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Dunlavy SCIVA'S... Mine sound bland

First of all I am no expert and I just want to enjoy my music.  The room in question has been professionally treated by company with diffusers and absorbtion.  So the room is ok, not the best but I have put money into the room.  The preamp is a tube unit called the dude from tube research labs.  The amps are mcshaned citation II's that are bridged and running as monoblocks.  Last week I paid an individual with over 40 years of audio setup experience to come and help me out.  His initial feedback was the speakers were just very drab...  No life and nothing special.  I then hooked a pair of modified lascalas and he was OMG, they blew the dunlavy away in all aspects.  This can not be true??  So I have been reading....  All drivers are good on my dunlavy.  Could I be underpowering them??  Another theory is the crossovers need freshened up....  I'm at a loss...  Any help would be appreciated.  The last thing I need is to start any flaming on here...  I'm located near Chattanooga, TN and would kill to find someone close by to help me with this issue.
robmag
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
@robmag - The Dunlavy's where part of the best system I've ever heard (at a dealer around 1996). System was: Dunlavy SC-IV a, Audio research LS-2 pre, ARC VT-130 tube amp, CEC disk spinner and Theta DS Pre/Pro DAC. Wire was all Dunlavy. Cleanest, clearest, most image-correct sound I've ever heard (playing Sade's "Stronger Than Pride"). Truly the definition of "Holographic". Good luck with yours...
robmag OP
16 posts
 
That is very interesting that the ARC performed so well with it...  I would have thought my citation II's bridged would have performed closely.  I guess I need to do some swapping around to see.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,388 posts
 
@roberjerman..................................

the original GAS Son of Ampzilla was most certainly designed by the late James Borgiorno.  I met him at Natural Sound when the amp first came out, spoke with him extensively, and bought the demo unit he was showing. What a nice man, so gracious and humble. 
pryso
1,928 posts
 
rob, the first obvious question - how long have you owned the DALs?  Have they sounded this way from the beginning?  Were they better originally but now sound worse?

Dunlavy designs are not to everyone's taste, what is?  But they were all (Duntech and DAL) well respected and many found them to be among the most musically accurate and satisfying out of everything available.  I suspect there may be a problem with yours.

I owned the Duntech Princess model for 19 years.  That was the older sibling to the DAL SC-IV and IVa.  From what I've read the DAL versions have slightly less critical power requirements.  Initially I drove mine with VTL 300 mono amps, but later went to Parasound JC-1s.  The latter was the best overall match I found.  They were anything but drab and lifeless.
rzado
175 posts
 
I owned a pair of Dunlavy SCIVa's many years ago, and found them to be quite sensitive to the amps driving them.  After trying them with at least a half dozen amps, I found the best combination by far to be with CAT JL-1s (although other high powered tube amps generally worked well).
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