They were built to resemble visually and acoustically the Quad 59s, which at that point were generally thought to be the best speakers of all time, even if they had very little low bass, modest power handling, and a minute sweet spot. John Dahlquist thought that he could approach the fast, unboxy, and tightly imaged sound of Quad electrostantic with dynamic drivers by removing the big box/baffle, putting all the drivers on their own little baffle boards and staggering them to time align them. To a large degree he succeded in making a louder, more dynamic and bigger soundstage speaker, and with the accompanying subwoofer, a full range system of impressive weight and liveliness was achieved. The Quads still have a tactility and clarity that no dynamic speaker can touch, but it's deficits suddenly became a lot more obvious.
DQ 10s need a lot of power, and positioning matters just as much to them as to the Quads. But they can bring a lot of audio pleasure for not much money.
Both the Quads and Dahlquists are challenging visually - domestic partners often loath them.
