Price Paid:  $6000.00 from NY

Summary:
I wanted to tell people about this great mod on the Dunlavy Speakers. I have the Dunlavy Aletha speakers. I had heard that the Aletha's use cheap parts and I recently found a great guy to do Mods here in New York. I had Blackie Pagano at www.tubesville.com look at them. He said the crossover was very complicated for a first order one and used the cheapest parts imagineable. For a $1000 he put in hi grade caps and resistors but did not change the topology at all. He just upgraded parts. What I got back was 75-100% better. It was amazing! The same sonic signature was there but everything was dramatically improved.

Strengths:
Great bass and midrange

Price Paid:  $4200.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
I bought these after a visit with John Dunlavy at his very impressive factory and a detailed review of the design/manufacturing process. Unlike many speaker designers, John is a highly trained and respected scientist--many of the antenna arrays used by NASA were designed by him. Fortunately for us, he focused his considerable technical talent on loudspeaker design. These speakers are not 'voiced', they are DESIGNED from the ground up using scientific, not marketing principles. Then they are tested in a huge anechoic chamber to prove their response.

All this technical acumen comes across in the speakers with breathtaking alacrity! You get truly flat response with the test graphs to prove it, incredible soundstage in width and depth. (and this sound image is amazingly stable even when you move about the room!) Well recorded voices will blow you away. Delicate string quartets float behind the speakers (the way the microphones and you and I hear them!) with phenomenal inner detail otherwise available only in live performances. Downward firing woofers provide marvelous honest bass and provide trmendous power to heavy passages. Yet all this comes through with an uncanny lifelike quality--isn't that what you want speakers to do???

These speakers are sonically identical to the Alethas which have an octagonal cabinet (a bear to manufacture, according to John) Dunlavy provides a detailed setup guide which is very helpful. These speakers are an total steal at even double their price. An absolute must audition!!! Listen to these last because then you will know they are the best--listen to them first and you will buy them and wonder later if they were the best...

My system includes an Audio Research CD2, LS25 MkII, Levinson 331, PS Audio P300 and Wasatach Cableworks cabling throughout.

Strengths:
Extremely coherent, lifelike soundstage

Weaknesses:
Need to be at least 8' on axis from listening point with

space to sides and behind

Similar Products Used:
Many

Summary:
dunlavy v cantata is for it's price best what i have heard. everybody dal 4 owners recommends listen cantata, that goes lower and sound more coherence.i think cantata is best in it's price. I have heard about Aletha 2 and i think it's best for it's price it's wonderful. I have heard many top loudspeakers. I know, that Dunlavy is very good. I recommend it very much (best is Dunlavy Mg 20, Avalone, Eidalon, Acapella and Wilson, But Dunlavy is cheaper and works too with cheat Amplifers). John Dunlavy and his team looked again how to do very good loudspeakers. I recommend to everybody who wants neutral sound and accurate loudspeaker listen all Dunlavy products...Thanks again to Joan, John and Andrew...Happy listening from Tapsa

Strengths:
very neutral what all dunlavy speakers are

Weaknesses:
nothing

Similar Products Used:
dunlavy, avalon. mg 20 , acapella

Summary:
It took me a while to set these speakers up and I felt
that they need some time to break-in (about 100 hours),
but once in place, they are glorious. They are detailed
without being harsh and dry, they reproduce voices, strings, and piano with stunning realism, including the piano's lower octave. Soundstage is wonderful; it compared
very favorably with the amazing depth reproduced by the Proac Response 4; the Cantata's reproduction of
depth is by far better than the depth of the Response 3.5. Width is striking: on some recordings the soundstage stretches outside of the speakers.

I like to listen to each speaker separately just to see
how it does by itself, and each Cantata already sounds
great alone. Many speakers don't pass this test.

By the way, the Cantatas have the same drivers and driver array as the Alethas. They only differ in enclosure geometry and the placement of the midrange drivers. On the Alethas the midrange drivers are recessed while on the Cantatas only the tweeter is recessed. The Alethas and Cantatas sound similar, but I had a clear and distinct preference for the Cantatas. Unfortunately, I did not hear them side by side, but I did hear each side by side with a pair of SCIIIs, which I know very well. I thought
the Cantata had better imaging and depth than the
Alethas.

For what it is worth, last night while listening I kept
thinking to myself how sublime these speakers are, and
I was completely sober. With these speakers you listen to the performance, not the recording.

Strengths:
Very, very smooth response from top to bottom; truly beautiful midrange; fantastic imaging and detail with air without harshness or unnatural exaggeration; sublime soundstage depth and width.

Weaknesses:
They were harder to place than my previous SCIIIs. They
need to be 10ft or more on axis from the listening
position and they need to be far apart. The resulting
soundstage really highlights strange mic placements or
mixes. Since they are best on axis, the sweetspot is
narrow, although I also enjoy them very much off-axis.

Similar Products Used:
Upgraded from a Dunlavy SCIII. Auditioned lots of
speakers: Dunlavy Aletha, IV/A, Proac, Infinity, PSB, Martin-Logan, Wilson/Watt, NHT, Tannoy