Dahlquist DQ20's vs. Vandersteen 2CE


Hey guys, Question: I'm thinking of trying a different set of speakers, now enjoying the DQ20's I would like a wee more lower bass response, mids and highs are awesome no complaint. Eventually I'd like to find a nice set of Von Scheikert's jr.'s I guess what I'm trying to ask is, will the Vandies get me to where I want to be, or should I hold out until I can find a pair of Von jr's I can afford ?

McIntosh 2500 amp
McIntosh C 34 pre
McIntosh MR78 turner
Musical Fidelity
pre 24 CD
Harmonic Tech. speaker cables
Zu and Alissa tweaks IC's
Maple audio power cord ect.ect.

Room: 22'X 22'X 7.5'

Any input greatly appreciated,

Merry Christmas to all ...
Thanks,
Ron ..
ronlarsen

Showing 1 response by opalchip

Hi -
First of all, you might want to check out my fairly recent Thread here (entitled Dahlquist DQ-20 Fan Club Rant) at:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1102619273&read&3&4&

I recently auditioned a number of "higher-end" speakers than my old DQ-20's and found none of them provided the velvet smooth mid-range and highs that you are now used to.

Specifically to your question, I auditioned a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signatures at a local dealer, and found them to be quite nice, slightly more bass, but the mids weren't as sweet. I saw no reason to make a change. The DQ's don't go to 30hz, but they're certainly "adequate" on their own. I really doubt you'd find the 2CE's a step up, unless there's a problem with your woofers. (Have you checked your surrounds lately? - They're probably going to go soon, if they haven't yet.)

Also, you probably know this already, but placement can either reinforce or subtract from your bass response tremendously. If you play with that (especially moving the DQ's closer to the corners of the room) you may have some success.

My solution, so far, has been a Velodyne 15" subwoofer, but in fact it didn't blend too well because the Dahlquists go too low for the fixed crossover in the Velodyne - so it's been sitting idle. Velodyne knows the DQ's well, and will tweak the crossover in the Servo Amp to mate properly (at about 65Hz) for $60 or so.

I also bought a 2nd pair of DQ-20's last weekend and I can tell you that running 2 pairs in parallel is pretty awesome. The bass is much more powerful and the imaging great - after playing around with relative placement considerably.

Good luck - be sure to follow up here with your experiences in listening to other speakers.