I am a tube kind of guy, my wife is a tube kind of gal and we own SC-V's. My wife and I primarily listen to large scale late romantic music, art techno, and organ music. We love the Dunlavy's. But to get the most out of them you need a big room, big power and room treatment. We use the Sigtech DSP combined with a very simple ASC configuration. Measured, in my room, with the SigTech, they are virtually flat down to 22HZ. The room is about 7000cu ft. The amp selection goal was clean 108db peaks. In the room that measures out, allowing for Sigtech correction at about 400 watts. Given the impedance curve of the Dunlavys, if you drive them from a 4 tap on a tube amp you will need additional power for solid bass though this isn't an issue with most SS. The listening tests follow the measurements. In the last year we have driven them with Bryston 7BST, Spectral DMA 150, DMA 360, ARC VT-200, ARC Ref 600, monoblocks, CJ Premier 8 Monoblocks. VTL MB-750, Melos Soloists 400 watt triode monoblocks. On the Rite of Spring, and other large scale works, the lower power amps, including the CJ's choked. The Spectral monoblocks were too harsh. The Bryston was OK but too SS sounding and not in the same league as the other choices. I originally was going to biamp with SS on the large woofers and Tubes above. But while the bass on the SS units was excellent, the high powered tube monblocks was very close so we didn't bother. The choice between ARC, VTL and the Melos for us was a matter of subtle taste in tube sound. We like the slightly darker sound so we went with a custom version of the Melos Solists built last February between bankruptcies. They were specifically built to match my pair of Dunlavys based on the impeadance curves. That Melos amp also has a huge joule capacity power supply so peak power is no problem (measured as well as listened to). We've owned a lot of ARC stuff over the years and would probably have gone with them if the Melos opportunity hadn't come along but the difference to the VTL was a matter of taste. Bottom Line: 400 watts plus of pure musical power that suits your taste.
