Dunlavy Audio Labs Sigma-1

PRICE DROP Up for sale is the amazing Dunlavy Sigma I in Cherry Wood finish.  The Sigma is a pre-production version of the highly regarded SC-IV/A model.  It proved too costly to manufacture and ship, so a cost-down version was made and re-named to SC-IV/A for production. The SC-IV/A proved to be wildly popular and garnered a runner-up award for Stereophile's "Product of the Year" in 1998, beat out by Revel's Ultima Salon.  The previous version, SC-IV, won top place for Stereophile's Product of the Year when it was released in 1994.    
This performance is a testament to John Dunlavy's brilliant engineering skills.  He created a breakthrough approach to audio design, with incredible bass extension to 20Hz at -3dB.  It's sealed enclosure provides tight and textured bass with no boomy resonances from the all too common ported enclosures the dominate the market today.  Dunlavy's designs also had precisely symmetrical radiation patterns in both horizontal and vertical planes, as well as near perfect impulse and step responses, and are the first production loudspeaker capable of reproducing a square wave.  All this comes with a 92dB efficiency that makes it sing with even low powered SET Tube amps (including my AES-25 in SET mode, at 18 watts); however Dunlavy Audio Labs recommends an amp of at least 100W into 8ohms.  

The Sigma-I is bests the SC-IV/A in all regards, with larger enclosure and 1.5" double-thick walls bringing the weight to a whopping 250lbs (with base, it's closer to 290 lbs). It also allows a gorgeous 3/4" quarter-round cherry wood trim to surround the grills.  The original Sigma-I cost $9,995.00, which proved to be not cost effective to manufacture; this prompted the cost-down production version SC-IV/A which proved manufacturable at a much lower  $8000.00 price point.

I bought this set of Dunlavy Sigma-I's as Dunlavy's Colorado Lab was closing, and they've stayed here ever since.  This pair was used in the lab to test all upgrades for production.  From their report, this pair has all the latest upgrades including the Scan-Speak 10" 25W/8565 Woofers, the Scan-Speak Vifa 5" MG14WK09, and the Scan-Speak Vifa 1" composite done tweeter XT25TG-30. Dunlavy recommend a larger room of 15 feet by 24 feet, with a minimum listening distance of 10 feet. I can attest to that, as I earlier had them in a 12'x14' room (which I was still pleased with), but then in my larger living room of 18'x12' it made a great improvement in coherence, giving the "wall of sound effect" with very wide, tall, and deep soundstage. Interestingly I put the speakers along the narrower 12' wall and it had better coherence and soundstage than placing them against the longer 18' wall. Suffice it to say that placement and room size is important.   
The condition is rated at 5 due to several small dents  and scratches that I tried to capture in the photos, but they don't show in photos well.  Each grill has 5 to 6 small holes near the bottom section (not sure how those got there) which I also show in the photos. These are for pickup only, as I don't have the original boxes/crates they came with. Please email for more photos or any other questions you may have. Selling due to downsizing my apartment... going towards bookshelf speakers :(