Dahlquist DQ 10 help.

The DQ10's require an amp that can deliver good muscle. A high current 100 watt amp should drive them well. The 200 watt rating means that a flat response (with not added bass or treble) your speakers will handle approxiamately 200 watts. It doesn't mean you have to have 200 watts to use them. I personally think a very good quality high current integrated amp or power amp will do justice to them. Because you are new to this I would suggest solid state over tubes in this case. A very good combination could be a good tube preamp with phono if you need it if not a tube line stage and a Hafler DH 500. Thats 250 watts of clean power that sounds pretty good. It depends on what your budget is. There are many amps and integrated amps in this forum that will go a great job.

Subs: I think it helps them alot if you do it right. Meaning if you have a properly designed crossover that rolls the response of you main speakers off and then the sub blends in to fill in the bottom end, that will free up the DQ10's to play that critical mid band and top end and the subs will take over and produce the bottom end. This will give you a much better sound presentation. You also have to set them up away from the rear wall too. The DQ10's have some bi-polar dispersion. Meaning the tweeter and midrange sends information forward and towards the rear wall in real time. When I owned mine in the mid 80's we didn't have many choices of powered subs. I like the Hsu subs. I'm using Dali Suite 1.2 12" acoustic suspension subs in my listening room. Dalhquist made subs back in the day and they were Acoustic suspension. The crossover made to drive them was wonderful. If you are using it in just a 2 channel system you have many options. In a Home Theater you will most like the Hsu's also. The Hsu's are a great value and very good sonics too. There are many more subs I like but it depends on the price you want to pay.

With all that said if you like the sound of the DQ10 and what it does for you Keep It Simple and you will get a
big surprise in the end.

Try an Odyssey Stratos Plus or Extreme amp. I had great luck driving my DQ-10s with one of these. Also, the Belles 150A Reference is nice.

Biguzi:

Ponnie is right on the money. High current amps is what the DQ-10 needs. And, if you can perform any of the good driver/crossover/wiring upgrades to the speakers, you will be even more impressed. There are days when I wish I still had mine, though it's been 20 years since I sold them. Good luck.

Whenever I read of a need for high current amps I think of the Quad 909. At 140 watts and a price of about $600 used they are a steal.

The critics rave about them but I do not read much about them here on Agon - curious...

Don't know if you know about these guys? Former Dahlquist employees and they have about everything you'll ever need to update/mod your DQ10s.

http://www.regnar.com/

I owned these speakers for years and drove them with a Dynaco stereo 70's with very good results. But with solid state I needed a high current amp. Tubes work well with the DQ10.

To save money look for a good high current integrated amp. There are many on the market. The McIntosh brand would be golden with the DQ10.

It is still a great speaker even for this day. Wonderful for classical and jazz and good with rock also. If setup right great sound stage also.

This were one of my most musical sounding speakers and a lot better then the hype up speakers being designed today in a lot of ways.

Well I bought an amp. It's only a QSC GX3, but considering that I am a poor college student the whole setup truly impresses me. So far I am absolutely hooked on this hi fi addict thing. Thanks for the help guys!!