Brass screws make a real difference on Dunlavy s ?

No Brauser, I'm saying that if you're really experiencing a case of discovering a level of tightening that was either beyond the engineering capability of your speakers' designer, or simply wasn't important enough a quality control concern for the designer to care about, then you bought the wrong speakers. Think about it...what exactly does "better than new" mean? If we can agree that every screw can be tightened to a maximum torque level and perfect seating, either the speaker manufacturer assembled the speakers to specification, or they didn't. And again, if the difference between good sound and better sound is two turns of a screw, what does that say about the speaker designer if they missed that detail when designing and building the speakers? Focusing on "splitting hairs" is missing the point entirely. If you don't see this, then we might as well start a thread about how if we tighten the lug nuts on our car wheels to "better than new" the car will ride better.

If as mentioned above the DAL speakers do not use inserts and machine screws they will come loose to a degree over time, the wood expands / contract with temperature and humidity, this coupled with the vibrations form the driver it self cause this. Its not a matter of poor quality control etc.

The DAL speakers used mainly VIFA drivers, some ScanSpeak, all which can be secured with 8/32 machine screws into inserts. If your up to it Theese work great. You will need a 7/32 drill bit to pre-drill and a 4MM allen key to install them. Then get some 8/32 screws at .625 long, brass if you insist :-) 8/32 by 5/8 Brass Screws although it will not make any difference, and you will not have to worry about this again. Please remember to use a sealing gasket between the driver and the cabinet This works great.

Best of Luck

Peter

Thanks Peter for getting the discussion back to something useful. I plan to keep the Dunlavy(s) for a long time and as they age there will no doubt be a need to find creative ways to maintain or improve their performance. As a side note, I have had some issues with the binding posts on the SC-V(s) and have had to replace some of the midrange drivers. All-in-all, however, I think that the Dunlavy designs are 'true classics' worth the time and effort to keep them in top operational condition.

Never known of any speaker manufacturer to adjust the torque on any of their speaker drivers when mounted into the cabinet and this includes DAL.. except one for sure. If any were indeed factory set there has never been a setting quoted in a shop manual. If there was a quoted torque then that factory setting has changed over time. The screws that hold the mounting frame to the Vifa tweeter mentioned above are metric steel and should also be replaced with brass as these are very close to the moving voice coil and dome. Tom

Merlin speakers have adjusted their driver torque setting and quoted it as one of the changes made when they launched a series update.