Dahlquist DQ-10's. Your thoughts on an amp for this?

[IanMcI]

New-to-me Dahlquist DQ-10's. I picked them up today off local CL. From what I hear, are power-hungry.

I'd like to give these a light restoration (not that they need it; they seem fine): a good cleaning; straightening any unevenness in their cages; shiny up the wood, etc. I'd recap if necessary, but not right way.

Generally, I'm constrained to the more "creative" side of gear acquisition (read: garage sales, estate sales, etc.), and, having paid more than I should (though, I think, not more than they're worth) for these speakers, I'd like to enjoy them without breaking the bank. Any ideas for matching an amplifier to these? I have a Technics SA -300 (35 wpc), a Marantz SR 100 (30 wpc?), a Pioneer SX-75- (50 wpc - I think). These all seem underpowered for the DQ-10's, from what I've heard.

These will see mostly vocals, jazz, Celtic, some classic rock - and then whatever my sons put through them.

These do not have their speaker stands, and I understand that they should stand about 9" off the floor. I don't need original stands, but may make something that will work as well.

Any thoughts, ideas on these? I'll post pics when I get them out of my car and onto my bench.

Thanks!

EDIT: I'm adding a photo for reference. It really doesn't convey much. They are big and square and black. They'll be much more interesting in better light and with the grill and cage off, though I understand them to be rather ugly "unclothed".

Ian
SF Bay Area

 

[Pio1980]

100 Watts or more of good solid clean drive power, SQ will depend on the SQ of the amp along with everything else.

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[Sovereign]

100 watts per channel at a minimum. I would look for a Yamaha M series amp or similar.

Here's a link to the owners manual- http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/dahlquist/dq-10.shtml

 

[IanMcI]

Thanks for the quick replies! Sovereign, thanks for that link, as well.

And Pio, what means SQ?

Ian
SF Bay Area

 

[Bob Orme]

What you already have should be just fine to drive those. I don't know why anyone would suggest they require a lot of power. The woofers are going to gobble the majority of the power fed to the speakers, and the only difference between the original DQ-10 woofers and Old Large Advent woofers are the dust caps. The DQ woofers have pressed felt dust caps while the Advent woofers have screen dust caps. OLA's don't require a significant amount of power to perform nicely in an average home environment. Neither do the DQ-10's.

 

[Pio1980]

Thanks for the quick replies! Sovereign, thanks for that link, as well.

And Pio, what means SQ?

Ian
SF Bay Area

Sound quality. These speakers will definitely let you know how the rest of the system and the source material sounds.

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[Lux Man]

+3 on 100 quality watts or more. The danger is under powering them. They will sound great and then your 50watt amp starts clipping and we know what happens next. I powered my first pair with a Mitsubishi DA-A10DC (100w) Are they mirror imaged? If not that would be a good project to research. It's a little effort but nothing hard.

 

[dcmfan]

Congrats on the new speakers! Enjoy 'em!

Try the amps you have and see how it sounds. I spent a LOT of time working on speaker placement, and the sound changed significantly through the process. My point is play with these for a while before charging out for new amplifiers. The DQ-10s are very detailed and accurate, but even with 250 watts, mine don't pump out earth-shattering bass.

But they cast a fantastic soundstage and sound great, especially when the volume gets up around 80dB or so.

For stands, I built a simple platform from painted MDF and some short legs I got at the hardware store. If I recall, these put the speakers about 8 inches off the floor.

And, yeah, they are ugly beasts...but gawd they sound good!

 

[jimi48]

These speakers req. a TON of wattage, I believe a min of 100 watts rms/side, but be careful. Tweeters easily blown.None of the electronics you mention will do. They will go into clipping an blow the tweeters.You almost can't overpower these speakers, but understand they will not reach deafening SPLs

 

[blhagstrom]

Placement is everything along with the room acoustics.

I have two sets.

I've driven them with everything from 20wpc to 250wpc and tubes.

They do not "need" 100+ wpc.
They were developed and produced when most didn't have that sort of power.

The bass actually works better with lower power amps (flabby damping factor). My Pioneer SX-9000 has plenty of power and great sound.

My Marantz Model Twenty-Two brings out the bass.
My Akai AA-1135 brings out the bass.

Run what you got.
Don't push the amp to clipping (concert volume).
If you want to rattle the windows, use different speakers.

Once you locate the sweet spot in the room for placement, the imaging and sound stage will be amazing.

That spot may be further forward and towards center more than most speakers.

Yes, both sets of mine are mirrored and about 9 inches up.
One set has original stands that high.

When I got my first set and was cleaning them up, they sat on the floor in the garage (3 large bays, high ceiling, mostly full of cars and junk) and I tested them with a small Kenwood garage receiver and they sounded excellent! Maybe the best they ever sounded.

 

[Mrv8q]

Original owner, back in the day. I started at 100/ ch, then 125/ ch, ended at 250/ ch. This was over a 20 year period.

Think more power, than less.

I sure enjoyed mine; hope you enjoy yours...

 

[IanMcI]

Quite a range of opinions regarding wattage requirements. I'm sure there are many reasons for feeling one way or another, but Mrv8q's suggestion to: "think more power, than less" is probably open ended enough to boost my confidence that I can "grow" into these, if and when I have the chance to try more than one or two amps.

What is "clipping"? How is it detected? What damage can it do?

How do these open up? That is, how are the grills removed? I do see a number of screws (four larger on the base, and a few on the cage). Just a matter of taking these out and seeing what wants to come apart? I'll want to check the surrounds.

These are factory mirrored and sequentially numbered.

Please keep amp suggestions coming! I'll build a list of recommendations and begin looking for something in my price range. I try to keep my knowledge base growing so as to be ready to jump on a good deal.

