one of the best bass what i never hear,very accuraty,neutral sound, deep soundstage,very airy soud

nothing,perfect for its price

wow, it sell from finland amazing well, dunlavys new products, fine desing, good,accuraty sound, finlands best mazazine hifi lehti choice alethas they new refrence speakers. they can choice others top loudspeaker but they like more dunlavys,i recommend more dealers all of the world can have get dunlavys speakers they demo rooms, here finland they sell very well.john and hers workteam done good jop.

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avalon eidalon,it is very good but expensive

Incredible tight bass when on the recording. Speakers open- sounding & disappear with no boxy coloration. Great imaging & tonality. Huge soundstage. Great cost/performance ratio.
Coherency and seamless integration of the drivers, you can't hear each one as a separate entity.

The finish looks good, but when caught in the right light and at the right angle you can see that the hard protective coating is not evenly applied as noted by a reviewer below.

Leave the Dahlquist out of this discussion as it is not in the same league as the others. Also see my review of the SC-IV. I had VonSchweikert VR4's which I thought were pretty good, perhaps amazing for the money. I had some problems with them as Albert and company were going under and when I got them back from the factory (literally the week before or the week of his closing), they didn't sound as good - ? needed added break-in? I traded them in for the SC-IV's, which imaged better and had better focus. The VonSchweikert had a larger sweet spot (you can't have great focus and a large, diffuse stereo-everywhere setup). The SC-IV was better detailed and the tweeter was more natural sounding(some metal domes make my ears ring). When the wife started calling them coffins, I took the hint and out they went, replaced by the Proac 3.8. The Proacs were very sweet sounding; almost everything sounded good, but I lost the illusion of performers playing in my room, an attribute of the Dunlavy's on excellent recordings. In addition, the Proacs were a full 42 inches from the wall behind to the back of the cabinet and were still overripe in the bass (10 db peak at 50-60hz. in my room) which was in part due to my room configuration - relatively square 19.5x17x8 feet and partly the ported design of the speaker - see stereophile review.) Also you see the back of the speaker as you walk into my room and the Proacs are not finished in back (black finish.) When I kept getting "do they have to be in the middle of the room" from you know who, I tried again. I listened to B&W N802 and really wanted to like them, but after 4 different amp/preamp/cd/store combos, I still found them in your face, and noncoherent - woofer, midrange and tweeter without integration. The Genesis 500/501 were very nice-sounding, but were always displayed with tubes (I have solid state) and very pricey. The Vandersteen 3A signatures sounded muffled to me. The Meadowlark Heron-i was a contender, but I only listened to them at one place. I went to a second store and couldn't get a listen. I didn't think that their bass would integrate into my room as well as the acoustic suspension of the Aletha's, but they did have promise. In a second system I have since obtained a pair of Meadowlark Kestrels and find them quite competent and likeable though not in the Aletha category (shouldn't be at 1250 list vs. 6000 list. The Aletha's have super tuneful tight bass that is not dry and not bloated. They are revealing of any component changes made and do not add or subtract anything from the recording - they are literally an open window to the source. Mine are placed about 30" from the wall behind and about 18" from the side and spaced about 14.5 feet apart along the short wall (19.5 vs.17 feet are almost equal.)I have found after owning both the IV and the Aletha as well as listened to the IVa, that the Aletha is more forgiving of poor recordings - ie: has a warmer tonal balance than the IV and sounds more natural at lower volumes than either the IV or the IVa. However, at low volumes the Proac was the best because of the bass lift which acted like a loudness contour. PS: My wife thinks they are more attractive than the Proacs even though they are slightly bigger and chunkier in appearance and she readily admits they "disappear" and "don't sound like music coming from a speaker" - yes she does have a good ear. Since there are no half ratings I would give value a 5 and overall rating a 5 but 4.7 or 4.8 would be what I think is ideal.
Plinius M16 pre recently replaced with Millenium pre made by Siltech.
Plinius SA 250 Mk-IV
Electrocompaniet EMC-1
Top Gun Power Block, Top gun power cord on pre, Top gun HCFi on SA 250, Shunyata King Cobra on EMC-1, Siltech SQ80 G3 and FTM4-G3 interconnects, Purist audio Colossus speaker biwire
Source components and pre on dedicated 15 amp line
Power amp on dedicated 20 amp line, but with 15 amp plugs

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Dahlquist DQ30i, VonSchweikert VR4 (original version), Dunlavy SCIV (not the IVa), Proac Response 3.8, Dunlavy Aletha in that order.

