Dahlquist DQ-10 - reactions?

[Gavin.Wright]

Hello,

I just got back from picking up my very own Dahlquist DQ-10's. I found them on craigslist tonight and got them for a cool $50! Does anyone know much about these speakers? I'm not sure what kind of find this is... they appear to be in very good shape, no woofer rot, a complete mirrored pair! What do you think? Pictures to come...

[F1nut]

Airy soundstage, no bass and tend to be hot on top. You got them dirt cheap, enjoy.

[Joe08867]

What he said^ And sensitive to poor recordings would be the only thing I would add.

[Gavin.Wright]

Listened to them last night - sound very nice so far... i'm not sure how/where to place them. Any thoughts on room placement?

I think I have too many speakers...

[TroyD]

A classic....there IS bass there, just not what you'd expect from an Advent woofer...plus, it's response is pretty flat so you don't get a bass hump that a lot of speakers have.

They are also pretty power hungry.

Good stuff there....enjoy!

BDT

[mhardy6647]

They're OK; deliberately designed to evoke the Quad ESL-57 cosmetically. Attempted "time alignment" of the drivers. Same woofer as the Original Large Advent; MR and tweeters are, if memory serves, Philips, and a Motorola piezoelectric supertweeter (cf. Matthew Polk's original Model Nine). Insensitive; they thrive on high power of good quality. There was a Dahlquist subwoofer available for them (which, as noted above, they did need).

Saul Marantz was involved with Jon Dahlquist in their commercialization; not sure if he was the brains, the pocketbook, or just an interested party.

[Timothy Smith]

I love DQ-10's. One of my favorites of all time. Very musical.

You stole them for $50.

I have owned as many as 3 sets at one time, and presently have one pair of DQ-10's and one pair of DQ-20's.

In my experience, they need 150 watts of solid state amplification to wake them up, and they like 200 wpc. If you have tube amplification you can get by with a lot less.

If the bass is lacking, check the foam surrounds for rotting and replace if necessary. Or try adding a separate, but "quality" subwoofer. Also try pulling out the woofers and resealing it using "Mortite" caulk/putty to prevent air leaks.

If the highs are too "hot" try disconnecting the wire to the plastic lemon squeezer super tweeter. Lots of owners do that.

If you don't have factory stand, try to find some or make some.

Congratulation, it took me about 30 years to end up with Dahlquist DQ-10's. You are already there.

[Gavin.Wright]

wow ! i had no idea they were so highly praised. Mine came from the original owner with the factory "high" stands and boxes. They have the blond grills and light oak trim. it looks like the woofers were refoamed a few years ago but done very well and with the correct "reverse" foam just like the original. one of the midrange speakers has a very small crack on the rubber surround but it doesn't seem to have altered the sound. will post pics when wife brings camera home! I like the way they sound so far - very open. Now I need a bigger amp - currently running them with a sansui AU-999 - my only other choice is a bit of a stretch - an old old peavey CS-400C that I rebuilt a couple years ago - guessing that wouldn't count as "audiophile"...

[heiney9]

A friend of mine here locally has had 3 pairs and rebuilt all of them to one degree or another. Very nice when the x-over's are tweaked w/modern caps, etc. and the super tweeter is disconnected. Dahlquist has a fan board that has more information than you can probably process. With a little TLC, a tweak here and there, they can sound really good.

H9

[xj4094dg]

wow ! i had no idea they were so highly praised. Mine came from the original owner with the factory "high" stands and boxes. They have the blond grills and light oak trim. it looks like the woofers were refoamed a few years ago but done very well and with the correct "reverse" foam just like the original. one of the midrange speakers has a very small crack on the rubber surround but it doesn't seem to have altered the sound. will post pics when wife brings camera home! I like the way they sound so far - very open. Now I need a bigger amp - currently running them with a sansui AU-999 - my only other choice is a bit of a stretch - an old old peavey CS-400C that I rebuilt a couple years ago - guessing that wouldn't count as "audiophile"...

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[starkiller]

I have always liked them but they do need some real estate that's for sure! I do have a nice Crest 4000 professional amp with more then enough power, but its along the same lines as your Peavey probably

What kind of power does the 9900 have again?

[Gavin.Wright]

My Sansui AU-999 is 50 watts into 8 and 70 into 4. I could also use the KA-8100 which is 70 into 8 and 90 into 4. I wonder if the peavey would sound just awful... i'm not sure what to do.

[starkiller]

Try the Peavey, can't hurt. I do have some nice amps w/plenty of power that aren't "professional"...just pm me for info

[audiocr381ve]

What a steal!

