hjames
07-08-2011, 02:15 PM
"This QUAD ESL 57 looking speaker was designed by Jon Dahlquist and Saul Marantz nearly 40 years ago - twenty years after the ESL 57. As the "best speaker of all times" ESL 57 is a good role model for any speaker, but apart from the shape the DQ-10 has quite little to do with the QUAD. The DQ-10 houses 5 dynamic drivers, four in a semi open back configuration (felt backed), and the 250mm woofer in a sealed fibreglass damped cabinet (50 L) The four mid-to-high units are spread over a large frontal area, and on varying depths relative to an imagined front baffle. The reason is "time alignment", ie. an attempt to minimize phase errors by placing the drivers such that they'd had the exactly same acoustic source. The front baffle of the DQ-10 is not tilted, but instead the smaller units on small baffle boards (minimizing diffraction) are set behind the deeper ones."
So the Dahlquist speakers are some kind of legendary something or other ... grin.
To set the stage, I got a pair of magnepan MG-IIB speakers last summer - 6 foot tall, 2 foot wide but just 2 inches deep - they are huge things, but their sound has an amazing presence - when I play Sinatra's "One for the Road", for instance, you can its just an amazing sound field!
The Maggies are old - maybe early 80s, and even when they were new, they didn't have much of a ton end and really need a sub - I put my Volkswoofer on them turned down, and that helped.
They are very INefficient - maybe 84 or 86db at most, and 4 ohms ... the Carver receiver seems to run them well, but I suspect they'd do better on the Adcom GFA-555.
Well, since listening to them on and off, then I've been interested in the "out of the box sound."
Yesterday I saw an ad in the DC Craigslist for a pair of Maggie SMGs and though - "Hey, they might be kinda neat to do a quad/surround system with the other pair." Then I found out the seller had a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s. Opimax brought a pair of them to on of the listening parties at John Evans house - but I spose I never did any real critical listening to them ...
But hey, they are smaller that the big maggies! The price was very reasonable, PLUS - the sale included the factory stands, factory passive crossover and the factory subwoofer.
He said he'd had the woofers refoamed a few years back, but needed room and had to sell them
I ran out to Annapolis Thursday after work and gave them a listen - guy had them set up in the corner of a room under construction, had a big wooden chest in the middle, and was running them with some old BPC Onkyo receiver. And no components - he demoed them with the CableTV rock music channel!
But they sounded pretty neat, and after a bit of haggling, we loaded them in my CRV and I headed home.
I have a very crowded upstairs room right now . but I slid the L200-plus speakers out of the way and set these up kind of in the middle of the room.
Played the usual tracks, Mark Knopfler - Border Riever, Jennifer Warnes - Way Down Deep,
van Morrison - The Warm Feeling, part of Furtwanger's Beethoven's 9th, Bits of Aja and Cousin Dupree ...
even without the sub they seem to have nice snappy bass and a great mid.
I will need to recap them and do some cleanup - they are FILTHY from the construction at his place, maybe new grill cloth, but hey sound quite nice.
For whatever its worth, speakers are DQ-10 s/n 03621 and 03622, Sub is DQ-1W s/n 4518, no serial # on passive sub
I wiped the sub cabinet down with orange oil - it was completely dried out - but its looking nice now.
Has a sealed box 12 inch woofer - he demoed it, but I don't have room for it right now - and very little need!
Passive crossover is a beefy box with loop-throughs, phase switch, a volume control, and is selectable for 60Hz or 80Hz pass.
Got some Bill Evans playing on them downstairs now and its just fills the room with lovely sound!
I know HERESY!! But - they are American speakers ...
51953
51954
So the Dahlquist speakers are some kind of legendary something or other ... grin.
To set the stage, I got a pair of magnepan MG-IIB speakers last summer - 6 foot tall, 2 foot wide but just 2 inches deep - they are huge things, but their sound has an amazing presence - when I play Sinatra's "One for the Road", for instance, you can its just an amazing sound field!
The Maggies are old - maybe early 80s, and even when they were new, they didn't have much of a ton end and really need a sub - I put my Volkswoofer on them turned down, and that helped.
They are very INefficient - maybe 84 or 86db at most, and 4 ohms ... the Carver receiver seems to run them well, but I suspect they'd do better on the Adcom GFA-555.
Well, since listening to them on and off, then I've been interested in the "out of the box sound."
Yesterday I saw an ad in the DC Craigslist for a pair of Maggie SMGs and though - "Hey, they might be kinda neat to do a quad/surround system with the other pair." Then I found out the seller had a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s. Opimax brought a pair of them to on of the listening parties at John Evans house - but I spose I never did any real critical listening to them ...
But hey, they are smaller that the big maggies! The price was very reasonable, PLUS - the sale included the factory stands, factory passive crossover and the factory subwoofer.
He said he'd had the woofers refoamed a few years back, but needed room and had to sell them
I ran out to Annapolis Thursday after work and gave them a listen - guy had them set up in the corner of a room under construction, had a big wooden chest in the middle, and was running them with some old BPC Onkyo receiver. And no components - he demoed them with the CableTV rock music channel!
But they sounded pretty neat, and after a bit of haggling, we loaded them in my CRV and I headed home.
I have a very crowded upstairs room right now . but I slid the L200-plus speakers out of the way and set these up kind of in the middle of the room.
Played the usual tracks, Mark Knopfler - Border Riever, Jennifer Warnes - Way Down Deep,
van Morrison - The Warm Feeling, part of Furtwanger's Beethoven's 9th, Bits of Aja and Cousin Dupree ...
even without the sub they seem to have nice snappy bass and a great mid.
I will need to recap them and do some cleanup - they are FILTHY from the construction at his place, maybe new grill cloth, but hey sound quite nice.
For whatever its worth, speakers are DQ-10 s/n 03621 and 03622, Sub is DQ-1W s/n 4518, no serial # on passive sub
I wiped the sub cabinet down with orange oil - it was completely dried out - but its looking nice now.
Has a sealed box 12 inch woofer - he demoed it, but I don't have room for it right now - and very little need!
Passive crossover is a beefy box with loop-throughs, phase switch, a volume control, and is selectable for 60Hz or 80Hz pass.
Got some Bill Evans playing on them downstairs now and its just fills the room with lovely sound!
I know HERESY!! But - they are American speakers ...
51953
51954