Dunlavy SC VI's...

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...

Jimateo,

How are you? Long time since we last spoke.

I have a new room (take a look at the pictures of my system, even though not updated...).

I found that placing absorption/difusion pannels in the sideways hep a lot, so I had a couple of them custom made. Depending on their positioning I can increase or reduce their effect.

The front wall absorption and diffusion is also very important, since I could have the back of my SC-VI only three feet from the wall.

I will now order a 6feetx4feet rpg like diffusion panel for the ceiling first reflection and perhaps another 6feet(tall)x2feet(w) movable diffusion panel to put in front of the TV.

I can tell you that upgrading to the Playback Designs MPD-5 and to the Krell FPB 750mcx made a BIG improvement in the sound of the Dunlavy SC-VI. It is VERY realistic, so I look forward to my preamp upgrade.

Did you actually do any SC-VI crossover mod? Or know of anyone who did a SC-VI crossover mod?

Cheers,

Vicente