Dahlquist DQ20

Anyone have any experience with these first hand? I've had a hard time finding much information on them, particularly the specs besides they are supposed to be 3 way and 4 Ohm.

A couple of pairs have surfaced on the local CL recently priced about the same or even a little lower than also available DQ10s. I know many members here hold the DQ10s in high regard and wonder how the DQ20s compare to them? Are they a step up, a step down, or merely a newer model?

How do they compare to other well known speakers (I've heard some excellent Vandersteen 2Cs and AR9s and some smaller DQs as well lately)?

Thanks in advance!

I am one of those who owns - and adores - the DQ-10. I heard the DQ-20 upon its initial release, and thought it sounded pretty good, though I was never able to do an A/B comparison between it and the DQ-10.

Over time, the DQ-10 has enjoyed far more enduring popularity and praise than the DQ-20, so, perhaps that says something. Still, the DQ-20 was, and is, a good loudspeaker.

Thanks for your reply.

I've been considering DQ10s too but predict a amplifier purchase in my future if I do that as I don't think my 150w Adcom up to the task. This is why I've been looking for reviews and specs of the DQ20s... wondered if maybe they might not be quite as hungry?

Most of the 10s that are available are of course either in need of refoaming (and other possible reconditioning) or have already had a lot of that done and neither of these two classes are exactly cheap. The 20s being a newer speaker might be available in a usable condition at a lower price, or at least that is my suspicion.

Also my room limitations mean the speakers should be dual role, both for two channel and as fronts in a home theater and I suspect the 20s would be better for this if for no other reason than I believe they have a narrower footprint and might be happier than the 10s in a smaller area?

This post has been edited by Oktyabr on December 14, 2008 10:38 am

I have heard both. The 10 might be better but the 20 is more conventional and most likely less finicky to live with. Many 10 owners have to completely rebuild the XO and some drivers as they seem like a semi fragile speaker that gets abused. The 20 is pretty conventional speaker in contrast and sounds very good. my listening was short but it provided the same modern, airy and full range presentation the 10 does with a little less of the amazing transparency the 10 can do. A very good speaker for sure.

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad it was positive because they are sitting in my living room right now!

Oh, and they are the DQ-20i, not the 20. Not sure what the difference is, almost nothing to be found on the intertoob about them but I have a new 180 gram pressing of Dark Side of The Moon playing right now and while they are obviously no where near as efficient as the CV DX9s that they are likely to be replacing I must say I am pleased with the sound.

got a photo

Yup, just waiting for my camera battery to recharge.

I pulled one of the covers before buying them to check the surrounds and everything looked great! BUT in case anyone else looks at a pair of these (I imagine the DQ10s must be the same way), the wood trim on the sides that looks curved? It really IS curved and thus it became very difficult to get the screws to line back up with the holes without an alignment punch. Come prepared!

I got the pair for a what I think was a pretty reasonable price (IM me if you want to know) and they came with an M&K Volkswoofer III that has something wonky in the amp. Luckily the surround was in pretty decent shape and was a drop in replacement for the shot one I have in my Volkswoofer V2B so I now have the DQ20s running with a sub to help brush up the real lows.

Photos coming soon!

Photos, as promised. Click the small images to see the larger version. Welcome to the cluttered little cave I call my "living room".



I'm sure many purists would suggest that I put these at floor level but as I like a speaker that can fill most of my little duplex they actually perform better up off the ground a bit, putting the tweets at about ear level when standing. Here you see them on top of my nifty Americana boxes that I had my CV DX9s on. This also gets the right channel speaker up above the arm of my sectional along that wall. They really don't sound bad this way, even when you are sitting down. Really.







I was really going to complain about a lack of bass and I was fiddling around with the sub, which is pictured next to the left channel DQ20, when I noticed that one sounded completely bassLESS! At first I panicked, wondering if my old Adcom amp had hurt it in some way. After calming down a bit I started going over things one by one and finally ended up at the fuses... The top fuse is rated at 0.8 amps and the bottom one is rated for 3 amps. Someone had accidently (?) switched these two around in this box and the 0.8 amp fuse poofed sometime during near the start of my listening session! A quick trip to ratshack got things back in order. Now the bass is much more defined and punchy, actually better than what I had expected for these after reading so much about DQs and seeing that this pair actually came with a subwoofer... But I'll write something resembling a review on these a bit later!












I feel another amp in my future...

Nice. And yes, like other DQ products quite inefficient.

Yup.

I've got a 5 channel adcom amp that's feeding them right now but I do have some pretty good Carver home theater speakers that are more made for the task... should buy a separate two channel amp for music and/or maybe it's time for a good speaker selection switch too (I miss not hearing those Americanas that are doubling as speaker stands at the moment). I had to turn the volume knob significantly higher with these than with my CVs (or any of my other current speakers) but they handled everything my amp could give them without any sort of clipping or distortion and my respect for Adcom went up another notch as well... even at high dbs the amp never got above toasty warm to the touch, something I was initially concerned about.

