Duntech Soverigns - help needed

You have the measurements on the front of your speakers.

There are no worthwhile mods for Duntech Sovereign. Enjoy them the way they are.

Jazzonthehudson, I know a guy in Tennessee with Sovereigns. Somehow I lack his telephone number, but I know how to reach him. But go to Google. There are reviews and pictures. It is interesting that I see a pair for sale for $7600 which is more than the retail price of $7600 when I bought one of the first pair in the US.

I had the Sovereigns and remember that the grill merely was held in place by fitting around the black surface of the area with the drivers. I think it fits under the portion of the driver placement and on top the base. There is lots of information on them on Google.

I would email this guy.
He owns both the Duntech Sovereigns and the Nova Evolution speakers.
The Nova Evolutions use two 10 inch Scanspeak woofers, Scanspeak carbon Fiber mids and the scanspeak Revelator tweeter. His screen name is, Bob Olhsson.
He's a mastering engineer for music.
His email address is, olh@hyperback.com

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/136097-what-speakers-do-you-use-mastering-8.html

Tbg, i just noticed the link i put, the guy who owns the
Sovereigns and Nova speakers lives in Tennessee.
Its probably the same guy.
The link i put you see a pic of his Nova Evolutions.
Jazzonthehudson ask him what he likes better, the Nova Evolutions or Duntech Sovereigns?
I see he's using Pass amps.

Doug99, ironically it is not the same guy. My guy cannot afford another pair of speakers and has never been involved in recording. He is retired from the Army.

Joth, I would think not twice but three times about making mods to a John Dunlavy design. His crossovers were very complex and tailored to the specific drivers he chose, and even the wire he utilized to connect the crossover to the drivers. Such simple things as changing the mounting hardware and soldering connections might be experimented with only because they are easily reversible if you muck up something. You can also experiment with spikes VS absorbent footers. Your flooring composition and room characteristics may determine which works best.

John Marks has written in Stereophile about an engineer in the Boston area who modified a pair of Sovereigns. Unless you have an engineering background I recommend leaving well enough alone for any electrical changes.

The grill cloth was stretched over a square metal tube framing which was designed for a friction fit around the front baffle board. Without that it may be very difficult to create new grill covers.

Tbg if you owned Sovereigns maybe I can't question their initial pricing but when I bought Duntech Princesses (the next model down from the Sovereigns) in 1990 they were about $8,900 and the Sovereigns, being a much larger speaker (360 lbs. VS 180 lbs.) were near $20k and soon after they went over that.

I know that guy in Tennessee that Tbg referred to. He got his before 1990 and still has them, for whatever that's worth.

Thanks all for your rapid responses!

For the base de-coupling I am thinking of 1/4" slate tiles sandwiching Aurios with tungsten balls in between. I can not use thicker slabs as it would raise the ideal listening height too much. What are my other alternatives?

The question asking for mods could be rephrased as replacement of the parts with higher quality ones, especially the caps of the cross over as many have reported good results in replacing the caps with those from e.g. Mundorf Supremes.

Having the Dunlavy SC III and SC IV (and lots of other speakers), I certainly have great respect for the designs of John.

Jazzonthehudson, having had many Aurios, Townshend speaker slings, etc., I will strongly suggest that you try the StillPoints Ultra SSs or Ultra Fives. The SSs are cheaper but nowhere near as outstanding.

If you have the original shallow concave Aurios, they are significantly better than anything that followed them.

I would again suggest that you Google the Sovereigns and read the crossover update.