World's most accurate loudspeaker

aisha

Denis
In relation to the people in the show, my recollection was that the tall, well built guy was in fact John Dunlavy.

The musician was the classical guitarist John Williams if my memory serves me well. Great publicity stunt if you ask me. :-)

MightlyMouse
As for the B&W 800D and the Duntech PCL2001's? Well I have to say that I am not really sure.

My expectation is that the B&W's would be superior given the technology and engineering that has gone into them. As for hearing them, well I am not sure there is even a pair in Adelaide, its a small town I live in. :-)

As I have said before there are many great products out there today and one would surely please you? I have a sentimental attachment to the PCL2001s that I expect will never die. On reflection, and perhaps saying something about my life so far, the time at Duntech was probably the coolest job I have ever had despite being the lowest paid.

mightymouse

Thanks Tonyb and Aisha for the info.

Aisha, oftentimes our fondest memories are of those simplest times. Building something that you have a passion for with your own hands is the most rewarding experience you can have in life.

sucks2beme

You'd think if the guy designing the speaker ever had to move one, that he'd
add in a way to move them easier! Maybe something like a piano dolly set.

Recording monitors are built different. The guys are normally right next to them
when using them. Not at all good for home playback. If you're in a
small space, like a dorm room or a room in a military barracks,
they work pretty well. Last word in audio reproduction? No!
Been there, done that, moved on.
Yashu, spend some quality time in a high end shop. Go during the
day on a Tuesday or Wenesday when things are quiet.
An hour listening to jazz or blues on vinyl with tubes and a pair of
Dynaudios will change your view of the universe. And your wallet will
never be the same.

ben62670

Face wrote: »

They're still ugly.

Texas42 wrote: »

They are 330 lbs....each one!

So are mine:p

sucks2beme

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ele/690218334.html

Heres a set of SCIV's for sale!

DarqueKnight

Yashu wrote: »

No consumer boutique speaker is going to be better at reproducing the original music than the monitors used for recording the music. I just don't buy it. I certainly believe they are good speakers, but I am 100% sure they were not used for the studio work done on the music you are going to listen to.

You are 100% wrong.

Duntech and Dunlavy speakers, are, in fact, used by many recording studios as monitors. I have attached a PDF scan from a Dunlavy Audio Labs brochure. The first paragraph states:

"Since its founding in 1992 by John Dunlavy, an internationally known engineer/physicist, DAL has earned the reputation of being the designer and manufacturer of the world's most accurate loudspeakers and cables for use by discriminating audiophiles and professional recording engineers."

Here, for your edification and reading pleasure, are links to web articles discussing Dunlavy speakers in studio monitor applications.

High-End Studio Monitor Shootout: ATC SCM-300A AND DUNLAVY SC-V

Cave Recording Studio features a pair of Dunlavy SCIV monitors with Mark Levinson amps.

See equipment list for Mastering Studio-Dunlavy Model SCIVa Reference Monitors

Millbrook Sound Studio uses Dunlavy Sc-4 Main Monitors powered by Bryston 4B stereo amp

Many more references can be found. I found the above by Googling "dunlavy studio monitor". Good luck.:)

Quoting from the first reference above:

"The Dunlavy Audio Labs SC-V is a four-way, 7-speaker tower (75x15x27-inch, HxWxD) strongly reminiscent of Mr. Dunlavy's former design, the highly acclaimed Duntech "Sovereign"-used in a variety of mastering rooms worldwide."

By the way, I visited Dunlavy Audio Labs in December of 2000. John Dunlavy personally told me that a significant part of his company's business was professional recording studios all over the world.

carlesdg

Hello, I find your messages about the Duntech Sovereign PCL 2001 and Dunlavy in this forum and I'm very pleased to read your comments.

Two years ago I bought a pair of Duntech Sovereign 2001. I'm very pleased with his sound that I found very pleasant, powerful and big. I ask to the manufacturer, about the owner's manual of the DS PCL2001 version (with active filtering facilities). The people of Duntech (Kiat) was very kindly but they don´t know very much than me about this old model.
May be someone still have some documentation of this (still today) big speaker?
Best regards.

engtaz

Welcome carlesdg. What audio gear are you running with the Duntech's.

carlesdg

Thanks engtaz. Now my system is a North Star 192 transport/dac and a Melos 333 reference preamp. The Sovereigns are biamped. For middle/highs I use a pair of Antique Sound Lab Hurricane monoblocs (kt88, 100W in triode mode) and for bass a Yamaha Mx-D1. Also in the bass path I have a BSS 336 digital active filter that I found very useful to adjust the gain between the the amps and to make a (soft) parametric equalization in order to correct the room response. The room is about 40 square meter with 3.2 m ceiling and some diy acoustic treatment. I put a pic of the system.

Face

Very nice carlesdg!

