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Help with Dunlavy SC-IV signature

Hello to all. I friend recently gave me a pair of SC-IV as they were too big for his room and he did not like their sound. The speakers sounded very bright to me but I attributed that to the cheap surround sound receiver he was using. I expected them to sound way better on my gear. No such luck. I tried them with a Moon P5 and Ayre v3 and they made my ears bleed, same with aMusical Fidelity M6PRX and Pre. I finally put then on a Nakamichi CA7 and PA7 with the tone controls all the way back and they started to sound way better. My current speakers are Martin Logan Expression 13A and Von Schweikert VR4 Get III. I added a Behringer DEQ2496 and turned the mids and highs down 7db and now they sounded very good. I have had Vanderstein 5A, Magnepan 3.7i and Utopias among others and I have never encountered something this bad. It's as if an equalizer was turned all the way up in the mids and highs. I removed one of the crossovers and to the eye they look ok I would have to remove them and measure everything to know for sure. Has anyone run into this before ? should I rebuild the crossover to see if it will improve ? What other measurements should I take ? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

cerberus79
m-db's avatar
m-db
970 posts
 

Your have experienced ears. 

The recording engineer who nudged me into this hobby had modified Duntech Sovereign's and me with little practical experience. He passed and years later I heard that general presentation again at a small shop with Dunlavy IV's. It wasn't about the scale of the big Sovereign's, I was told the time and phase is what I was glomming onto. Vandersteen's and Avalons get this.

IMO these are well worth investigating. Sounds like monkeys under the hood or aged out components. I know nothing but this might be a good place to get some direction. Good luck with it.   

http://duntech.com/products/sovereign.html

cerberus79 OP
52 posts
 

I am going to disassemble them and check drivers and connections. ultimately I will then look to do something about the crossover. thank you for the responses.

petg60
1,486 posts
 

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/dunlavy-sc-iv-schematics.325058/

This may prove helpful.

Good luck.

pwerahera
120 posts
 

@cerberus79 This is hard to believe, but I trust you have done your home work. Dunlavy speakers are anything but bright. May I ask you what kind of source material you used to find out these speakers sounded "bright"? Also, these are very efficient speakers with sensitivity of 92 dB. Have you tried this with a tube amp?

Before you try to work on the crossover or any other parts, I would try to see if the problem remains with a tube amp. They have first order crossovers and drivers are designed to handle "leakage." If the drivers are changed, that may explain this problem. Also try moving the speakers to short-wall if these are currently placed  along the long-wall. 

cerberus79 OP
52 posts
 

I used both Qobutz and CD sources. I played Jazz, Blues and Rock. The results were the same regardless of music or pre and amp. I have not tried tubes. My tube amp is a Cary 300SEI F1 and it only puts out 13 watts per channel.

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