Vocal, midrange, treble purity

Bass

I liked this speaker, for it was excellent on vocals and jazz with somewhat lackluster and slow bass. I blew a tweeter,which really dissappointed me with a speaker this caliber, price and size.

I have two pairs of SC-IV's, one a 1995 pair and the other a 1996 pair. The difference between the pairs is the bass response. I use the revised pair along with ML335,ML380S,RA55,PS Audio 600, Stealth PGS interconnects and Kimber Bifocal XL cables. I like the overall detail and openess of the entire range. I have been able to open the soundstage and push it back with the PS Audio. There is an airy, openess to the sound.

The second pair is used in a dedicated home theater. The other equipment is two Citation 7.1(4x150w/c amps) Proceed AVP/S, Panasonic H1000 DVD, Dunlavy SCI-AV's(2 pr), Dunlavy SM1(center channel), HSU powered sub.

For the newer pair(two channel system) the apparent bass suffers in contrast to bass front or brassy speakers. I believe that the range and detail is more close to actual recording that those of Thiel or Martin Logan. However, I do miss that crashing bass others speak of.

As to the second pair(home theater)scratch my first review. The system is bass happy. So, irrespective of the amps I have(two citation 7.1 biamped to the SC-IV's) which are short on intensity, the overall effect of the room and speakers is impressive overall tonality, reasonable detail and bass enhanced presence. Speaker are the original incantation. Without the sub, the speakers are impressive. In HT, SC-IVs have plenty of bass for music, sub needed for DVD intenso effects.

Unbelievably great for the money at used prices. Even level response throughout the entire range. Big footprint and shadow.

Similar Products Used:

Thiel, Martin Logan, Watt Puppy, JS Audio.

This product defines neutrality and accuracy in a sub $10k speaker. After auditioning the likes of Arial, Theil, Martin Logan, NHT, Snell, Metaphor, Sonus Faber, Mirage, B&W, and Proac, I purchased the Dunlavys. They present a soundstage that is focused to a degree that eludes the others I auditioned. Some of the others match the detail (Arial, ML, and Proac) and others match the low frequency extension, but not the quality (Arial, Theil, and B&W). But none match the soundstage accuracy.
Although the SCIV are very large (72" tall), they do not sound large unless the source calls for it. They are extremely faithful to the source. Bright recordings sound bright, dull recordings dull, and excellent recordings sound live.

My only sonic criticism is that they are dynamically outdone by the excellent Wilson WATT/Puppy combination (for three times the price) and Dunlavy's own SCVIs (for four times the price - but worth it!!!)

I've owned the SCIV's for a year and a half, having purchased a pair not long before the introduction of the IVa's. I nearly returned the speakers after fiddling with them, unsuccessfully, for five or six months. I could get a good but not great (i.e., relatively shallow) sound stage, and while the midrange was impressive, and there was adequate detail, overall, I was disappointed. Then I made some discoveries. These loudspeakers do not affect a room in the same way that most three way designs do. I suspect this is because of the driver array, i.e., the D'Appolito configuration that not only places a mid range both above and below the tweeter, but does the same with the bass drivers. In my listening room, the speakers were transformed when I placed four home made tube traps (about 50 inches high) behind and between the speakers (which are about 50 inches from the front wall and three feet from the side walls), and used some absorbtive acoustic treatments on the side walls. Not only did the sound stage deepen dramatically, but detail, image specificity and timbral accuracy increased enormously. Bass also became more resonant, tighter and deeper. I know that some complain about the bass in these speakers, but I suspect that the real problem is the way the speakers interact with most rooms. Absorb more reflections, and you'll get great results. I have the speakers as far apart as my room will allow, about ten feet. The sound stage never exceeds the outer edge of the speakers, so for those who like a superwide sound stage not limited to the space between the speakers, this is not the speaker for you. Nor is it the speaker for you if you want a large space in which the full effect and accuracy of the speaker is perceived by several listeners. Indeed, this is a highly directional, one person loudspeaker if ever there were one. The sweet spot is small, as small as some electrostatics, and I think that for most all persons, this would leave these speakers out of consideration for home theatre application. I suspect that there might be a way to manipulate the felt treatment around the midrange drivers and tweeters that would expand the size of the sound stage and increase the size of the sweet spot, but I am very reluctant to start cutting up what is obviously an integral part of the design. I understand that such a change has been made in the IVa's, but I have not contacted Dunlavy to see if the changes can be retrofitted to the IV's.
Dunlavy recommends that the speakers be placed along the long wall of the room, and placed as wide apart as possible. My room configuration won't allow this, but I have a friend with such an arrangement. The effect is pretty spectacular unless you are listening to music that is mixed in a way in which an instrument or voice is heavily or exclusively reproduced into one channel. When that occurs, the result is sonically silly, and the benefits of the increased soundstage are completely undermined. I find that ten to twelve feet is quite good, with the left speaker aimed six or so inches to the outside of the left ear and the same with the right. This is really good for a listening distance of about eleven feet. I find that further back is even better, with speaker toe in far less critical,so long as you are not getting near the back wall (or the wall is treated).
Overall these are terrific loudspeakers for persons not concerned with decor or sharing the listening experience. They are huge, require room treatment for optimal results, and thus will visually and physically dominate most all rooms. Given these important caveats, however, they are sonically wonderful. They do not exagerate program material, they present an image size that is realistic, they are as timbrally accurate as any loudspeaker I have heard, and they will produce accurate deep bass so long as you decrease room reflections. Spend some time on your listening room and you will love these speakers.