NotaSuv

carlesdg wrote: »

Thanks engtaz. Now my system is a North Star 192 transport/dac and a Melos 333 reference preamp. The Sovereigns are biamped. For middle/highs I use a pair of Antique Sound Lab Hurricane monoblocs (kt88, 100W in triode mode) and for bass a Yamaha Mx-D1. Also in the bass path I have a BSS 336 digital active filter that I found very useful to adjust the gain between the the amps and to make a (soft) parametric equalization in order to correct the room response. The room is about 40 square meter with 3.2 m ceiling and some diy acoustic treatment. I put a pic of the system.

very sweeet looking system..........

rru2s

you can compare Matthew Polk's claimed FR for the original versions of the Model 7 and 10, ca. 1976.

Interesting curve, but from years of personal experience I don't believe the low end of that curve especially -- I own a pair of Model 10s (bought in 1979 and used for 2 ch til 2005). For 20 years I always used an equalizer (**GASP** -- sacrilegious!!!) to boost the lower bass as much as +12db dropping off to mid-bass boost of +6db Also, I don't think those tweeters are 100% flat out to 15K, or cymbals would sound a bit crisper. (Always used to tweak the upper end of the high end a teensy bit, too). Seriously, though, at their price point they blew away everything else in their day.

cnh

aisha wrote: »

Mightymouse - Yes there is a web page and they apparently still exist http://www.duntech.com.au/. I think you can order them from that page? I am not sure how much they cost though? They used to be AUS $18,000 a pair back then in 1986 so I expect they would cost a little more than that these days.

Main problem here was that these speakers didn't fit into most people's homes they were simply too big to install properly and people with the money and the space would often build a room for them. Money well spent I say :-)

What you can still buy is the B&W 800 series speakers and at the time, 1986, these were the speakers that John Dunlavy spoke as a competitor in the market. He didn't care about the massive Polks and the Infinity Reference monoliths that they were, he only worried about the B&W's. These days there are so many options in that area of the market he would be tearing his hair out. To quite frank his manufacturing processes at the time would cost him a fortune today to maintain also. It was a very manual process at the time and I personally hand built the first piano black pair of Sovereigns which was an honour to a 16 year audio nut. Yes I wore cotton gloves and worked with caution to build this stunning looking pair of speakers which were off to some other country and some lucky owner.

George Grand -
The Krix Speakers are still around and yes I have been a frequent visitor to their factory since the mid 80's as well. Hey, when you love speakers and you have these guys at your doorstep then why not. :-)

As a side Adelaide (pop 1.5 mill) houses Krix, Sonique and Vaf who all design and manufacture loudspeakers?

As for the Brix, well yes that model you speak of was a D’Appolito array using some 4 inch mid bass drivers and managed to get a useable 50Hz out of them , quite impressive for the time. I have to say I am very found of the D'Appolito configuration, it was central to the design of many of the Duntech speakers for example the PCL3, PCL5, PCL1000 & PCL2001 and along with the time alignment (designed for a 4 metre listening position on the 1000's and 2001's) provided an amazing sound stage.

As for finding them tucked away in corners, hallways and rooms in buildings, well yes I think this is common place. The company is doing very well with its International sales in that regard as they also do many movie theatres.

In this day and age I wonder about how long they will be around. They manufacture a very good product out of a factory here is Adelaide and have grown from such small beginnings (like many successfull companies) to be something quite impressive for a local company. However, with off-shore manufacturing out there they must be finding it hard to compete with the likes of JBL for example, who they often win contracts over for large cinema complexes. Further to this, people here, as I expect is similar to the US, are installing projectors and sound systems into dedicated rooms in their homes!

Three years ago most people didn't know what a home theatre was and perhaps 7 years ago people didn't know what a sub-woofer was. Now people always want a sub and if they are building a home ask the sales person if the design includes or can include a home theatre. This is surely the demise of the cinema complex and this is a large portion of the Krix market I think?

Anyway I am rambling about stuff that isn't directly related to the original post so I shall stop. I can't help myself, it is something I am very passionate about and I guess it sits close to my heart :-)

Enjoy

Hi Aisha,

Welcome to Club Polk and thanks for the incredibly 'informative' addition to the knowledge base here. Those Speaks not only look like monsters...it seems they sound just a good! Great stuff above.

As for Monitors. I own a pair of Legendary JBL Studio Monitors...supposedly the best they produced in the mid-80s or so with the revolutionary Titanium domes? They were used to mix TONS of albums...and I still run them...but they are definitely not the 'best' speaker I've heard! And you can 'hear' MORE with a higher end speaker than this mixing speaker because I have heard more...though I can't afford them! To give an example, Focal Utopias are a much more refined and musical speaker than my Home Version Monitors (I have the series that are exact driver twins of the Studio).

The other thing about JBLs is that they are notoriously difficult to place in a room so as to get a 'reasonably' FLAT response. It takes forever. The main problem are those massive woofers with the super heavy magnet assemblies. It's almost 'impossible' to get 'tight' bass out of those. I'm not saying the Monitors are bad...but that there are a lot 'better' out there!

cnh