Duntech Speakers Owners & Discussion Thread

[Andythiing]

Quick query does anyone know what thread size I might need for speaker spikes for my viscount d200s? Kiat thought M6 but wasn’t 100% - I presume all the vintage duntech speakers and stands of this era would be the same - also any suggestions of well priced place to purchase - I don’t need spikes sprinkled with magic audio dust - just cheap and cheerful will do this cheap arsed owner

[kelossus]

On 07/06/2021 at 8:34 PM, Kevin_R said:

I now have the Krell KAS amps for nearly a year now.  Didn't pay anywhere near $24K - only about 1/4 that.  I live fairly close by where the Amps were being sold, which was great for transport I took a punt and found that the battery in the remote was flat. They work very well with the only problem I have noticed is that one of the meters is reading low.  They currently drive a pair of Princess PCL 1100.  I also have a FBP-600c and think the KAS actually sound a little better.  Kevin

Maaaaaaaate that was a great buy!!! I remember that auction Ebay. I got the Sovereigns from that same estate.

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

13 minutes ago, kelossus said:

Maaaaaaaate that was a great buy!!! I remember that auction Ebay. I got the Sovereigns from that same estate.

I have an ME850 from the same sale. All the gear was mint 

[canuckaudioguy]

Hi all,

 

I am so happy to share that my Marquis are now fully functional. I picked up the repaired drivers yesterday and plugged them in. 

 

What a sound!! It's hard to describe but the easiest way to explain it is the speakers sound like.. music! They don't sound like speakers. Even the bass, which I thought was going to be a bit shy, was quite good. It's very early yet and the jury is still out but, I am fairly confident these are the best speakers I've owned to date. The clarity and depth of sound is incredible, but I think what has impressed me the most is the sound stage and imaging. With all the other attributes combined, the imaging is like "hearing" a picture. It was so easy to pick out the instruments in a variety of recordings and like the cliche goes, "I heard things I hadn't heard before!"

 

Next steps will be dialing them in, and then getting my DSP set-up, DIRAC, and my distributed bass system. It should represent the most accurate sound possible in this room and with the Duntechs at the helm, I'm quite sure it's going to be unbelievable. 

 

[Andythiing]

Some nude shots of my d200 viscounts - these little morel drivers are amazing 

[Peter Jenner]

Hello Duntech heads.

I'm fairly new here but I've owned my Duntech PCL 25s since 1994. I bought them second hand at HiFi Trader in Newtown (Sydney) for about (can't remember exactly) $2200.

I was the second owner and as I recall the original owner had them for three or four months before selling them under spousal pressure.

 

After recently having the tweeters  replaced by Kiat, I've decided a good lockdown project would be to replace the resistors and caps in the crossovers.  The board the parts are mounted on are glued to the base of the cabinets so taking lots of photos and creating a schematic seemed like the logical thing to do.  Never having done this before I'm not sure I have it correct. Would someone be kind enough to cast their eye over it and tell me if it seems right?

 

The 10uF cap across the positives seems a little odd but I'm a complete numbskull when it comes to these things.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete Jenner

[Andythiing]

3 hours ago, peterjenner said:

Hello Duntech heads.

I'm fairly new here but I've owned my Duntech PCL 25s since 1994. I bought them second hand at HiFi Trader in Newtown (Sydney) for about (can't remember exactly) $2200.

I was the second owner and as I recall the original owner had them for three or four months before selling them under spousal pressure.

 

After recently having the tweeters  replaced by Kiat, I've decided a good lockdown project would be to replace the resistors and caps in the crossovers.  The board the parts are mounted on are glued to the base of the cabinets so taking lots of photos and creating a schematic seemed like the logical thing to do.  Never having done this before I'm not sure I have it correct. Would someone be kind enough to cast their eye over it and tell me if it seems right?

