Dunlavy SC VI's...

I always felt Mr. Dunlavy recommended long wall placement to keep the speakers as far from sidewalls as possible in an average living room. Also, he apparently didn't mind the bass loading of having the listener's head so close to a wall as most set ups with this layout would require.

I had a discussion on another post regarding the dispersion characteristics of the Dunlavy designs but my position is based on in-room observations. I've been in six different homes with Duntech/DAL speakers and the wider rooms always produced better clarity and soundstaging. But I never heard a system that sounded good when my head was adjacent to the rear wall. My conclusion is therefore that wider rectangular rooms which still allow adequate distance from sidewalls will work better with any Dunlavy speaker that long, narrow rooms which may force long wall placement. One person's opinion.

I will also echo Jadem6's comments that Dunlavy speakers are very placement sensitive but the rewards of careful set up be worthwhile.

Dear Jimateo, Yr speakers must sound fabulous. I have SC IVAs and these mods helped them go from excellent to superbly musical and captivating. In no particular order they were: 1) soldered the internal speaker wire connection to each speaker rather than retaining the cheapish tabs that connect the speaker wire to each speaker element. Result was noticeable smoothing out of roughness in mids and highs. 2) Use non ferrous screws to hold speakers (bass, mids and highs) to speaker cabinet. Improved smoothness again. 3) Putting spikes under the bases of the speakers lifting them off the ground. I used Walker spikes in this case. Opened up the sound and improved the base. 4) Then I added Symposium platforms under the speaker bases and put the spikes under the platforms. Major improvement in bass and detail and openness. 5) Then I spread the speakers out two feet further apart than I have ever had any speakers, and a major improvement in detail and clarity. 6) Added subwoofers crossover at the lowest point and at very very low volume. (Two Sunfire IVs.) Midrange opened up nicely with a slightly better bass (not by much). Those are the major changes I made all of which were suggested on Audiogon except for the subs addition. These may or may not apply to the VIs you have. On the IVAs they brought the speaker up to a magical sound. Hope this helps. Jonathan

Jonathan,

I also have my IVa's on points. In my case I uses BDR pucks and cones. Same result. In order to keep the tweeter at its original height I removed the Dunlavy base completely (do not do this with kids or pets) which might have clarified the sound stage and opened the presentation more than any change except cross over mod's. The cross over is without a question the biggest improvement. See my review of that project at http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rspkr&1164387495

I see you know more about speaker design than John Dunlavy. Maybe you should have spread the speakers farther apart before you made all of the changes.

What a mean thing to say. I spoke to John many times, and admittedly he cut cost on the crossover and internal wiring. He helped talk me through what I might do...