Alternatives to Dunlavy speakers?

I agree with the Thiel/Vandersteen/Dynaudio recommendations, all excellent choices. My personal preference is Dynaudio, as I find the Thiels too bright and the Vandys too warm, but system matching is important as always. Re Dunlavy, IMO most people place far too little importance on time and phase coherence. Dunlavy didn't do everything perfectly, but he was on the right track, no doubt about it.

To Audioguy -

Thanks for the additional information on the Montana's.

It is my understanding that the XP uses first order filters everywhere except on the tweeter, which uses a third order high pass. I don't know about the crossovers in the rest of the Montana line.

Just for the record, John Dunlavy's negative characterizations of vented enclosures do not apply to all vented alignments. Along the same lines, if I were to characterize all sealed boxes based on the transient performance of a Qtc = 1.2 alignment it wouldn't be a fair generalization. There are vented alignments that exhibit superb transient response, comparable to that of a critically damped (Qtc = .5) sealed box. In my opinion, Dunlavy's stance on the innate superiority of sealed boxes is a bit dogmatic. I say this as a moderately experienced amateur speaker designer and builder (over 55 systems including sealed, vented, passive radiator, isobarik, pressure relief, transmission line, and dipole. I'm currently working on three systems: a dynamic dipole; a transmission line variant; and a well-damped, ultra-slow-rolloff vented alignment).

Piega 10's are more tranparent and revealing than the IV,IVA,and the V's which I've had in my system for 5 years plus. The Dunlavy's have a bigger soundstage and must be played at higher levels. The music got to be fatigueing after long periods of play. The difference that appealed to me was in the bass. The Dunlavy's had a huge but boomy bass while the piega's was tight fast and deep. If you have the space you may want to hear the Soundlabs also.

i need to cast my vote both with Brauser and with Karl. I used to be a Vandy guy until i found the Dunlavy's the Athenas were so much more open sounding than the sig 3s. I thought the thiels were a bit bright. that said i also thought the dunlavy III to be bright. the wrong cables (i.e. silver) or nasty recordings can make my athenas down right evil. With tubes and some nice copper cables they can be amazing though a harsh cd will still tear your ears out...LPs on the other hand are always nice.

Dunlavy was on my short list but I bought Green Mountain Audio Continuum 2. They are very well engineered (first order crossover with very expensive components and fully adjustable for any listrening room) and constructed speakers. The upgrade to C2i has made them an excellent speaker: very dynamic, soundstage imaging like mini-moniotrs with substantial bass response and easy to drive (91dB).