My Vegas get called "party speakers" and yes, they do that well. They are also excellent front channel speakers for home theater. We watched the new Batman "Dark Knight" movie last night and even without a functioning subwoofer they carried the force of all the explosions and such with great authority. The sound track also has a part early on that features a pretty prominent kettle drum that the CVs reproduce superbly and I'm convinced that few other "dual role" speakers under say, $1000 a pair, could have done as well.

That said I DID buy these DQ-20(i)s as dual role speakers and I must say, especially with the sub filling in the deep end a touch, they actually perform quite admirably! I listened to some mild 5.1 with them in this role while I tweaked the front and center levels so they would mesh a little better. Then I caught some of Bruce Springstein in (HD 5.1 Dolby Digital) live in concert and they didn't disappoint there either. Finally it was time to break out something a bit more "serious" so I popped "Saving Private Ryan" in the DVD player and skipped to "Beach" scene early in the movie. They did really well and more than once I had to get up and make a closer inspection to determine how much bass they were really producing, over that of the subwoofer! I don't think I'm brave enough for my reference movie, the infamous "depth charged" scene of U-571 yet but imagine with the sub there to catch them when they fall they would probably please with that one too.

Of course their real forte is music and they haven't really disappointed here yet either... it's easier to say what they didn't do very well than what they did... Some older classic rock, the "busier" stuff, sounded a bit harsh and busy on them. For some reason they really sounded "cheap" on a flac rip of ABBA Gold! On the flip side they handled everything acoustic with real aplomb including some Nora Jones at the Piano and a couple of my reference discs including Jazz Mafia "Low End Theory" and HDTracks Gibson Guitar compilation (see this thread for free downloads of these two). The horns on the jazz album especially were very rich and vibrant simply leaping across the room and into my face.

Electronica type stuff didn't disappoint either (Dingus and Elroy can testify to some of the crazy stuff I listen to) where very serious play with the panning illuminated just how good the DQ soundstage is. I was a bit worried about loosing something putting them that high off the ground but their imaging is not only broad laterally but vertically as well. Once I got up to make *sure* that the center channel wasn't contributing, the sound stage is so remarkably broad!

Very transparent, airy speakers. Probably the mid is the the real dazzler in these boxes as again, some of the punch of the lower bass (I think these are rated for 35 Hz?) is a bit subdued for my tastes, and the tweeters perhaps just a bit on the bright side. All in all I think these speakers could easily grow on me and I plan to listen for several hours tomorrow when I get some quality time alone in the house with them. Would love to see what biamping could squeeze out of these!

This post has been edited by Oktyabr on December 16, 2008 12:31 am

i've been curious about the DQ 20's for some time ... when do i get to hear them for myself?

If I came across them at a decent price, I'd snag them,
just as I did the DQ-10s. In fact, I kept looking till I found
a pair of DQ-10s. Let us know the final equation when you
determine what it takes to drive the 20s properly.

Very impressive looking. Nice review. Haven't heard any of the DQs. Saw some 10s a while back but they looked like they needed too much attention. Maybe I should have made an offer

I would bet that when you get them on the ground, the tweets wont sound as harsh.

Mega thanks to the yahoo Dahlquist group for having all the right documentation! I wonder if it's brand bias that keeps Google from showing up results linked to there? Anyway...

Dahlquist DQ-20i Specs

Frequency Response:
20 Hz to 20 kHz ±4.5 db
50 Hz to 20 kHz ± 2.5 db
1 kHz to 20 kHz ± 1db
Power requirements: 50-250 Watts
Low Pass Crossover: 400 Hz (12dB/octave)
High Pass Crossover: 3500 Hz
Impedance: 4 ohms minimum (6 ohms nominal)
Sensitivity: 86 db/1 meter/2.83 volts
Dimensions: 42" high x 20.75" wide x 12" deep
Weight: 62 lb.

DQ-20 & 20i Tweeter
OEM: Scan-Speak D2008-8517 (3/4" soft dome)
OEM available for $56 from: http://www.madisound.com/scanspeak.html

DQ-20i midrange (5" paper cone) (OEM no longer available)
OEM: Vifa C13MH-08
Regnar price: $85.68 (OEM)
Potential replacements: Vifa C13WG08 (8 ohm, 5.25"), C13WG19 (8 ohm, 5")

DQ-20/20i woofer (10" acoustic suspension - Advent 12" square frame)
Regnar replacements: $147.75
Regnar rebuild: $139.50 each