Dunlavy Cantatas What Power Amp?

Personally I believe that Sim Audio's W-5 is the best bang for the buck in the category you are looking at. John Dunlavy recommends Spectron amps. While one doesn’t read much about Spectron they appear to make an interesting product.If I'm not mistaken, the Cantatas are a lot like the Alethas - right? ...It is my understanding that Dunlavy's in general need a decent size room - one that will allow the speakers to be positioned 8-10+ feet apart. I've also heard that they tend to sound best firing across the width of a room (as opposed to the length). After seeing and reading about these speakers I couldn't wait to audition them. I went to the only dealer in my area (very reputable) and was all set to be impressed. ...Only problem was that while the mids and highs were pleasing I never heard the kind of bass I was expecting - esp. for a speaker with a 10" driver and such a large cabinet. This lack of bass may have been due to poor positioning. The speakers were only recently positioned and they were firing the length of the room. Or it might have been the associated components. Whatever the reason, I came away very unimpressed. And I had really wanted to buy those speakers. Later during the same visit the clerk demoed a set of watt/puppy six's and Krell FPB 350's & top pre/CDP. - Yes, a whole different sound and price range, but this emphasized what was missing from the Dunlavy’s. The system the Alethas were connected to had a Classe CDP, a Krell pre, and a Classe power amp. ...I'm not certain of the interconnects, but the wires were transparent (model?). So, I guess I cannot recommend Classe for these speakers. ...Or, maybe they just need gobs of power!? Strange though, being that they are so efficient. Whatever amp you try, make sure its something with serious current, and definitely re-examine your speaker placement.Let me know if you find the right amp. I’d really like to find out that I had a bad demo. Cheers, Mike

dunlavys sound great on pass amps. try synergistic des.ref cables.let me know

Awd, You're right. The Cantatas are basically like the Athena/Aletha. When I auditioned the speakers it was with McCormack pwr amp, Wadia CD and pre-? There was nothing lacking during the audition. Steven I'll need to search out a Pass dealer to see if I can bring home a demo. Pretty pricy stuff...

Set up and Room has a lot to do with the bass out of the athenas. I originally had mine in a 12 x 22 L shaped room with the speakers on the long wall and one of the speakers firing into the di9ning room.... No bass. I moved them to a 20 x14 room with a 5 ft arch to a entryway across the room from one of the speakers and the bass was Much better. Added power cords to my amps and got another level in bass improvement, very solid and deep..you can feel it now whereas with the other room there were days i didn't think i was getting better than 50 hz out of them. I lauditioned the dunlavy with Pass amps and they sounded very good...they sounded smoother on the top with ARC VT-100 with no loss anywhere else. I'm using VTL-185 with mine and they sound great.

Dunlavy used all Aloia components at CES.Andrew say's it's the best sound they ever had.

They used Aloia with their bigger speakers. They had the Cantatas and the Alethas in a differet room and were using two sets of amplification: Rowland and some stuff builts a friend of John Dunlavy, Paris somebody, who was there helping out with the room. (This was the case when I visited but could have different at other times during the show.) I preferred the Cantatas with this guy's amps, which are not commercially available.

Buy a used ML331/332/333 and you will very, very pleased. Lots of bass control and not harsh. Outstanding combination