It’s been more than 40 years but I remember it like I just walked out of the shop. It was a small shop called Stereo Mart in Garden Grove, California. The place was crammed with high-end stereo gear. The salesman must have taken a liking to us (remembering through the fog, it was more likely, as the store was empty, he had nothing else to do). The man appeased us by spending a couple hours comparing all the speakers. A switching system wired into what I believe was a phase linear, powered all the speakers. The one exception were these unusual looking, new to my eyes, Dahlquist DQ-10’s (I was unfamiliar with Quads as of yet)powered off of the switching system by a Crown DC-300. (perhaps an unfair advantage) One by one, Saras, JBL, Tannoy, infinity, Acoustic Designs, all fell by the wayside to the DQ’s. It was as if any other speaker was in another room. The clarity when listening to orchestral works, was what I heard when I listened to the orchestra from my seat as a trumpet player. Over the next couple of years a few similar scenarios were repeated. One was at a large audio store called The Federated Group, I swear they had everything. At this store were the venerated Infinity Servo-Statics at $40,000.00 a set. At $800.00 the pair the DQ’s again won the day. Because of my then meager means, I could not get them. To this day I look out for a lucky find. Sorry to be so long but I never really got to express the excitement I felt when I had this experience.
