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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?
128x128kenny928
parabolic
106 posts
 
@emailists it's possible we bumped into each other from time to time.  I knew the fellas at Eardrum fairly well back in the day, and we often kidded the owner (Artie) that his radio ads sounded like they were done by Tom Carvel.

I still own a pair of DQ10's with walnut sides that were refoamed, recapped and mirrored by Regnar.  I've retired them now in favor of my recently acquired Martin Logan reQuests, but they still do their magic.

If anyone is in the Northeastern PA area (zip 18337) I might be persuaded to drag 'em out, if you bring the beer.

sunnyjim
927 posts
 

I remember the DQ-10.  I was a salesman in the 1980's in a mid to hi-end audio dealer,.  Good speakers; but, somewhat awkward to set up, and the their stands were crap and did not support the speakers very well.

By way of suggestion, don't get caught up romanticizing a speaker whose design is close to 40 years old.  Occasionally ,  . you will see ads on AG for updated versions of the DQ-10's, or even the so-called DQ-20 ( or DQ 30?)  which was more or less a flop. 

Use that 2K to 3K money looking for a used pair of Vandersteen  3A's  or Acoustic Zen Adagios, or one of the lower tier Dyanudio Contour speakers,  a (used) pair of the newer Quads speakers, or Martin Logan models "Aerius",, "Ascent" or "Vantage"  They should provide superior  sound quality and much better tonal accuracy than an updated version of the DQ-10's 

Good Luck

shoresaudio's avatar
shoresaudio
20 posts
 
@martykl  Was Absolute Sound the store in Ann Arbor with the DQ10s?  They had up to four locations but slowly began closing them before ultimately going out of business. Used to deal with Jerry at the Royal Oak location for years. 
altoman
26 posts
 
I had DQ10's in the seventies, I cannot remember where I bought them or what electronics I drove them with. They were wonderful, and I do remember I had them modified at New York audio labs in Croton. Harvey Rosenberg had a pair set up there with tube electronics, they were sublime! I gave them to my cousin when I bought Acoustat 2+2's. He still has them.




mr_g
3 posts
 

In the '70's I attended an audio show at a hotel across from Madison Square Garden in NYC, several floors of audio manufacturers showing off their latest and greatest equipment. At the time, I was shopping for a new pair of speakers and had done exhaustive research. I had narrowed down the field to a pair of Polks (I believe it was the 10's).  As I wandered from room to room, I kept noticing these speakers I had never seen before, it seemed many of the manufacturers had chosen these speakers to demo their equipment with. A few weeks later I went to my local high end audio store to demo the Polks. After less than a minute, I told the salesman to turn them off, I was crushed! The speakers I was so sure would be heaven sounded terrible...all that time wasted, I was so disappointed and started to leave when I spotted these speakers, the ones I had seen at the show (I had forgotten all about them). I thought to myself, if these speakers were being used by all those manufacturers maybe I should give them a listen...I was back in heaven. They were a lot more money than the Polks but the sound! After several more trips to the store to audition these speakers with my turntable and albums I was completely familiar with, I was sold. I still have my DQ-10s today, they are a mirrored pair, sequential serial #'s. I've had the woofers re-foamed by Regnar, the tweeters have been replaced and the crossovers upgraded with the newer caps and resistors. Originally they were powered by a Phase Linear 500 amp, today the are powered by a Parasound amp, Emotiva sub and Paradigm rear speakers. I'm thinking about upgrading to some mono blocks. After all these years, I am still amazed at the sound coming from these speakers, I will never sell them!

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