Thanks all. I should mention, I know many of my questions can easily be Googled, but frankly, when I Google audio questions, I invariably scan for those hits from AK threads!

Ian
SF Bay Area

 

[barkerd]

while they don't "need" big power : they sure do if you want to fill a big room with clean sound : just saying ......

also : room placement is important ...yes this is true : however if you are used to good clean defined bass down to 30hz you aren't even going to get close ...... for crying out loud they use an Advent OLA woofer... not bad / but certainly not in the woofer hall of fame

What "sold" me on the DQ's is their imaging .... and I didn't want to lose this so I have a 12"sub under each .......the sound is amazing

I push the DQ's with a heavily upgraded PL400 as well as a separate twin PL400 for the subs (each unit pushing a "real" 200 watts/channel at 8ohms) .... I am happy

At the end of the day there will be those that say they don't require big power and the bass they offer is adequate ......

Two points to consider :
1) if these are false rumors why, back in the day, did Dahlquist feel the need to build a dedicated sub for them ?
2) where did the universal reputation for these two weak points come from ?...... ymmv but the reputation they have came from somewhere

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

I have never owned DQ-10's but two friends owned them in years past and I spent a great deal of time listening to them.

One friend modified the heck out of his pair, the other friend left his pretty much stock.

First the modified pair:
Satterberg subs (his other speakers were Rogers LS3/5a's)
DQ-LP1 electronic crossover
Biamped with four Kenwood L-07 amps
Rewired
Upgraded caps
Mirror imaged
Replaced the piezo tweeter with Pyramid T1 ribbons (there was a bracket made to mount the T1 directly to the DQ10's)

Stock (more or less) set-up:
Dahlquist subs
Mirror imaged
This pair was driven by a single pair of L-07 amps (a bunch of us got a group buy on L-07's when they were discontinued - I was bi-amping my T-1D's with four L-07's at the time)

The modified pair sounded significantly better. HUGE soundstage. The subs and T1 ribbon blended really well and there was plenty of power to drive the system to obscene levels.

The unmodified pair was no slouch. Hearing the comparison of the ribbon to the stock piezo, well....the piezo was bettered in every way. I know it was really only a 'super tweeter' but getting it out of there was an improvement.

Still a great soundstage and very acceptable top to bottom.

You should have fun taking your new DQ-10's as far as you want to go.

Just my opinion and YMMV.....

 

[Freds.Bands]

Currently I'm driving mine with a 35 w/ch Onkyo amp. I can get enough volume for much of my music, but I can't crank it up much past 12 o/clock to go for concert hall volume.

(My regular amp is a Yamaha CR-2020, which has a lot more umph, but I'm in process of updating it per mfgr upgrades and evaluating it's condition otherwise.) surely that would be enough for me. What may help even more is my Dahlquist subwoofer and electronic crossover coupled with a NAD 2150 basic amp.

Just my thoughts on powering the beasts.

 

[dcmfan]

How do these open up? That is, how are the grills removed? I do see a number of screws (four larger on the base, and a few on the cage). Just a matter of taking these out and seeing what wants to come apart? I'll want to check the surrounds.



Ian
SF Bay Area

Remove the small screws holding the metal mesh on the back, then remove the larger screws in the left and right wood trim.

Everything lifts off once the screws are removed.

 

[Valveglow]

I remember friends and acquaintances having them, and I liked them. They will never blow out windows no matter what kind of power you feed them, nor were they meant for that.

They do NOT require massive power; it depends on your listening habits. They are only moderately efficient, and the manufacturer recommended 50 wpc as a minimum, though they have been used with fewer watts than that.

The first time I heard them they were connected to Phase Linear 200 wpc 400B and filled a decent sized room very well. I also knew someone who had the Kenwood L07M amps at 150 wpc and they did wonderfully also.

A third friend had them connected to a stock pair of Dynaco MkIII amps at 60 wpc and they sounded great. Less tautness on the bottom, greater smoothness on the top. I was never a big fan of that Motorolla Piezo supertweeter crossing over at 12.5K, but the speaker still was not harsh.

To the one poster who thought they were ugly, I thought they were classy looking...

 

[IanMcI]

I won't be using these at very high volume. One thing that intrigues me is their reputation for clarity. I want good representation at volumes appropriate for "easy listening", i.e., jazz, vocals, acoustic, 70's rock, etc. These won't be pushed. So...

With a minimum suggested 60w, could I get by with an 80wpc to 100wpc when I'll be using lower volumes? And are the AV (home theater) amps good for these?

I'm adding a photo with the grill off for those who haven't seen the insides of these. The grill did come off quite easily.

The mid/tweeters all needed a little tightening of the bolts holding them to their respective masonite boards, and one of the mid mounting legs needed some slop taken out as well. Surrounds look good (on this one speaker - I haven't got to the other)

EDIT: Thanks for the input, Valveglow; actually, I made a comment on how ugly the insides (grill off) are thought to be (see photo). I agree, they are quite attractive looking - very simple lines; restrained. Big, though!

Ian
SF Bay Area

 

[Pio1980]

I had them in the mid 1970s and liked them lots, they taught what a properly working speaker system should sound like. I drove them with a Phase Linear 400. I have a pair of DQ-20i (the end game of the Advent woofered Dahlquist line) in storage awaiting space if I get the Dahlquist itch again.

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[IanMcI]

I just picked up (local garage sale) a Kenwood VR-8070 to power these. I know it's a home theater amp, but figure its 100wpc would be a good start. Much too many bells and whistles for one who has never waded through the home theater landscape. I hope it works well enough for now.

Ian
SF Bay Area