Does It Make Sense to Purchase Dunlavy Speakers

As far as i know, Dunlavy uses commercially available units. Unlike some manufacturers who buy mass produced drivers and then hand tweak them, no "customization" or further modifications are done to the drivers in the Dunlavy models. As such, one should be able to order replacements or spares from such sources as Madisound, etc...

My main concern about this situation though is that the speakers may have been "slapped together" using whatever parts that they still had laying around just to get the stuff out of the door and make whatever profit they could. This might mean mismatched drivers, no "hand tweaking", less than optimum construction, etc... These are strictly guesses though, so take them with a grain of salt... Sean
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I saw the ad also. The prices are still quite high, especially if you factor in the shipping costs. If you were to audition and pick-up at the store my concerns about shipping damage/system synergy would greatly be reduced. As far as driver/crossover matching I understand your concern. The questions I would be concerned about would be:(1) Who makes their drivers, (2)Future availablity, (3) Are they made especially for Dunlavy (closer tolerances). If in the event driver/s need replacing I would think original factory performance would probably hard to duplicate. However, what are the chances of something castastrophic happening? Also, the way things come and go here, how long are you planning on owning them? The real questions in my mind is how much would you be able to resell them for? How difficult would it be to find a buyer? Shipping could be
problemantic. (As with any large object) Sorry to hear the
unfortunate news about Dunlavy.

I own a pair of SC-4a speakers. They were purchased to replace my B & W 810 II speakers. I have been an audiophile for 35 years+ and these are by far the best speakers I have ever owned. The base is incredible and both piano and guitar come alive in a way i hadn't heard before. Good luck on whatever you decide.
Jeff

If driver failure were an overiding concern, ultra-high end speaker manufacturers would be out of business overnight IMO. Many of these companies are ephemeral at best and won't be around in another 10 years. On the other hand, I do think that Sean raises a good point; quality control on the last production run could be suspect. I think you are best served by purchasing a quality used pair.

Yeah I personally was fond for the value driven excellent little SC1AV's myself! And while I hate to see the company dissapear entirely, I would also be a bit concerened about buying the speakers used anymore, as you don't know what you'd possibly end up with I think.
I did a factory tour of Dunlavy some time back, and they did pick only drivers that fell within their performance specs. I don't know how much different the sound would be using drivers that may or may not meet those criterion. Hummmmmm....
In another thought, I think some of the Dynaudio Diappolito designs would make more sense, and should be sonically competitive at the very least. And that company is still in business.