John Dunlavy, 1929-2007 (1 Viewer)

[Michael Osadciw]

As reported in Widescreen Review's March edition, John Dunlavy has passed in January.

He created extraordinary speakers under his name. After hearing them at WSR a few years back, I was very impressed and determined to try a pair in my own system. Today I use the SC-IVs for my fronts and an SC-I for my center and will eventually add another pair of SC-IVs in time.

It's quite obvious that a great deal of time and care was put into these great speakers. It's too bad the company didn't carry on and few other speaker companies create like speakers.

Mike

(BTW, DunTech in Australia still exists; you can access them at http://www.duntech.com.au/images/all.html)

 

[JohnRice]

I has always wanted to hear Dunlavy speakers. I didn't know if the company had gone away, but I guess it did, like so many other good ones.

 

[Arthur S]

Hi John

I also wanted to hear Dunlavy speakers...there was a young man (who was posting on the HTF), whose wife found a pair of Dunlavy MTM small bookshelf speakers in a warehouse...he was using them (without stands), and the speakers were sitting on the floor...I tried to get him to put them on stands and he did not seem to want to do anything serious about getting decent stands for them...I told him over and over to get them off the floor and he simply did not respond to my repeated suggestion to get them off the floor...he then started to speak about new amps and turntables and I kept trying to tell him to get the Dunlavys off the floor...I had to give up when he disappeared after others tried to tell him the same thing.

 

[Vader]

I worked for John back in the late 90's when DAL was in Colorado Springs, doing Speaker QA testing. I can say that even the bookshelf SC-I model sounded incredible, but the monster SC-VI's were awesome, even to my ears (they are not audiophile "trained", so a lot of subtleties go in one ear and out the other). Every speaker pair was matched to an extremely tight tolerance of +/- 1 dB over the rated range, and was personally signed off by him before anything ever went out the door. He will be missed.

 

[Arthur S]

Hi Derek

I find it fascinating that you actually worked for John Dunlavy in the late 90's...I have a 65 inch TV also...and a Denon 5803A...an SVS subwoofer, and a Dual turntable.

Thanks for adding to this tribute to John Dunlavy.

PS If you decide to upgrade your subwoofers, I have a pair of HSU VTF-3HOs plus Turbos and I can't begin to use their full capacity. The HSU VTF-3MKIII is a great sub at a great price.

 

[Chu Gai]

A giant of a man. Talented in so many areas and frightfully honest. Few knew as much as John did and conveyed it with such clarity.

 

[Greg Bright]

An old and dear friend has a pair of SC-IVs. They were originally in his condo and placed totally wrong (as were their predecessors, a pair of Infinity 2.5s) Even so they were, in the very narrow sweet spot, the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. This with McIntosh power. The build quality did not impress me for a 5 grand/pair speaker, but the sound made up for it. They are now more properly positioned in an 8 x 14 x 7 mobile home room where they sound better than ever though a bit overpowering. The sweet spot is still very narrow. Being disabled he gets to listen to them maybe once or twice a month. Sad.

Greg

 

[mixed signals]

I got to meet Mr. Dunlavy and get a tour of his lab in Colorado Springs in the mid 90s. He was a rarity in high end audio. He was as serious about measurements as he was about music. As others have noted, he told it like it was. He had a unique insight it to speaker design. He wanted his speakers to have an accurate pulse response. (Magnitude response - often shown as frequency response - is not adequate to get a good pulse response. You need accurate phase response as well.) This was a keen insight to me - coming from the test equipement world. So not only did he design to this - he measured this and insisted on shipping no nonsense high-quality product.

He had been around antenna design for quite some time. He showed me work he had done with the early space program. So it always struck me that Audio and Music was kind of a retirement hobby/passion as much as it was his business.

 

[Kim *]

John Dunlavy was truly an amazing person who inspired all pure audio enthusiast. He inspired me. A genuine person who would take the time explain the theory and creation of pure sound.

He did the math all the way down to the emblem resting on the grill cover to ensure that it did not interfere with the sound. I remember sitting at a table as he explained how the emblem would not interfere because it was like a cork floating above the water. The speakers were just amazing. The closest thing I can compare them to is play back on 12 inch analog tape.

John’s dream is still alive in the speakers that play around the world.
Thank you John for educating my ears.

Kim