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

ayanna18 said:
I am currently refurbishing my pair which I purchased in the late 70's.

Jim Fabio at Fab Audio in Toronto is doing the refurbishing, changing capacitors in the crossover, adding braces to the box to tighten the bass

Not touching the piezo's , getting them back this weekend and can hardly wait to hear them
Click to expand...


We need some more info on these. Were they mirrored from the factory? I doubt it since you say late 70s. What caps are going into the units and can we get pics of these new to you updated speakers? Here or your own thread and we'll all enjoy it. You are going to like em.
 
Dahlquist DQ10

An update to my previous post.

My techs name is Jim Fabian of Fab Audio, he is also redoing the voice coils on two of the speakers. They were blown by the Moscode Preamp....bummer
 
My DQ10s are the one thing I sold and now regret doing so. There's a certain magic about them that hard to explain but easy to hear.

cubdog
 
the masonite ring and all steel baskets are as one ... check out some advent history. Steel basket might not be correct DQ10 -wise but the factory says its okay. Don't worry about it.
They are special, they image like nothing else I've ever heard. That's why I wont be getting rid of mine anytime soon (or the sub under each one!)
 
Dahlquist DQ10

FullSizeRender.jpg

DQ10 OLD Crossover.JPG

DQ10 New Crossover.JPG

Well, I went to collect the DQ10's last Friday. Jim had them running on the ground of his workshop sans stands or any kind of feet. He was using a Counterpoint hybrid preamp. and a Yamaha monster looking amp.

First impressions was a kind of a golden blast of music, not sound, music. Was a good sign. He then finished attaching the covers and placed them on stands. First sign of trouble, no sound from one speaker.

He fiddled with the amp. and whew! the music returned.

Got them home and hooked them up on the stands and attached to the big Nakamichi PA7 and the Moscode Minuet. You can see the rig in the picture.

The top octave seemed to have disappeared. Began to get worried. Left them running for a while, the soundstage was great but where was the top octave.

Replaced the Moscode Minuet with a recently acquired Audible Illusions Modulus 3 and went to bed.

Same issue all day Saturday, then Sunday, I did some thinking, the only difference between my basement and Jim's shop was the heavy carpeting in mine.

So, hoping for the best, I bumped up the brightness scale on the DQ10.

Whoa, the speakers have disappeared, dunno where they went. Music is coming from everywhere in my listening room. Beautiful, detailed, sound staged.

The top octave is back.... and Jim Fabian is a genius.

Have a drink and raise your glasses to the finest speaker ever made.

Long live the Dahlquist DQ 10's
 
Dahlquist DQ10

The biggest differences I noted were:
1.0 The bottom octave was not extended but considerably tightened
2.0 The coherency between drivers was phenomenal
3.0 The soundstage was extended all around the speaker, and could not be associated with the DQ 10's
4.0 Images were more solid
5.0 Women's voices were sweeter
6.0 There was a liquidity to the musical presentation which one can only understand if you actually hear it.

I should note that Jim said virtually all the original capacitors had deteriorated with age.

The rest of my rig are;
Linn Sondek LP12, iTTOK, Dynvector 17D2 Carat
Very heavily modified NAD 502 CD player, Rotel RCD 1502 CD player
Various, Cardas, Audioquest cables
 
Thanks for your comments on the repairs.

In the two photos, you have a blue probably 80µF cap. These were replaced, weren't they? If so, it is interesting that the new one is blue, too.

Now you are ready for another decade or more of fine DQ-10 tunes.
 
I just wrote this a couple days ago to my thread in the dahlquist forums:

"I sold off some gear including my polk sda speakers.

With the money I bought a Parasound Halo A21 amplifier. The amp pairs perfectly with the Parasound P5 preamp that i was already using. This amp is stable driving a 2 ohm load and has huge amounts of power in reserve.

I pulled my DQ-10's out of the closet and got them hooked up.

The sounds they make were very impressive with solid amplification. Had a couple fellow audio junkies over and they were extremely impressed.