Many reviews here complain about the bass of the SC-IV. In many of these cases the critisism is made by those who had speakers like B&Ws that have a prominant mid bass emphasis. The greatness of the SC-IV is that they are absolutly flat with none of that objectionable coloration that gives an artificial sense of weight on the expence of clarity and truth of timbre. The other thing is, if these speakers are not setup correctly, you will experience less than 50% of their potential. After extensive experimentation, I finally realized that they have to be at least 12 feet apart and the listener has to be at least 10 feet away from each. Now if you have the right room for this setup, you will experience the closest thing to real live performance. In addition, they need excelent electonics (I have VAC and THOR electronics) since they are notoriously revealing. For me there is nothing for less than $20,000 that comes close to their magic.

Dynamics, detail.

Brightness in treble, upper midrange. Lack of warmth. Perhaps too revealing.

At times I just love the speaker, but that agressive brightness is often intolerable. It seems to be very intolerant of problems with the electricity. An Audio Power unit did not help with this. Has anyone figured out how to tame this brightness? New amp, Musical Fidelity AC 3, new interconnects, Harmonic Technology pro silway, have helped, but not enough. I am thinking of getting rid of the speaker, but its size and weight, my isolated location makes this an iffy proposition. I may try new speaker cables (Harmonic Tech again?) and a different power conditioner, but I am getting desperate. Suggestions, anyone?

Similar Products Used:

Previous speaker used, Spendor SP-1, Magnepan, Spica, though none are similar to the Dunlavy.

Amazing sounstaging, excellent timbre, very quick, tight detailed bass, quite efficient, outstanding coherence for the multidriver speaker

Very accurate (some people don't appreciate the honesty this speaker delivers)
Biggest weakness for me is the size of the speaker. They can overpower a room.

I had read a lot about this speaker and it's designer John Dunlavy before I purchased it. So when it finally arrived I was very excited.

The SCIV did take some time to break-in but it was not very long. Right from the start the detail, soundstaging and tibre were very good. It was also immediately apparent that it was going to be very tough to get the most out of it.

Even though the SCIV was updated to the SCIVa, I really liked the quality of the bass in the original SCIV. It was quick and well defined. A little more energy would have been good, but that came with the SCIVa.

To get the most out of this speaker you have to understand a little about acoustics. It is key that you dampen the first reflections off the larger surfaces in your listening room. This speaker likes a dampened room. If your room is already bright (has more than a few hard surfaces) the sound from the SCIV will be too bright and you will loose all the beautiful detail underneath.

The SCIV will not be kind to less than neutral components or cables. Be careful composing your system. These speakers are only playing back the information your components feed to it. Believe me, this speaker is a super loudspeaker! It does not romantisize anything. I would like it to be a little more polite in the treble, but again, that is not accurate.

If you succeed in getting your room in good order, you will be amazed at how good these speakers can sound with no brightness at all. They also like to be separated a little farther than normal from eachother. To get the effect that John Dunlavy designed, you need to toe them in completely to your listening position. The sweetspot is for only one head. I think this is consistent with the design tolerances and the accuracy of this speaker.

My setup included Cardas Golden Cross for my balanced interconnects and for the speaker cable. (These speakers like 1 run of speaker cable, you will get no benefits from biwiring). I was using Pass Labs Aleph 2 monoblocks (100watts class A 8 ohms) & my source was a Wadia W860 CD player. They all worked beautifully together. Last year I added a PS Audio P300 power plant (for those intersted in power regeneration - highly recommended - I don't use multiwave. I prefer Sin 60 wave @ 120Volts versus 117Volts.)

