Buying Advice needed Dahlquist DQ-10 129.00

[AUDIOPEASANT]

Nice! The woofer surrounds are the only things that naturally fail and your pair appear to have been replaced. I found a pair about 3 years ago. I took the uper baffles off (it comes off as one piece) as well as the crossovers. All I did to the crossover was to clean the level adjustments and resolder all the joints in the speaker. I repainted the woofer cabinet and refinished the side caps. I picked my pair up for $85 and an audiophile friend/local Guru was already there and had taken the price tag off. He let me have them. What a guy, that Jerry! They are beautiful sounding speakers. The low end extension is not so great. Dahlquist also made a companion subwoofer and electronic crossover. I've seen very few of these on the web and heard only one at Audio Atlanta. One mod that seems to be popular is to replace the piezo tweeter with a ribbon (Phillips?). I never understood why a cheesy piezo was in this masterpiece of its' time anyway.

 

[Ski]

Congrats! Those look to be some prime examples of a great pair of speakers. I love mine too.

 

[emaidel]

Well, you've certainly received enough info from those of us writing in that you've made what's easily one of the "deals of a lifetime." I own a pair which Dalhquist called "Show models" that I purchased from them in 1977. These were "tweaked" models used for various Hi-Fi shows of the day, and incorporated Dahlquist's first use of mylar caps. I did have to recently have the foam surround replaced on the woofers, as it rotted, but the speakers still sound wonderful. In fact, they wound considerably better than my B&W 802F Specials which cost four times as much!

I originally owned a DQ-1W sub, and the Dahlquist Electronic crossover which I powered up with a Rotel bridged amp. Though it sounded pretty good, the crossover developed a loose connection and the loud BRAAAAAPPP!! that was fed into the woofer literally melted the voice coil. I now own a powered Definitive Technology sub which is infinitely superior to the DQ-1W in every way, and which retails around $1,000.

Lastly, I wouldn't put too much faith in the Onkyo sub: I worked for Onkyo in the early 80's and even they admitted they didn't have a clue how to make a decent sounding loudspeaker.

Upgrading your system to a powerful, and most importantly, high-current power amp will result in some all but magical improvements in the sound of your DQ-10's. Welcome to the world of audiophilia - it's fun and rewarding, but can also be pretty expensive!

 

[emaidel]

One last comment (for the time being, anyway): many have criticized the selection of the relatively cheap piezoelectric tweeters used in the DQ-10's. While there's no question piezo tweeters were indeed "cheap," and often sounded excessively brittle and "spitty," Jon Dahlquist himself best answered the question. He stated that, since they're crossed over to start reproducing material from 12,000 Hz and up, that most people can't hear much at that level anyway. Since so little music exists above 12,000Hz, most people would never notice what super-tweeter was used. The proof is that, when coupled with suitably upscale equipment, the DQ-10's are smooth and sweet sounding, exhibiting none of the negative characteristics associated with Piezo tweeters. Perhaps Jon knew what he was doing after all, no?

 

[soundoc03]

I agree totally! I have owned my pair since 1980 and didn't appreciate what these gems are cabable off until I set them up with the LP-1/W-1, powered them with tubes(Jon was said to have voiced them with strapped MB-3045s), and placed them in a large enough room. Place them atleast 3 ft from the wall and experiment with the horizontal distance. Mine are about 8ft apart and toed in about 20 degrees. For tweakers, Van Alstine had once recommended that the grill/cage be removed (too ugly for me) and to Plasti-clay just about every surface but the cones!

 

[Billfort]

Yes, I always read the piezo was evil as well, but after switching to a highish power tube amp, realized it was more the SS that was evil .

I loved these with tubes (I used a CJ MV-75A1, p-p 6550) but they really do need lots of power and 75 tube watts was barely enough, probably more reasonable to use a big SS amp. I used SS amps for a while (Bryston 4B, NAD & VanAlstine) with a tube pre-amp which was a nice compromise.

I ended up using pretty much the same placement as soundoc, 3' from the rear walls and slightly towed-in - too close to the walls kills the imaging. I used to listen to them from time-to-time with the grills removed as well, looked butt-ugly but sounded great.

 

[rgrjit8]

Good for you!

Those are in fine shape.
I found a pair in a pawn shop once. The grills were pried up at the edges, missing or unmatched screws in place, and so much dust that I could barely make out the model number on back. They wanted like 400 bucks. I wasn't even going to try to haggle with someone that greedy and clueless. It was a no win situation.


Did you get the stands for them?

 

[piece-it pete]

I wasn't the biggest fan of the tweet, of course I was using ss amplification, in a small hard room to boot. I used the highly scientific attenuation method of 1 ply of tissue paper. I ended up replacing them with jvc ribbon tweets and was happy.

Ever since I first pulled the grill (agreed, very ugly - my daughter asked if they were homemade) I've thought one could make that speaker thusly:

Same size box with rounded corners and edges, some sort of quality finish. Instead of the other drivers mounted on those pieces of pressboard and brackets use some sort of chrome pole for each "stack". I think you could make them look wicked cool, with all the drivers showing they would look super mod/high tech (all those drivers!), and have the even-more-open sound of the dqs' when the grill's off.

Daydream over. I'm glad I had a pair.

Pete

 

[mhardy6647]

Jon Dahlquist, inexplicably, wanted to make a speaker that looked like the Quad ESL "57". That he did, but the philosophy of what went inside was utterly different. The DQ-10's were quite decent sounding, though, in their own right.

 

[soundoc03]

Don't short change the electronic crossover. Not only does it allow you to bi-amp the inefficient DQs, but is a well regarded design in it's own right. The high pass through is passive so as not to add further processing noise and distortion. The low pass is variable and active. When paired with the DQ-W1 it can be set at 60hz. I use one bass cube(you could use another) positioning it in a corner for maximum effect on the same plane as the left DQ-10. Nice seemless and clean low end. The MB-3045 produce 50wpc with KT-90 tubes. Most recent upgrade was changing from Home Depot 14G cables to Coincident TRS in addition to their power cords. Being a skeptic I didn't expect a big difference but now after about a hundred hours of burn in I am convinced that at least for my present system cords/cable can be enhancing. I am not able to say that the imaging is better or the highs or cleaner etc. I can just sense a decent overall improvement.

Have fun with your DQ's If you have the right listening environment and amps you may never part with them.

 

[Foos]

I must admit that I really like the sound, very clear.
I am running them with A kenwood basic M2 amp and the level meters keep pegging past 200 watts.

Has anyone done the crossover upgrade with reg caps as opposed to the expensive kit from regnar?

Thanks

Foos

 

[tentoze]

I am running them with A kenwood basic M2 amp and the level meters keep pegging past 200 watts.Foos

If you really like those speaks, You might try locating the knob labeled "volume" and turning it to the left.