 

The 10uF cap across the positives seems a little odd but I'm a complete numbskull when it comes to these things.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete Jenner

Welcome Peter - you’re  obviously not a complete numbskull - number 1 reason is you’ve done more than I could have done by creating a schematic number 2 reason is you are sensible enough to seek advice - look what I know if duntech and John dunleavy was he was focused on accuracy in many things and I believed this included matching measurements for parts in the crossover - I’d encourage you to contact kiat directly and have a chat about your proposed upgrade

 

I am also a novice who likes to tinker - you may note in a seperate thread I just had a bad experience trying to repair an sacd player - so I’m nervous on your behalf - hate to see you accidentally do something that might have the opposite affect to what you hope to achieve
 

Welcome and good luck with the project - some more pictures of your speakers and system would be great - and don’t forget to update us on how you go - 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Andrew Thiele
Spulling

[frednork]

Hi Pete, The 25's are reputed to be very nice here is the layout of the princess as a comparison

 

You could also show us what the xsim frequency response is for the xover and that will also give us a bit of a clue

 

On 10/18/2019 at 4:55 PM, frednork said:

Found the pics

 

Here are some Duntech did

 

and here are mine

 

and some closeups

 

 

 

and more pics and schematics

 

this is onefrom the link I posted earlier

Duntech Full.pdf 15.99 kB · 23 downloads

 

and mine (bass section)

 

 

mid

 

 

tweet

 

 

I have all these in Xsim if you want the files to see what everything does

 

16 hours ago, peterjenner said:

Hello Duntech heads.

I'm fairly new here but I've owned my Duntech PCL 25s since 1994. I bought them second hand at HiFi Trader in Newtown (Sydney) for about (can't remember exactly) $2200.

I was the second owner and as I recall the original owner had them for three or four months before selling them under spousal pressure.

 

After recently having the tweeters  replaced by Kiat, I've decided a good lockdown project would be to replace the resistors and caps in the crossovers.  The board the parts are mounted on are glued to the base of the cabinets so taking lots of photos and creating a schematic seemed like the logical thing to do.  Never having done this before I'm not sure I have it correct. Would someone be kind enough to cast their eye over it and tell me if it seems right?

 

The 10uF cap across the positives seems a little odd but I'm a complete numbskull when it comes to these things.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete Jenner

 

[Peter Jenner]

On 7/25/2021 at 7:11 AM, Andrew Thiele said:

Welcome Peter - you’re  obviously not a complete numbskull - number 1 reason is you’ve done more than I could have done by creating a schematic number 2 reason is you are sensible enough to seek advice - look what I know if duntech and John dunleavy was he was focused on accuracy in many things and I believed this included matching measurements for parts in the crossover - I’d encourage you to contact kiat directly and have a chat about your proposed upgrade

 

I am also a novice who likes to tinker - you may note in a seperate thread I just had a bad experience trying to repair an sacd player - so I’m nervous on your behalf - hate to see you accidentally do something that might have the opposite affect to what you hope to achieve
 

Welcome and good luck with the project - some more pictures of your speakers and system would be great - and don’t forget to update us on how you go - 

Thanks Andrew. Despite having all of the parts ready to go I've decided to put the crossover upgrade on hold for a few weeks because I just got my beloved Luxman L-230 amp back from Pablo at MP electronics in Marrickville. Pablo has almost rebuilt the amp. He replaced all of the output caps and re-soldered nearly every joint in the amp as well as replacing the incandescent lamps. It's the first time the lights have worked in 30 years. I want to hear the amp properly and burn in the caps before I change anything on the speakers. I'll post a pic of the amp. I replaced the speaker terminals on it with some proper ones I got from Germany.

 

My setup is a bit messy at the moment. The only other component worth mentioning is a Kenwood KD 3055 turntable that I picked up second hand in Newtown about 15 years ago.

 

The speakers are currently on chairs because somewhere in the last 20 years of moving houses I've lost the stands along with all my monster speaker cable. These chairs seems to be working well though.   A few weeks ago I picked up some Chord Co C-screen speaker cables.

 

I don't have a DAC  at the moment (tomorrow I'm getting a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic) and in the picture you can see a cheap post office DVD player I'm using for testing (I've never heard anything as noisy as this thing).

I'll send Kiat an email before I go ahead with the crossover upgrades. The horrible little LG sub on the right hand side is also just for testing. Below the coffee table is my son's Alpine era Luxman LV-112 that I managed to blow up while testing the Duntechs. The carpet needs a good hoovering as well.