[cubdog]

Great speakers I have powered mine with as little as 38 tube watts. Better given 200 watts ss. They can be very sensitive to placement. In a good way. Check out the user group on Yahoo for lots of good information.

cubdog

[mhardy6647]

[Brett Flournoy]

$50 is a steal, although I notice for such a highly regarded piece of gear they don't command as much as you would think. Two pairs went for less than $300 here in Dallas (4 speakers) about a month ago. Room and amp eaters, a soundstage/timing oriented speaker based on research and a design not unlike the SDA's. Not wife friendly. They are legendary but never really turned me on, not sure why. I do have a story from the old days, heard a pair of those with a sub, connected to a Mc 250 per channel amp, and the poor sales guy played a disc I just bought - Virgil Fox at the Crystal Cathedral, direct to disc. Well, when he went low, the entire system shut down due to overload, it was probably calling for 1000 watts per to deliver. Funny moment all in all.

[fitness1]

I had a pair for a very long time.....they were NOS from an audio store I worked at in the late 80's.


As someone above said, they are as musical as they come, and for true acoustic recordings (which is almost all I listen to) they absolutely can't be beat.

I ran them with my Crown Straight Line Two (which I still use exclusively) and either a Hafler DH220 or a Carver 1.0.

I have about 30 reference recordings I use to evaluate my system setup and with the Carver and the DQ-10's I heard things I've never heard before or since. For example, the background vocals on Gordon Lightfoot's "Me and Bobby Mcghee".......it sounded like there were twice as many (well defined) voices in the background than when listening on other speakers.

I wish I'd never sold them.....but I moved several times in the late 90's and early 00's and between the speakers and the cinder blocks I was using for speaker stands, it was a real hassle.

Which brings another great point and a good story. I was listening one day and I just happened to bend over and tie my shoe.......the soundstage, vocal clarity and height went crazy. So I devised much taller stands (and very sturdy obviously) I took two 8 by 16 cinder blocks and made a "T" out of them (one flat over one standing on it's end) and placed them on a patio stone......so I'd estimate they were abou 25-26 inches tall. I also placed them so the front grilles were actually hanging off the front edge of the cinders, which decreased the angle of the speakers from what they were on the stock stands.

I should also mention I do close field listening and always listen in complete darkness. It would be very hard to find a speaker that would perform better than these when set up correctly like I had them.

Someday I'll hopefully be able to find another pair, but they won't be as pristine as my old friends were.

[fitness1]

*****

Are you still looking? We have a pair of DQ-10s with the subwoofer for sale.

actually about 3 months ago I found a pair of original owner DQ-10's and am in full audio bliss mode again!!!



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[inspiredsports]

That was a stellar bargain!

When they show up in my neck of the woods (and I've been on the prowl for over a year) it seems they always cost a fortune.

The only pair available right now has been rebuilt and they want $500

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/ele/2755977332.html

[Tour2ma]

^ You got that right... ebayed my mirrored pair a few years ago for $325-ish and had to deal with foam rot...

They will not rock your world, but for acoustic stuff they are primo... and for solo piano, they are the bomb.

And as many do, I "lost" the supertweeters... only "upgrade" they need IMO. Settles that top end sizzle right down.

fitness1,
Love your near-field set up, but are the 10's stable way up there?

[72RR]

$50 cool !!!
I wanted to get a pair back in the 70s, couldn't afford them; "settled" for Monitor 10s

[ALL212]

If I could get a pair for $200 I'd sell my kids to do so!!

I'm the guy H9 mentions in his post. I've rebuilt three pairs of these from the ground up, completely stripping them down before putting them back together. The last pair was a "contract" deal and the buyer had me put about $600 into them. I pulled the super tweeter, made new boards for the mid and then reworked the crossover board so I could pull the super tweeter circuit out and put the bass components on a separate board. I think I even put in a different pair of tweeters - I'd have to go look at the pictures again.

These things need real estate and power, you have rebuild the crossovers as the caps are all 20 or more years old. And get them off the floor!!

User group found here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Dahlquist/

I love 'em...but love my maggies more!

[oldmodman]

You certainly got those at a world beating price.

I sold an orphan (one single speaker) a few months ago and got $275.00 for it.

But that was here in Los Angeles, the overpriced capitol of the world.

[StuartB]

You weren't kidding when you said you listened close field! Is the room really small? It "looks" like the speakers would need more Rome to breathe, but it sounds like you have the set up nailed.

actually about 3 months ago I found a pair of original owner DQ-10's and am in full audio bliss mode again!!!



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[StuartB]

Room......., not Rome!

[George Grand]

Room wasn't built...

[mhardy6647]

Room wasn't built...

True enough. But then again those DQ-10s need room to rome.

[StuartB]

Ok, ok......enough fun at my expense.

[TennMan]

I think that is the largest set of headphones I've ever seen. I love that big black chair! It looks like one Captain Picard would have sat in on the Enterprise. Very nice!