Any still using the Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers?

I have a pair I bought about 3 years ago. Presently in storage due to lack of space. Found from an EBay seller nearby. Cost: $375. Nicely restored: new caps and silver wiring, new woofer surrounds, new walnut side pieces, grill cloth and stands. Beautiful! Still one of the all-time best classic speakers!

It could be a little nostalgia getting to me, but even with Maggie 20, various Martin Logans and the like, the DQ-10 still hold a warm spot in my audio memory. 

Yes and no.   I still own a pair of DQ-10 speakers. Five years ago I poured a small fortune in to them with all the updates and upgrades. I even went to a custom furniture maker and had him make a very nice set of custom speaker stands. I may have spent $2,000 rebuilding on the DQ-10s that cost me $1,200 40 years ago.

 Three years ago I purchased a pair of Magnepan 3.7i speakers to replace them after listening to the maggies driven by some Classe’ amps. I am disappointed in my current home setup and I blame my 40 year old power amp. Both the DQ-10 speakers or the Magnepan 3.7i sound OK but both are hindered by my old power amp. I remember listening to the 3.7i for the first time at home thinking that is not much better or different than my rebuilt DQ-10s. Each will need a first class modern preamp and power amps for best performance and a fair comparison. And that is next plan.

Not anymore but sure miss them. Played them with bridged Dynaco ST 70s. Sold them and the guy who bought them picked up another pair and wants to stack them. Really want to hear that!

Running stacked DQ-10s through a McIntosh C20, 2 MC2205s power them. I am in the process of having my power amps restored by Audio Classics. Looking forward to hearing the “new” amps. They were great before. Only decided to do the amps after I heard the C-20 when it came back from it’s restoration. I love the sound stage and pure sound I get with my system. Hope this helps.

Of course they sound great, minimum baffle, attempt at time alignment, designer who selected a quality doped midrange ( Infinity used the same doped Phillips mid )...

fun

Oh, he** yes!

I fondly recalled being stunned by a set decades ago, wondering if my memory was accurate; fondness deserved, so I bought a local pair. They needed zero driver/cone/surround repair.

Temporarily replacing  my active-sub-supplemented MG-IIIa pair, loved for ages, after a cosmetic refresh of side walnut panels and new black 'socks', I feed them from a cello palette pre via balanced cello strings and Levinson 23.5.  The DQ's don't image as precisely as the Maggie's, but WOW--- they love to sing.  I prefer them at or above realistic decibel levels. :-)  and well above what the Mags will deliver.  Rock, ROCKS these old ears! Other genres are superb, too, unless you're trying to discern the color of the flute player's top.  I used to, but now just savor the music, which IS the point.  I understand there's a variety of preferences in audio, but precise detail and analysis of fidelity isn't all.  I sing, chair dance and stay up too late enjoying the DQ-10s.

I mirrored them and did a capacitor upgrade (age concerns); neither sonically worth the cost of high quality parts nor my time.

The Levinson delivers Class A  rated at 200W/ch. so I keep spare tweeter fuses handy.  They love and deliver on clean power and plenty of it.

Positioning them was far easier than the planar Maggies, which are lovely and very accurate, brutal to lousy inputs, but physically incapable of the ROCK moments, hence  I listened to them at lower dbs, and was very satisfied  (see decades, above).

'Temporary' continues, to my great pleasure.

I have used the DQ-10's as my primary speakers in my two channel setup for over 40 years. Purchased new, the woofers have been re-coned and the crossovers reworked by Regnar. I also mirrored the speakers. I have recently had a pair of stands made for them (original stands came apart years ago - had used the short legs for several years). 

Currently powered with a Pioneer SX-1250 (also original purchase in the 70's). I spent a bit of time last year replacing all capacitors and active components in the Pioneer as well as cleaning every switch and pot. I have also used an Adcom 555, but actually prefer the sound of the Pioneer.

It all sounds now as good as I remember then. Once I got everything working I had my 29 year old son sit down and listen critically. He said he had never heard anything that had the clarity of the Dahlquists.

And I never owned a Ferrari, but my first car was a 1965 Mustang convertible that I often regret selling just a few years later. Cars I trade, stereo equipment is for keeps.

Yes i have 2 pairs because i love ancient history.

I love these speakers.  Mine were a gift from an older gentleman who hadn't used them in years.  They came with stands and the original boxes and receipts (he paid $900 in 1982).  I re-foamed the woofers, removed a thick layer of dust, and carefully re-soldered the tiny wire leads on both mids (1.75" soft domes)....that fix lasted a couple years, but one eventually failed so I tracked down a pair of replacements from a seller in Germany.

I drive them with a pair of Hafler 9290 amps which provide 400-ish Watts in bridged mono mode and they use all of that power.

Speaker position is everything with these....mine sit 43 3/4" from the rear wall, as prescribed by the Cardas method.  I was skeptical, but WOW does this work wonders in this case - I think it's because of their open baffle/semi-dipole design.  Someday soon I'll re-build/upgrade the crossovers, but they sound amazing as is.

They're paired with a 15" Velodyne Sub (80Hz crossover freq).

People are blown away at the accuracy and soundstage.

I used to work for Jon Dalhquist- he was quite the pioneer!  His later DQM series (80s)  addressed cabinet resonance issues long before it rose to popularity.  He used two layers of variable density MDF with nextel between them.  The Magnat drivers where well ahead of typical drivers.

Brad

In the 80's driven by Rowland electronics, the best reproduction of piano I ever heard! Period.