piega 10's. I hesitated to mention them so as not to take away from this thread
radman
7 posts
 
I have had the Dunlavy SC-IV in my listening room after VonSchweikert VR4 originals (after they went out of business I traded to the Dunlavy's). They were a little lean sounding in my room(19 x 17.5). My wife objected to the size and then I went to Proac 3.8's which sounded very musical, but did not give the illusion of live performers in my room so I sold them. I next auditioned the Aletha, Meadowlark Heron i, the SC-IVa, B&W N802, Vanderstein 3A signatures and the Genesis 500. The Aletha sounded more natural than the SC-IVa, particularly at low volumes and a talk w/Dunlavy convinced me that the downfiring 10" woofer was actually easier to integrate into a normal untreated room than the SC-IVa probably due to possible interactions caused by the woofer/floor and woofer/ceiling distances resulting in some bass frequency cancellations. The Meadowlarks weren't bad,but sometimes sounded odd at the transition from bass to midrange. My second favorite in the comparison was the Genesis. Paradoxically, to what I thought, they were very coherent despite a complex driver array. I was also uneasy about the company's financial status and replacement drivers. Whereas the Dunlavy may not use exotic drivers, they are readily available. I have recently heard the Silverline LaFolias in my room and they have a very nice presentation. I do not think they are as neutral sounding as the Dunlavy's, but they have some other strengths. To summarize, once you hear a time aligned coherent loudspeaker, all others sound like speakers and do not complete the illusion of performers in your room (for intimate studio recording) or transporting you to the space in which the recording was made (if large scale orchestral work). Furthermore, once you hear non resonant acoustic suspension without a port tuned to a specific frequency, it is hard not to hear the tuning of a port in such a design. The trade off usually is lower efficiency of acoustic suspension designs which I don't know how Dunlavy overcame (his design is reported 91 dB efficient).
My system: Millenium Signature tubed preamp (no longer made but previously imported by Fanfare International)
Electrocompaniet EMC 1 with 24/192 upgrade
Plinius SA250 MK IV
Plinius Jarrah phono stage
VPI Scout w/ JMW 9 arm and Clearaudio Sigma cartridge
Siltech FTM 4 SG G3 and FTM 4 Gold or Acoustic Zen Silver Reference Mk II or Nordost Valhalla intercon.
Purist Audio Collosus Biwire speaker wire
Top Gun, Top Gun special, and Top Gun HCFi cords into a Top Gun Super Power Block.
Dedicated 15 amp source, and 20 amp amplifier circuits with either Wattagate or PS audio Powerport receptacles
No added room treatments allowed (wife), but in a "normal" room with a wood cabinet wall system on one side and 2 large windows with pulled back curtains flanking a fireplace on the other side, none is currently required.
hockey
32 posts
 
I found the Dunlavy's (powered by the high dollar Theta Monoblocks) to be the most directional speaker I've ever heard - moving one foot in any direction revealed a totally different presentation. If positioned in the "sweet" spot and using a terrific recording they are impressive - otherwise not for me. With less than perfect recordings such as Van Halen's first album will have you leaping for the remote in about 30 seconds - harsh to the point of pain. Admittedly it's a far cry from a great recording but it sounds great through my BAT VK6200 and Thiel CS7.2s.

I audition with both great and crappy recordings as most music will fall between these two - unfortunately there are some really bad recordings of wonderful music. Good speakers sound great with great recordings and pretty bad with bad sources, while great speakers sound amazing with great recordings yet still pretty good with the crappy stuff.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
John Dunlavy please come back! I had to purchase instead a pair of Thiel CS6s and would probably have purchased a new pair of IVs if you were still in business.
More to discover