Dahlquist DQ-10
A friend dabbles in electronics and enjoys rebuilding older speakers. I finally got a chance to hear his Dahlquist DQ-10's tonight. I just found another speaker to add to my short list. He spent about 3 months rebuilding them. All new cross overs, refoamed woofer, rebuilt all the drivers and mirror imaged them. I must say I'm not easily impressed but those things sounded spectacular.
I really coudn't get enough of the openess of their sound. So airy and smooth, errily smooth and what a soundstage and the bass was so solid an tight. If I can find a pair locally on the cheap side he said he'd help me rebuild them. This is one of the few speakers that I knew I might want after only listening to a few songs. I heard DQ-10's back in high school but really wasn't at the level of audio sophistication I am now.
He got all the upgrade kits, wiring kits and drivers from Ragnar who bought out Dahlquist and still maufactures stock parts. He spent a lot of money restoring them the right way and they sound fantastic. It's weird to see this square sitting in front of you and having it project the sound it does. Goes against all convention of what a speaker should look like.
H9
I really coudn't get enough of the openess of their sound. So airy and smooth, errily smooth and what a soundstage and the bass was so solid an tight. If I can find a pair locally on the cheap side he said he'd help me rebuild them. This is one of the few speakers that I knew I might want after only listening to a few songs. I heard DQ-10's back in high school but really wasn't at the level of audio sophistication I am now.
He got all the upgrade kits, wiring kits and drivers from Ragnar who bought out Dahlquist and still maufactures stock parts. He spent a lot of money restoring them the right way and they sound fantastic. It's weird to see this square sitting in front of you and having it project the sound it does. Goes against all convention of what a speaker should look like.
H9
"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
Post edited by heiney9 on
Comments
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I used to work in an audio editing unit that had a pair of Dahlquist DQ-9's
powered by Bryston. They sound incredible. -
A true classic speaker, should be experienced at least once in your life.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
DQ-10s................ even the name reminds me of that girl behind the counter at the local Dairy Queen. Short, fat, & sweet as can be, with a voice from heaven, but better left with the clothes on.;) The ugliest speakers I've ever seen face to face without their grills.HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable
2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable -
yep,, sweet sound, definately fugly when nekkid
JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut) -
Check chicago craigslist,just saw a pair of 10's and a pair of 20's about 3-weeks ago for under 250.00 each set.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Sorry,the DQ20's which are supposed to be better than the 10's are 850.00 in what looks like perfect condition.Located in Schaumberg,IL.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
heiney9 wrote:A friend dabbles in electronics and enjoys rebuilding older speakers. I finally got a chance to hear his Dahlquist DQ-10's tonight. I just found another speaker to add to my short list. He spent about 3 months rebuilding them. All new cross overs, refoamed woofer, rebuilt all the drivers and mirror imaged them. I must say I'm not easily impressed but those things sounded spectacular.
.....
He got all the upgrade kits, wiring kits and drivers from Ragnar who bought out Dahlquist and still maufactures stock parts. He spent a lot of money restoring them the right way and they sound fantastic. It's weird to see this square sitting in front of you and having it project the sound it does. Goes against all convention of what a speaker should look like.
H9
I remember listening to the DQ-10 back in 1974. It was on my short list. Sounded great in general, but at times I could hear that there were 5 separate drivers working, so I passed on them. Maybe the new crosss-overs fixed that issue. It would be fun to hear them again.
Cheers, JimA day without music is like a day without food. -
I have a pair (thanks to Russman) and they sound great. Once the DIY sub is built, LSi15's are going back to HT and these are going back to the 2 channel setup with the sub. Much better soundstage and they are not that picky about the room either.
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I just heard a pair of these tonight. Turns out a long time friend of mine's father happened to have his fixed. He was juicing it with an adcom 5802 from a NAD pre listening to a denon tt. Very very nice sounding, I was quite amazed at the dynamics the speakers performed at... but I'm sure the reserve of the adcom had something to do with that. Didn't get a chance to hear them imaged, but I never the less thought they sounded great.Lovin that music year after year.
Main 2 Channel System
Polk SDA-1B,
Promitheus Audio TVC SE,
Rotel RB-980BX,
OPPO DV-970HD,
Lite Audio DAC AH,
IXOS XHA305 Interconnects
Computer Rig
Polk SDA CRS+,
Creek Audio 5350 SE,
Morrow Audio MA1 Interconnect,
HRT Music Streamer II -
Regnar also does Kef repair work for anyone interested. They are going to rebuild my 104/2's one of these days when I decide to mail them off. Kef no longer makes the drivers for these and Regnar is the only place I found a few years ago that worked on the Kef's.UNIVERA
Historic Charleston SC
2 Channel:
SDA-SRS's RDO tweets
Biamped Anthem 2 SE's w/1970's NOS Siemens CCA's
Anthem Pre 2L w/E.harmonix platinum matched 6H23's
CDP- NAD C 542
HT setup:
AVR: NAD T 773
Rears: Polk LC80i
DVD: Toshiba 3109 dual tray
Subs: Velodyne and M&K
T.V.: Sony KDL-52XBR4 w/Vans Evers Clean Line Jr.
Conditioner: Panamax M5100EX
Master Bedroom Sony 40KDL-XBR3
"I love it when a plan comes together." Hannibal Smith, The A-Team -
univera wrote:Regnar also does Kef repair work for anyone interested. They are going to rebuild my 104/2's one of these days when I decide to mail them off. Kef no longer makes the drivers for these and Regnar is the only place I found a few years ago that worked on the Kef's.
104/2's are on my list as well. If I ever find some local in decent shape that's a speaker I'd love to visit again. The 107's would be even nicer but there's something about the 104's I just loved back when I sold electronics. It's funny some of the memories that get etched in one's brain.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
DQ-10's are interesting; good but not great IMNSHO. They were a venture, as y'all probably know, between Jon Dahlquist and Saul Marantz, so they are not inconsequential historically.
It is no accident that they resemble Quad ESL-57's.
DQ-10:
ESL-57
The DQ-10's driver complement is... I think bizarre is the only word that fits... some nice Philips drivers, the Advent woofer, and a Motorola piezo tweeter. A seminal example of "too many ways" (again, MNSHO).
There was a Dahlquist subwoofer for them, too, BTW.
obviously, this one has been modified a bit!
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I hear what you are saying. I'm not easily impressed and these impressed me. But it's just like that good looking female at the end of the bar; initially she looks good but spend some time with her and you may realize she ain't all the great. I'd have to spend serious time with any speaker to get a good feel for it, but what I heard initially sounded great.
I also try not to look at the bizarre driver arrangement
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