If you own the SCIV, please make sure that your setup is the best possible. Dampen your room! Remember, Dunlavy's speaker are used extensively in Pro Audio Studios with great success. The Pro's do take care of their acoustics!

Be carefull to not blame the SCIV for being bright, it might be your components. The SCIV in my system are not bright at all. In fact they can be sweet.

You pay a price of accuracy. It will demand more from you, your listening room and your components. But if you get this all taken care of, the reward is worth the effort.

I was looking for speakers to replace my B&W 802's which I had for a few years. The B&W's were fine speakers but I was now due for a solid step up in performance. I had spent over a year listening to many speakers repeatedly before I was going to make any decision. I had listened to various Focus Audio, Hales , Logan SL3's , Requests & Arieus as well as Theil 3.6 & CS5, Sonus Faber's, Maggies 3.5R , various upper end Genisis, Quad's, Watt Puppy 5.1, and Avalons and probably some other I had forgotten about. Some were in my price range and others were not. I must say that I was strongly biased towards the Logans before I had started out and would have bought them if I had not heard the Dunlavy's.The others had there various strong points and colourations that made music pleasing but none had the top to bottom rightness of the Dunlavy's. I have never heard a speaker that was so neutral, delicate, light , fast, transparent, boxless and just plain disapeared if the recording and electronics allowed. These speakers are very evenly balanced with top to bottom speed that only an electrostatic can match. Their ability to retrieve detail surpassed even the SL 3's ( on the same electronics ) which I could not believe. Their ability to portray micro dynamics is incredible . What is fun is having musician friends over and just playing music in the background they get drawn in to how realistic the instruments sound and eventualy the focus ends up on which pieces of music they want to hear.

They are not without fault though and I guess that is why there is two models above the IV's. On extreme dynamics they can be out done as well as bass extensiion into the low 20 hz range. I feel they do require a decent sized room that is well balaned and were the long wall can be used for speaker placement. I tried them on the short wall and the results were good but not up to the speakers full potentail. My room is 25 by 15 ft and it works great.

I am also incorporating them into a home theater set up and all of their qualities transport to this areana as well. Movies have taken an a realism that is fun.

I would chose I good solid state amp to drive them. I have heard the Krell FB 300 & 600 's and they sounded fine but they mate better with the Levinson gear such as the 332. The 332 had more and better bass. It was faster and more transparent as well . These were comments by a Krell dealer which we both had observed. I do not know how tubes would work but my guess is that the bass would suffer unless the amps were huge. I would stay away from electronics that are bright edgy and or grainy as you will not be able to sit in the room for long. They demand the finest associated equipment that you can afford.

I would highly recommend these speaker to a person who likes their recordings of any type of music to sound as the producer intended them to sound. They are designed to a solid set of measurements and credentals which most speakers can not claim much less match. Give them the room , recording and electronics and you to will be a believer.

Having owed dunlavy IV,s for over two years I found the cabinets, design, wonderful The real kicker with these speakers isnt with vifa tweeters and drivers but with DYNAUDIO 15w08(5 inch ) drivers to replace the mids and scanspeak revalators (dome tweters).Replacing these turns these speakers into world class speakers and improves in the 85 to 95db range..............The grunge is gone and these speakers almost seem to be asked to be turned up(very dynamite,smooth etc.......) The big problem is the cabinets must be routed out a little bit. A rasp on a drill works very well and the orginal vifa speakers will go right back over the holes.Im sure this will leave many owners out that dont want to touch the cabinets. If youve owned a pair for a while and have been trying to improve your through electronics this change (after about 500hours of break-in) will blow your mind. Id rate these speakers 3.5 before and 4.5 to 4.75 after

I own a pair of SC-IV. I think they sound very neutral, thick in the midrange and very easy on the ear for long time listening session. Too bad the lower bass extension is not enough. I guess you have to step up to the SC-V or SC-VI for that last bass slam. Well my budget only permit me to the SC-IV level. Especiall y with the recent economic crisis in Indonesia.I am very satisfied also with the finish (mine is cherry) of the speaker.
Also with the excellent customer support. They always reply my e-mail question even before I actually buy the speaker.

In this price range, Dunlavy SC-IV is the best speaker. of course you can buy better speaker at much higher price.