Vienna Mahler and Dunlavy SCIV/A comparison

Chaltir. Raquel is spot re the mahlers, tube amps (most at least) need not apply.
I am sure your plinus will drive them fine. I have just bought cj prem350 after a quite long series of amp auditions. It would seem that amps with bi-polar output sections have the greater bass control.

have a look at the stereophile archives and Robert Deutsch does a comparison between Mahlers and Dunlavy SC-IV/A's.

The mahlers do need a little juice to come alive, but they can play as loud as you want to play them

5k sounds like a pretty good price considering you will also have full warranty.

have fun

Thank for the comment. i'm not committed to buy the speaker yet but just interesting. Today, I will go to the dealer show room to listen to them again when they set up properly (last time I met Mahler is in the show event).

Both speaker are great in my opinion. I will report back again, if I decide to buy and hook up to the system.

Thanks.

If you are comitted to buying Vienna Acoustics, then your two amps do deserve an audition.

The Rowland Model 2 will have lovely synergy with the speakers, and may even be sufficiently powerful for much orchestral music or rock, unless you need full-blast orchestral music or live rock sound pressure levels.

The Plinius, being a Class A design with stiff power supplies, should do well on the Mahler.

Please report back to us on how it sounds when you get everything hooked up and broken in.

Hi Raquel,

Thank for the input provide to me. I have room size 13 ft*20 ft with 9 ft ceiling height. So, it look like a little small for this speaker. My Dunlavy has been setting on the long wall so I don't have any problem on the base boom.

I have 2 amp. One is Rowland Model 2, which rate only 75 watts at 8 ohm. I don't think it enough. Another one is Plinius SA102, which have 120 watts at 8 ohms. I think that Plinius can drive the Mahler in my room.

Thank for the comment.

Chalitr:

I replaced Dunlavy SC-III's with Mahlers, the SC-III's using the same midrange and tweeter as the SC-IV/A.

In my system, the Mahlers are more resolving than the Dunlavys and more 'life-like" in their overall presentation. Assuming they are used properly, I think they are probably the better speaker (I actually prefer the Mahlers in a lot of ways to the Salons I use in my main system).

You have been given good information about the Mahlers.

First, you definitely should not use Mahlers in anything other than a large room, and, a large room in which you can get their rear-firing ports well off the back wall, as they have prodigious midbass that overwhelms smaller rooms. As for how big a room you need, I do not know the answer to that question, but my dealer said no less than 15 ft. x 25 ft. with 8 ft. ceilings. There are 12 inches in a foot and approximately 40 inches in a meter -- you can figure out what these measurements means in cubic meters. On a related issue, Sumiko, which is the U.S. distributor for both Vienna Acoustics and Sonus Faber, evidently recommends the Mahlers over the Amati Homage in large rooms.

Second, it is true that the Mahlers require a muscle amp to control the woofers -- they drop to around 3 Ohms in the bass and require an amp with high current capability. This rules out 98% of all tube amps. I had best luck with Rowland Model 6 monos, which sounded particularly good with the speakers. 100 watts/channel (assuming 8 Ohms) will likely only work if the amp has an unusually large power supply and is otherwise a top-quality amp.

If you have a medium-sized room, my advice is to stay with the Dunlavys (or at least don't buy Mahlers).