My dunlavy scV sound harsh

We also know nothing about his room... the room acoustics can make or break a stereo. Even the best stereo in an average room will sound no better than so-so.

Can you share pictures of how your room is setup? My guess would be that is the main issue here.

Dunlavys need a VERY large room to breathe, especially the V's and the V1's. I would suspect that your up-line components are also NOT up to the task of driving the speakers well and frankly agree with the other posters.
If you have a VERY large room, maybe the amp is straining to drive the speakers resulting in distortion.

I have had the Dunlavy SC 5s in my reference system for about 10 years. Through this period I have upgraded and changed out componets and cables. Every step has been positive with the speakers accurately reflecting these changes. I once dropped a Phillips CD player into the system while the Audio Research unit was being repaired and it made the system unlistenable.

Overall, the Dunlavy speakers are the finest tools for listening that I have ever come accross in my 40+ years in this hobby. I have come to the conclusion that the speakers are pretty much absolute, with everything else being variable.

Ten replies and all seem to agree that harshness is not a normal Dunlavy trait. Doesn't mean that your tweeter isn't broken. Have you owned them for a while and, if so, is this something new?

Let's begin at square one. Is this a recent problem or has it existed since this particular set of components were connected together? More information is needed before assuming a new preamp is needed or the speakers need to be relocated.

1. If the harshness has been present since first connecting this combination of components, it could very well be the preamp. The quickest answer may come from substituting other components into your system, one at a time. I agree with others, the DALs in and of themselves are the least likely culprit.

2. If the harshness is recent but the system sounded OK previously, then you have some kind of failure or something was damaged. If you have a test CD or anything with a wide range of frequency information, play that after removing the grills. Place an ear close to each driver in each speaker and listen for the obvious harshness. If the drivers are all OK, can you bypass the Onkyo by using a volume control on your CD player and hooking that up straight to your amp? If this sounds fine your problem is in the Onkyo. If you still hear the harshness with the Onkyo out of the system, it is likely in your CD player (do you have another source such as an FM tuner to conduct a similar substitution test?) or your amp.

Some diligent switching in and out should identify the cause of your problem.