They compared very favorably to my Infinity RSII's. The infinity's have a lot more force, extension, and go much deeper on the low end. On the other end of the spectrum the DQ10's were actually brighter and had a hotter top end. Imaging for both is fabulous. Where the DQ-10's truly excelled is the midrange. That domed midrange sounds fantastic.

I think that I finally heard what the dahlquist are capable of. With good gear upstream they sound fantastic and deserve every bit of the status they have.

Still original crossovers and not mirror imaged so there is still room for improvements!

I am glad that I have held onto these speakers."

It is true that the bass output is somewhat lacking.... Also true that it is easily supplemented with a sub or two. I think that the bass balances nicely with the rest of the speaker.

I have powered my DQ-10's with three amps now.
Onkyo tx8500mkII vintage receiver (160w/ch)
Emotiva xpa-2 (300w/ch)
Parasound a-21 (250w/ch)

Each step up created noticeable improvements. The onkyo while powerful for a vintage receiver didn't have the headroom and couldn't deliver the clarity a dedicated amp is capable of. On numerous occasions I managed to get the lights on the onkyo to dim and flicker.

Based on my experience i would have to say that the dq10's sound good no matter what you are driving them with. But, they improve significantly as your components improve.

Good luck with your dq10's and I hope they serve you well. I plan to keep mine even if they aren't used much.
 
Dahlquist DQ10

As you can see in the pictures, I have a Parasound sub coupled with the DQ 10's to help out things in the nether regions.

You know, I can't make up my mind between, the Onkyo P303 solid state preamp, or the Moscode Minuet hybrid preamp, or the Audible Illusions Modulus 3 all tube preamp.

Jim, my tech, thinks the DQ 10's should be driven by a tube front end, and certainly the P303 sounds much dryer, ......... the Moscode is like a beautiful woman, but you have to send flowers every day. As soon as you stop paying attention, she stops working. But when she is working, wow!!!

The Audible Illusions, is much more reliable, if a smidgen less emotionally involving. Just like a fine Bordeaux as compared to a Burgundy

Anyway, all good
 
First of all congratulations on a truly classic speaker!

Had them and enjoyed them.

IMHO you will be safer and have more flexibility with more power. Sub is a plus, I did both and enjoyed the crap out of them either way!

Now the fun part is the journey experimenting with different gear, sub, placement etc.. It was for me.
 
Dahlquist DQ 10

Speaking of experimentation...

Yesterday I began experimenting with fuses from Synergistic Research and Hi Fi Tuning.

The difference they make is simply unbelievable, and this from a skeptic

Wow!
 
ayanna18 said:
Speaking of experimentation...

Yesterday I began experimenting with fuses from Synergistic Research and Hi Fi Tuning.

The difference they make is simply unbelievable, and this from a skeptic

Wow!
Click to expand...

$60 for a fuse! I might be able to fall for that after a $50 bottle of tequila. While I know that I can taste the difference between good and bad liquor. I doubt that I'd hear the difference between a 25 cent and a 50 dollar fuse!

Don't get me wrong.... I'd try a $10 fuse and I have purchased some grossly overpriced interconnects ($150 or so).
 
I bought a pair a couple yrs before they stopped making them, and used a 80 wpc Philips integrated amp. The best I ever heard them sound was in a bridged/bi-amped set-up using Hafler amps... just about the best sound overall I've heard.
 
Dahlquist DQ 10

I have a synergistic Research 3 amp Quantum fuse in the Audible Illusions power supply and a HI FI Tuning Classic Gold 10amp fuse in the Nakamichi PA7.

I kid you not they make a significant difference
 
You would need a lot of power from a modern component....which to me are all basically junk.

Older vintage components that are true Class AB are much better at driving speakers such as those. In my college days the 76 to 82 time frame a co-worker had an HK Citation 16 amp driving those to ear blistering levels as cleanly as that amp could. If you respect your ears then I'm sure 35 to 60 watts would be more than enough if it's true Class AB power.
 
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