Who remembers the Dahlquist DQ-10's?


My first pair of "high-end" speakers.  Power hungry critters but what I would give for an updated pair.  I powered these with a Peavey CS-400 and a Maccomack Deluxe Line drive passive preamp!!  Those were the days!  Young and dumb I suppose?
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I owned a pair back in the day, and enjoyed them very much. I drove them with a Bryston amp. one of my sources was a Nakamichi 600 cassette deck – what a beauty!
I first heard them at the Sound Center in the San Fernando Valley. They were playing a recording (vinyl of course) of Big Bill Broonzy. Man, that guitar was twanging the blues for real. Great speaker, indeed.
Samhar---what was the name of that small chain of Hi-Fi shops in SoCal, one of which Randy operated (the one in Venice) before starting Optimal Enchantment? I was a customer at the one on Sherman Way in Woodland Hills, at the North end of the San Fernando Valley. DCM Time Windows, NAD, etc.---high value, budget high-end brands. I still have my Eagle 2A and Dahlquist DQ-LP1 x/o! The Dahlquists always seemed to me be an attempt to make a dynamic version of the original Quad, which it sure looked like.
Yes, no secret the DQ-10 copied the exterior design of the Quad 57.

Early versions of the DQ-10 were produced with the same driver array for both channels, a common practice at the time.  A local dealer, Audio Directions, developed a few mods, including the mirror image array, later adopted by the factory.  I never knew if Jon Dahlquist was influenced by the store's demo or not?  Also it was popular to replace that Motorola tweeter.  And someone developed a wood box base that could be opened to the woofer to create a larger back cavity to extend the bass.

I remember being impressed by the demo at that store, but they were just out of my reach so I settled for early Vandersteen 2s.
Auditioned them at New York Audio Show 1974 based on strong recommendation from the AR (Acoustic Research) docent at the listening room that AR used to maintain at NewYork's Grand Central Station.  At the 1974 show the Nakamichi (tape deck) room was using the Dahlquost DQ-10s to show off the new Nakamichi cassette decks.  The crowd was in awe at the stunning musicality...myself included.  Had wished I could afford a pair ($700 a pair at the time).  Nowadays I drop that much on accessories.