Which speaker to replace Dunlavy SC-V?

Chris:
one of the things i,ve noticed when i had my Dunlavy,s is that as stated by John Dunlavy in the owners manual you should place them across your long wall in your room with more distance in between them than distance between the speaker and the sweet spot (somewhere between a 60 to 90 degree angle, a lot of toe in). This way they sound absolutly fantastic, but my experience placing them acroos the short wall, or the other way around is that you will do much better with other speaker choices.

You will probably have to pay some bigger bucks to get the big sound of the Dunlavy V. I replaced mine with the Von Schweikert vr7se. It is three times the price but it is far better in every aspect.

I had a pair of Dunlavy SC-VI's, but my room was not the right size for them. I had to have them on the short wall and there was too much interaction. Because of their size I was limited on how much I could move them around. I sold them and bought a pair of Wilson X-1 Series 3's and they sound awesome in my room. About 70% the size of the VI's so I could pull them into the room and away from the side walls more without them seeming to be on top of me. It was a wise move for me. Remember regardless of what anyone in here tells you, it has to sound good to you! That is what is important.

one of the things i,ve noticed when i had my Dunlavy,s is that as stated by John Dunlavy in the owners manual you should place them across your long wall in your room with more distance in between them than distance between the speaker and the sweet spot (somewhere between a 60 to 90 degree angle, a lot of toe in). This way they sound absolutly fantastic

This is necessary for speakers that have narrow dispersion like the DAL V's...ideal for a precise image with a minimum of reflected energy. Some call this the "equilateral triangle" setup. However, it will only give you a small sweetspot for critical listening and therefore it is not well suited to HT or situations with two or three listeners.

"you should place them across your long wall in your room with more distance in between them than distance between the speaker and the sweet spot".

Two comments on this one.

1) This is pretty much how ANY large multi-driver speaker works best. This is true for everything short of a multi-directional design and applies to both hi-fi and HT installations.

To clarify this, one needs to sit JUST BARELY inside the "listening triangle", not at the apex of the "listening triangle" as most would say. How far inside one has to come inside the triangle has to do with the individual speaker design and how much toe-in is being used. Personally, i prefer to get the speakers as far apart as possible without having the center image collapse and use as little toe-in as is necessary.

2) The Dunlavy's are NOT a "narrow dispersion" design. The MTM driver layout produces a very wide horizontal dispersion pattern with very limited vertical dispersion. By spreading the speaker further apart, which therefore seperates your left and right channel imaging, you get a wider soundstage. Due to the wide horizontal dispersion, the center image is still retained.

The more toe-in that you use, the stronger the center image and the narrower the the "spray" outside the edge of the speakers. The less toe-in that you use, especially when spreading the speakers way out, the more diffuse the center image with a wider overall presentation.

The biggest problem with the bigger Dunlavy's in most rooms is that the bass is inconsistent. This has to do with the room loading effect ( or lack of it ) on the top woofer. Tom aka Theaudiotweak and i discussed how to take care of this quite some time ago.

The other problem with Dunlavy's is the fact that they are "vertically challenged" in terms of high frequency dispersion, which i previously alluded to. As such, you have to find a seat that places your ears at the right height, otherwise the treble response is compromised. This is true of all other designs using an MTM array though, so it is not unique to Dunlavy speakers. Sean
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