Excellent soundstaging, excellent bass, smooth & Musical

Very little if any.

I've been an audiophile most of my life and a real fanatic for the last fifteen years. I've owned numerous amplifiers, speakers, cd/dac combos, cables etc. for that ulimate quest in trying to get perfect sound in my home. It took me a long time to except the fact that there's no such thing as perfect sound. One thing i have learned though...a custom built listening room is the best component upgrade you can possibly make. It can be just a dedicated bedroom, converting your garage into a listening room, or actually building a custom room for the Ultimate system. I chose to build a custom listening room inside my two-car garage.

I purchased my Dunlavy Athenas (now called Alethas) about six months ago from Sunshine Stereo in south Florida.

One of the reasons why the Aletha is so special is its sealed downward firing 10" woofer. I've owned numerous speakers and almost all of them have had ported bass enclosures. These type of speakers have almost always caused low ferequency problems in my rooms such as boominess and sloppy bass. The Aletha has some of the best sounding bass i have ever heard from a speaker, regardless of price. To get the best bass response from the Aletha's you have to set them up just the way Mr. Dunlavy recomends in the manual. The Alethas need to be placed closer to the back wall (approx. 2'or 3' away) and spread apart between 10' and 12' depending on your room size. The listening (sweet spot) should be approximately 10' away to get the best overall sound. The Alethas are so good in the bass that you don't need a subwoofer! If you do...your room is too big and you will need to spend big bucks on a great subwoofer to even think of getting any better low end.

Another nice thing about this speaker are the two 6 1/2 midrange drivers flanking the recessed tweeter. The dual midrange drivers in the Aletha are bigger then the ones used in the SC1V's. I think that's why alot of peaople like the smoother warmer sound of the Aletha over the SC1V's. The Aletha's throw a very tall and wide soundstage. The depth of image is also very good but not exagerated like setting up a pair of mini monitors out into the middle of the room. When you listen to the Alethas in the dark all of the natural depth of any good recording is reproduced acurately. The Alethas put the main performer such as a singer or solo sax player dead center making the speakers completely dissapear in the room. Just like us audiophiles love! The Alethas are fairly efficient and work excellent with good tube amps. No there not meant for single ended triodes but, a good fifty watt tube amp will do the job.

The best thing the Alethas do are make MUSIC. These beauties can reproduce every type of music you throw at them and do it with ease! There not like alot of super expensive high end speakers that can do certain things very well. You know the type! The Alethas can reproduce any good audiophile recording with grace and reproduce hard rock at 110 db with no strain! At the retail price of six grand the Alethas are'nt cheap. But if you want a speaker that's a little bit better, plan on spending at least 15k.

My review system:

Mark Levinson #39 cd player,
Pioneer DV525 transport (heavily modified),
BelCanto dac1 24/96 upsampler/dac,
Audio Research LS25 preamp,
VTL MB 185 signature mono's with MIT upgrade,
VansEvers line conditioner,
Essense ESP power cords,
Synergistic ac master coupler power cords,
Silverline Audio interconnects,
Dunlavy Z6 speaker cables,
Solid steel lead filled component rack,
Too many tweaks and room treatment stuff.

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Wilson Cub with Sunfire MK2 sub, Sonus Faber Extrema

Imaging, soundstaging, tonality, clarity, dynamics detail, palpable voices with you are there realism - and BANG FOR THE BUCK!

No discernable weaknesses

I am a dealer, so of course I am biased, but I bought a pair for my own personal system. I think they are the biggest bang for the buck ever offered in a high quality, high end loudspeaker.

BTW, for Audioreview.com, they retail for $6000/pr, and if you don't print the review, at least list the price ;-)

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Quad ESL-63, Duntech Marquis, Eggleston Andras and Rosas