 

On 7/25/2021 at 8:01 PM, frednork said:

Hi Pete, The 25's are reputed to be very nice here is the layout of the princess as a comparison

 

You could also show us what the xsim frequency response is for the xover and that will also give us a bit of a clue

 

 

 

Thanks for that comparison Fred. I don't think the xsim frequency response curve is correct somehow but here it is.  Also, I have no idea of the value of the inductor.

Edited July 26, 2021 by peterjenner

[BLAH BLAH]

8 hours ago, peterjenner said:

Thanks Andrew. Despite having all of the parts ready to go I've decided to put the crossover upgrade on hold for a few weeks because I just got my beloved Luxman L-230 amp back from Pablo at MP electronics in Marrickville. Pablo has almost rebuilt the amp. He replaced all of the output caps and re-soldered nearly every joint in the amp as well as replacing the incandescent lamps. It's the first time the lights have worked in 30 years. I want to hear the amp properly and burn in the caps before I change anything on the speakers. I'll post a pic of the amp. I replaced the speaker terminals on it with some proper ones I got from Germany.

 

My setup is a bit messy at the moment. The only other component worth mentioning is a Kenwood KD 3055 turntable that I picked up second hand in Newtown about 15 years ago.

 

The speakers are currently on chairs because somewhere in the last 20 years of moving houses I've lost the stands along with all my monster speaker cable. These chairs seems to be working well though.   A few weeks ago I picked up some Chord Co C-screen speaker cables.

 

I don't have a DAC  at the moment (tomorrow I'm getting a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic) and in the picture you can see a cheap post office DVD player I'm using for testing (I've never heard anything as noisy as this thing).

I'll send Kiat an email before I go ahead with the crossover upgrades. The horrible little LG sub on the right hand side is also just for testing. Below the coffee table is my son's Alpine era Luxman LV-112 that I managed to blow up while testing the Duntechs. The carpet needs a good hoovering as well.

 

Thanks for that comparison Fred. I don't think the xsim frequency response curve is correct somehow but here it is.  Also, I have no idea of the value of the inductor.

Not being 'smart' here at all...just curious...has those two chairs being used as stands made any difference in the quality of sound coming from your speakers?!?

[Sub Sonic]

Hi @peterjenner, the capacitors and resistors used in your crossovers do not deteriorate with age. Also, back in the day, Duntech would measure, match and record every single component in the speaker so that if a replacement was ever required, they would sound identical.

 

In other speakers I would be tempted to “upgrade” the existing crossover parts, but not in these.

 

BTW the internal wiring used is made by Van den Hul.

 

Cheers!

 

SS

[Peter Jenner]

8 hours ago, BLAH BLAH said:

Not being 'smart' here at all...just curious...has those two chairs being used as stands made any difference in the quality of sound coming from your speakers?!?

I can't really tell. The tweeters Kiat installed are Dynaudio rather than the Morels that were in them so I think that would have made the biggest difference. They are sounding better than I've ever heard them but that could be due to a lot of factors.

[Peter Jenner]

7 hours ago, Sub Sonic said:

Hi @peterjenner, the capacitors and resistors used in your crossovers do not deteriorate with age. Also, back in the day, Duntech would measure, match and record every single component in the speaker so that if a replacement was ever required, they would sound identical.

 

In other speakers I would be tempted to “upgrade” the existing crossover parts, but not in these.

 

BTW the internal wiring used is made by Van den Hul.

 

Cheers!

 

SS

Thanks for that information Sub Sonic.  It's great to know about the Van den Hul wiring. Do you think the component measurement records would still be available somewhere? I don't think Kiat has them because he doesn't have a schematic for the crossovers.

[Sub Sonic]

1 hour ago, peterjenner said:

Thanks for that information Sub Sonic.  It's great to know about the Van den Hul wiring. Do you think the component measurement records would still be available somewhere? I don't think Kiat has them because he doesn't have a schematic for the crossovers.

Unless Kiat has them, I don’t know where they would be sorry.

 

You could always measure what you have with a decent meter, although it would mean disassembling your crossover.

 

SS

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

2 hours ago, peterjenner said:

Thanks for that information Sub Sonic.  It's great to know about the Van den Hul wiring. Do you think the component measurement records would still be available somewhere? I don't think Kiat has them because he doesn't have a schematic for the crossovers.

