I realize Saul Marantz and Jon Dahlquist have already been mentioned, but I'd like to share a little anecdote regarding them. When I was a salesman @ Midwest Hi-Fi in Mad City (MSN, WI) on State St. they came to visit. We were not a 'full-fledged" high-end store, but a college store that in our day our only Best Buy/internet threat was the students, a large portion of our base, would go to the mail-order catalogues of the time and order there after wasting hours of our time demonstrating audio for them. We called them Knobs, cuz all they wanted to do was play with the knobs on the equip and then buy off the catalogues.
I was very young then, under 25, when they came to see us. Saul was playing Front Man for Superscope, a division of Sony that he had sold his interest in Marantz to, that line we carried (mostly crap). I think we were hoping to get the Dahlquist line of speakers, not so much for our market, but because I really lusted over owning a pair and I sure wanted the employee discount that most manufacturers offered to sales staff - 50% off! Well, we never got Dahlquist, of course Saul had no influence over quality control, but that's not what this is about. I was lucky enough to go to dinner with the pair, my boss was "too good" to come along, as I recall - leaving that kind of "dirty work" to us. What a fool! I think the real reason he didn't come is he owed Superscope too much money and didn't want to show his face. But a couple other salesman accompanied us.
That evening was, of course, going to very memorable on those facts alone, but what really struck me about the pair was twofold. They got along so very well, obviously Saul had relished working on the DQ-10's and Jon was very appreciative. But what really got me was how incredibly humble the pair were. No pretention at all! In my mind at the time, Saul was the most noticeable guy in Hi-Fi at the time for although the argument could be made that McIntosh had always held an edge over his equip (not all!) his name was on that paragon of audio quality from our American past and I had expected a guy a bit too big for his britches, not at all. They both looked like refugees from the eastern front during WWII, not dressed up at all! What a delight, what gentleman and oh so patient to listen to our stupid questions and answered them as true gentlemen.
The year was 1975, and American protectionism was in full swing, more so even than today. We all bought Jap products because, generally speaking, they made the lion's share of the best contemporary affordable equip on the market and a great deal of it was the best in category. Yet we all longed for owning American equip that we could honestly state was the best of its class. Not so Superscope, but for me and thousands of others across the country, there was no doubt that American speakers were the best and Dahlquist DQ-10's at 400 a side, could not be competed with! Well, I never got my discount and although at two bucks an hour, it nearly killed me to lay out $800. I still have a relish my DQ-10's. I'll say that Regnar, the present owner of rights to the Dahlquist line of speakers, but not the name, have some great up-grades for them. I wish I could recommend their quality in detail, but I can't (they arrived home w/ parts of the X-over not secured, the fuses don't seat snuggly in the fuse holders, so I keep losing L, R or both speakers (gotta fix that one), they did a poor job prepping and re-staining the rails on the edges of my speakers, but all in all - must say if you have a year and a half to be w/o your speakers (YEAH, IT TOOK THAT LONG!) the upgrade is well worth it for only $2,800 (ONLY?). Now theyre $3,600 speakers, but some of that work was due to age and much would have come in the original 800 if it were available back then.
So, let's hear it for Saul and Jon! Thanks for your indulgence. Saul had to have been about 110 then, so I'm sure he's passed, RIP. I don't know what Jon may be up to now, anyone?
