Dunlavy SC4 Speakers

2cj, as I said, lots of different advice but how much fits your system?

I think Unsound has offered good comments, up until he suggested sitting 1' out from the back wall, at least relative to "smoother bass response".

So let me suggest this. If you have a test CD or one with repetitive bass information, put that on repeat and set your volume at or near the maximum level you would listen to. Then move around the room, listening from a wide variety of locations. I'll bet whenever you are within 2' or so of any wall you will hear a boost in bass. The greatest amount should happen in corners but anywhere close to a wall may be more than further out into the room.

Then it will be up to you to decide if the boosted bass sounds natural and desirable to you. If it does, you can increase the apparent bass output from your SC-IVs with your chair/sofa against the wall and your head a foot or so away. But I have my doubts that will be the smoothest bass response.

Also, the problem with absorptive materials for bass frequencies is that they must be very thick to be effective. The typical 1-3" absorption will not help with frequencies below 180 Hz which is the traditional range for bass. There is lots of information online covering this if you search a little.

As with so much in life, balance should be your key.

FWIW, the absorptive room treatment I was suggesting was not intended for bass frequencies, and the recommendations and reasons for those recommendations were given to me personally by John Dunlavy.

Mikel,
Congratulations on your purchase of the Dunlavy speakers. I see from your thread that you are very responsive to "Unsound" and other members that give you advice and info to help you out with your new speakers. That is wonderful, but I hope you understand that I would also like to correctly set up the Vandersteen speakers that I purchased from you. For this I need the stands, which you promised to send out last Saturday/Monday and have yet to ship to me. For some reason, you are not responding to my inquiring emails, and I don't understand why you would treat a fellow Audiogon audio enthusiast disrespectfully. Didn't I pay you very promptly ??? There is not much of a "community" here if there is little to no communication. Can we please conclude this transaction in a timely manner ?

Mikel/2channeljunkie...if the above is true, shame on you! That's not right. I know I get very excited to listen to new things, but you should always complete a transaction.

Just think of how Ttuesley must feel with new toys, but no batteries...

I own both Dunlavy Alethas which I believe use the same drivers and crossover as the SC-IV (1 woofer per speaker versus 2 in the SC-IV) but in a more wife friendly enclosure, and Vandersteen 2s. The Vandys used to be my main music speakers but since acquiring the Alethas, the Vandys have been relegated to a basement home theater. Don't get me wrong, the Vandys are excellent speakers but are no match for the accuracy, liveliness and dynamics of the Alethas. That being said, I believe the two do indeed have a similar sound. They both have first order crossovers, phase and time alignment so perhaps that's why. I found the low end of the Vandersteens to be somewhat looser and boomier than the Dunlavys giving some the impression that the Vandys have "better" bass. In my opinion that's a result of the Vandys passive radiator. I've never heard a speaker with a passive radiator that doesn't blur the sound some.

In my room, the response of the Alethas is pretty flat till it starts to roll off at about 35 Hz being about 11 db down at 20 Hz. Just recently I purchased 2 REL Strata III subs to go with the Dunlavys and now the response is pretty much ruler flat to 20Hz. I couldn't be happier and can't say enough good things about the RELs, how we'll they blend with the Alethas etc. but I suppose that's a topic for a different post.

I will second the opinions that the Dunlavys need a big room in order to blend the drivers and offer a massive soundstage. Mine are in a big room, placed on the long wall about 17 ft apart. My listening position is about 15 ft from the midpoint of the speakers. I don't find them particularly difficult to position. They are about 3 ft away from the side walls and about 1 ft from the rear wall. The Vandys however, got real boomy when close to the back wall, again I presume because of the rear facing passive radiator.

I think you'll be real pleased with the transition from Vandys to Dunlavy. Keep us posted.