I was speaking to Kiat today and he didn’t have a schematic for mine but he sent me a pic with the values on it. He may have the same for you. 
This is the Crown Prince one 

 

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

As @Sub Sonic said the crossovers won’t degrade. It would only be a change in sound. Maybe better/maybe same/maybe worse. 
Im not going to “upgrade mine”.

I’d suggest making alternate crossovers to swap over and then you still have the originals in tact should you want them. 

[Peter Jenner]

1 minute ago, Jack Goff said:

As @Sub Sonic said the crossovers won’t degrade. It would only be a change in sound. Maybe better/maybe same/maybe worse. 
Im not going to “upgrade mine”.

I’d suggest making alternate crossovers to swap over and then you still have the originals in tact should you want them. 

 

That's a bloody good idea.

[Peter Jenner]

36 minutes ago, Sub Sonic said:

Unless Kiat has them, I don’t know where they would be sorry.

 

You could always measure what you have with a decent meter, although it would mean disassembling your crossover.

 

SS

 

I know all the values except the Inductor.

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

13 minutes ago, peterjenner said:

 

I know all the values except the Inductor.

Use the old inductors in the alternate crossovers. 
It’s easy to swap them out back and forward. 
But you can measure them also if you want to wind/buy new ones. 
Kiat should have the value. 
 

My JBL custom crossovers use the original inductors for the same reason 

Edited July 27, 2021 by Jack Goff

[Sub Sonic]

1 hour ago, peterjenner said:

 

I know all the values except the Inductor.

Sorry @peterjenner I could have been clearer - what I meant was the actual measured values of each individual part, as caps and resistors vary somewhat within their tolerance band. Duntech used to measure each part.

 

Cheers,

 

SS

[Peter Jenner]

1 hour ago, Sub Sonic said:

Sorry @peterjenner I could have been clearer - what I meant was the actual measured values of each individual part, as caps and resistors vary somewhat within their tolerance band. Duntech used to measure each part.

 

Cheers,

 

SS

 

 

Ah I see. Shouldn't they be within their stated tolerances anyway? I haven't got the equipment to measure capacitance but I did measure the resistors with my multimeter.

[Sub Sonic]

8 hours ago, peterjenner said:

 

 

Ah I see. Shouldn't they be within their stated tolerances anyway? I haven't got the equipment to measure capacitance but I did measure the resistors with my multimeter.

Yes they would be within their manufacturer’s tolerances, but Duntech used to match the speakers to a tighter tolerance again, and measure & record the actual values.

 

Having said that, the difference in sound would likely be fairly minimal.

 

If you were to replace the capacitors and resistors, bear in mind that the same original types/models/brands of crossover parts were also used in the Sovereign, which by most accounts is a pretty good speaker. You may or may not improve the PCL25s by replacing parts  

 

Cheers,

 

SS

 

P.S. I just looked back through your photos, it looks like you have already purchased the parts? If so, I’d give it a crack, but just mark every single original part that comes out so that you know exactly where it went, that way you have the option of going back to the original if you wanted

[Peter Jenner]

12 hours ago, Sub Sonic said:

 

P.S. I just looked back through your photos, it looks like you have already purchased the parts? If so, I’d give it a crack, but just mark every single original part that comes out so that you know exactly where it went, that way you have the option of going back to the original if you wanted

 

 

Will do. I'll give it a few weeks before I attempt it though. I want to spend the next few weeks trying to get the rest of the setup working nicely (it's been about 10 years since my system was together and working). I've just ordered an iFi Zen Blue V2. Now I need to get hold of a cheap but good DAC if there is such a thing.

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

Got these little suckers recently. 
Going to give them a full refurb. 
Loving listening to them for now until I start stripping them. 
@Grizzly is sourcing some new brass plates. @Bill125812 has supplied a bunch of wire to redo the internals. 
@Sub Sonic has also supplied some very rare Duntech goodies and the cabinets will be handled by myself. Aranmar are replacing the grill cloth. 
@frednork was kind enough to let me pry them out of his hands. I’ll be sure to treat them well! 
Such great folks we have here! 
 

[metal beat]

They r big mofos.   Luckily u have big ME driving them.

 

 Hope the refurb goes splendidly