DQ-10's in the house!

madmax

I was at a fellow polkies house and he sent me home with a pair of DQ-10's. Hey, he put a gun to my head and gave me no choice... Just kidding.

I ordered the replacement surround foam for the woofers and got them running. All is working now except for the super-tweeters.

Anyway,
I finally got them off my bench at work and took them home. I read somewhere they sounded best on 2' stands and found some old Bose stands which were about the right height. Got them set up and found very little bass and a really annoying midrange nasal type characteristic. After moving them all around I finally tried them directly on the floor with a few degrees of toe in. That was the ticket!

The sound is not as true to life tonally as the SDA's. The soundstage certainly doesn't wrap around the listener the same way either. What they seem to do well with is depth and soundstage. There is also a quietness between sounds and a very well defined (and wide) center image. Some of this center image is a characteristic of my room which I sometimes like, sometimes don't.

In summary, the DQ-10's don't sound as good as the SDA's in some aspects but they are "fun" like the SDA's are. I find myself wanting to listen to them. They have a little more detail but some of it is a little wrong tonally. Still cool to listen to.

madmax

Ricardo

Do they look like horns??

heiney9

A good friend of mine and my brothers has completely reworked a pair of DQ 10's and they sound excellent and I certainly could see how they would be a fun speaker. Motley looking without the grill cloth, but they get the job done.

Enjoy them.

H9

gidrah

Great to hear. Unfortunately I think I fried a midrange on mine the other night.

Sami

SDA's (the 1C's that I have) have cleaner highs but the midrange is rather nice on DQ-10's. I did move my 10's to bedroom after I got the SDA's so I'm also saying I like SDA's better but they are different speakers, both fun to listen to.

You definitely need a sub to mate with them.

madmax

I have a little polk sub, forget the model, that I played with last night. I'm fairly happy with the DQ-10's without a sub but setting the sub to the lowest crossover and low output volume did make an improvement. It didn't take much for a good full sound.

The sound seems to be a little addictive. I have mine naked for now. I'm planning on playing with them for awhile. I put the SDA's in the closet for the time being.

JimBRICK

ok where are the pics we love to see around here

heiney9

madmax wrote: »

The sound seems to be a little addictive. I have mine naked for now. I'm planning on playing with them for awhile. I put the SDA's in the closet for the time being.

They certainly have a presence that is hard to come by. I was amazed by their character when I first heard them. They are not an appealing speaker "naked" . For a short time I was really interested in getting a pair to play around with, still wouldn't mind if the $$$ was right.

H9

Sami

They looked much better than SDA's in my living room, with clothes on of course and with the DQ stands.

madmax

I wonder how different they sound with the steel mesh grille and cloth?

Will they sound different if I put my clothes back on?

Ricardo

madmax wrote: »

Will they sound different if I put my clothes back on?

Of course; textiles have absorption and diffusion properties. When I listen naked the sound is a tad brighter.

heiney9

madmax wrote: »

Will they sound different if I put my clothes back on?

Depends if your clothes are cotton, polyester, raglin or a blend. Courderoy really mutes the highs.

H9

madmax

I only wear polyester when I listen to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

avguytx

madmax wrote: »

I ordered the replacement surround foam for the woofers and got them running. All is working now except for the super-tweeters.

Are these the piezo tweeters? Those can have the diaphragms replaced IIRC, right? They seem to be the same piezo tweeters that have been used in many home and car speaker systems thru the years. I remember replacing the diaphragms back in the days of "truck boxes".

madmax

I have a bag full of replacements I ordered for something else but it is the circuit that is faulty. Since neither one works I'm wondering if someone unhooked them somewhere. The wiring goes into the cabinent and is hard to follow.

Music Joe

I used to have a real fine pair of DQ-10's powered by a Phase Linear 400 (excellent match). When the 400 went down the fuses protected the DQ-10's however the Phase Linears fuses failed...it.
The Yamaha and Adcom amps I had around at the time couldn't make them sound near as good.
They had the triple beamed stands (about 8" height) but as you found they do sound better toed in a bit and on the floor.
And they looked 'mad scientist' sans grill frames, memory tells me the piezo unit needed that Quad looking grill in place to balance out.
Kind of wish I hadn't sold them.

madmax

I'm anxious to try the grill now.
madmax

madmax

After some more listening last night I notice some mid-range sounds (given the intense center image because of the room) that are a little too much. I did everything I could think of to eliminate the problem using a bunch of cushions placed in various locations. Its still there. I wonder if they would sound good on the short wall? I may have to change my whole room orientation. I hate long narrow rooms...
madmax

mhardy6647

Do they look like horns??

Nope, they look like Quad ESL-57's, because Jon Dahlquist 'borrowed' the esthetics of the Quad design for his multiway "time aligned" speakers.

Saul Marantz bankrolled Dahlquist, if y'all didn't know. In a way, the DQ-10 was Marantz's last hi-fi product.

The DQ-10's were offered as a three-piece system, with a companion subwoofer (from which they much benefit).

They are exceptionally power-hungry speakers.

The piezo supertweeter is the once ubiquitous Motorola (later CTS) orange juicer piezo. The other MR and HF drivers were Philips OEM's, and the woofer is identical to Henry Kloss's "Advent" woofer.

bikerboy

I had the Dalquist subwoofer and x-over for those speakers many moons ago. I think I powered it with a carver cube for a while. Found out the carver sucks as a sub amp. Always wanted the dq-10s but never got a pair. Had a friend with a pair and he was always wanting more power to drive them. Great sounding speakers in the day. Have fun with them.

TroyD

I had DQ-10's as my first 'reference' speaker and ended up selling them to dorokusai when I picked up the Amazings.

In my small room, they sounded fantastic. The midrange is where the magic was (a la a philips 4" driver) and was the closest to an electrostat that I've heard a dynamic speaker come. Bass was fine although a tad disjointed from the rest of the speaker. Highs could be a tad harsh which everyone attributed to the piezo but I have my doubts about that.

Fantastic speaker, love to have another pair.

BDT

madmax

I admit the midrange is wonderful. In my room all speakers have an over-emphasis of a center stage. Of course on a lot of music the center ends up being a majority of midrange. It can grate on you because you start focusing on it. I was able to mis-match my phono stage somewhat eliminating some of it. At least now I can stand it.

The piezo tweeter is not working on my pair and the treble is still a little harsh. This actually sounds good for some types of music.

This is an excellent speaker!

madmax

TroyD

I can't remember at what freq the piezo takes over but it's pretty damn high so I've never believed that the glare that people talk about is from the piezo.

BDT

avguytx

There's a pretty nice looking pair on the Houston Craigslist that was posted on August 12th. Very clean....$400. (no affiliation)

mhardy6647

Piezos are only really objectionally spitty and harsh if you let 'em run free down to their own "natural" cutoff frequency. If, as TroyD implies, they're crossed over high (used as true 'supertweeters') they can indeed be value-added.

madmax

I'm hoping the high frequency output changes when I put the grilles on.

TroyD

another tweak that I've thought worthwhile is to cover the masonite baffles on the arrayed drivers with felt, sort of like the AR acoustic blanket.

BDT

mhardy6647

Interesting review (apparently from 1973) of the original production version of the DQ-10 (with CTS woofers) posted at AK today.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122158&highlight=DQ-10

(you probably have to be registered to see the PDF attachment)

For the record: If I didn't say this before, IMNSHO the DQ-10's were perfectly OK speakers, not the sine qua non that some feel (felt?) they were. They're OK.