Dahlquist DQ-28 Newb Review

Danimal

Just a man...
Equipment used:

Yamaha M-4
Onkyo A-7022 (as preamp) I love this thing more and more as a pre.
NEC CD-610 CD Player
Dahlquist DQ-28 speakers


So I just picked up my "new to me" DQ-28 speakers. This is my first foray into a "high(er) end" speaker as my mian listening speakers have been the DLK Model 3s which I have thoroughly enjoyed. They are a big sounding rock speaker which served it's purpose but it was time to move on and up. All I can say about the the DQs is WOW. They are an improvement in every way. First up for listening was Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin and Paco DeLucia's Friday Night In San Fran. These speakers are very detailed. I am hearing things I never knew were in the recording like very light foot tapping and even some banter between the three Impresarios. The highs are very crisp sounding without being harsh to me. The DLKs seemed to mix the tweeter and the mid. Not sure if this a crossover deficiency or what, but the DLKs seemed confused at the higher frequencies whereas the DQs knew exactly what they were doing. When we get to the bass end of the frequencies is where I notice a huge difference between the two. I have never known what the term "fast" meant in a speaker but learned it real quick when listening to the DQs. The bass does not go down as far as the DLKs but was better in every way. They are very fast speakers. They are tight and, for lack of a better term, articulate. I use this word to describe the bass because it is clear that they understand what the recording wants from them and deliver it fluently. The DLKs would stumble through the bass frequencies and would hang onto them far too long for a muddy sound stage. The imagining is fantastic after positioning. Overall these are fantastic speakers where the highs and mids are separated but work very well together and the bass, while not bone crushing and window rattling are very precise and snappy. I do not miss the lower frequencies because the DQs translate the bass in a much more accurate way. I hope this helps some people that are not word smiths and don't understand what some of the terms mean when reading speaker reviews. I am just starting to learn how certain words apply just by upgrading my speakers.

I will post pictures soon. My listening room is disorganized as I have been moving some stuff to clean and paint.
 
Congratulations on picking up such fine speakers. Another example of a speaker that, because there weren't that many made, doesn't get much talk...but boy do these later Dahlquist deserve it! I had the slightly larger 30s and they were also my first foray "outside the box", so to speak, of '70s box speakers. They completely changed my mind on what a good speaker was, and they completely blew me away in just how much more lifelike, how much more real, and how much larger everything sounded. Real crossovers, not just a capacitor on the tweeter, phase correct, time correct...just really well designed speakers. I bet they sound really nice with that M-4.

Positioning, as you've found out I'm sure, can really change how they sound. My 30s sounded best a few feet (close to 2') out into the room with a bit of toe in, but I've never had 28s...with the open/minimal baffle on those upper drivers, it seems the room can come into play more.

I didn't even know there were DQ-28s until recently...they might even be more rare than the 30s. The smaller woofer on the 28s sounds like it cured one of my few complaints about the 30s...a somewhat slow bass (only in comparison to the rest of the speaker) if not driven by a huge amp, as a smaller amp seemed to struggle to control the heavy woofer on them. It was cured by me buying a better amp, but I couldn't run my tube amps on them.

Happy listening!
 
Funny that you mention the positioning. I do have them about 2 1/2' off the wall but toed in quite a bit more than with my DLKs. I would say I have them about 8' apart and my listening position would be about 7 1/2'. Since they are quite a bit farther from the wall than my DLKs I would suppose that would account for more toe angle. I wish I could get a little father away from the speakers but until my wife gets her quilting stuff out of the basement I will be relegated to my spot.
 
DQ's are awesome

Hi Danimal -- Way to go on your experimentation and audio enjoyment.
I have been running a set of double DQ-10's stacked for some time now and absolutely love them. I have also been playing around with many audio combinations that started back approximately 1972. (Yes, I'm almost old as dirt.) So keep on enjoying! I've attempted to attach some DQ pics for your viewing pleasure.

Rory
 

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Sweet! Nice Danimal! Those are one of the few speakers I would like to hear. I always Love it when someone steps outside the box (so to speak) and tries a different approach. Congrats!
 
If they're set up like my 30s, they'll respond well to bi-wiring. I'm not sure why, but when I bi-wired the 30s the midrange lost a bit of congestion. It was subtle enough to not be that huge of a deal, but noticeable. It may have just been the bypassing of the jumpers I was using that resulted in the improvement, but there was an improvement.
 
Sweet! Nice Danimal! Those are one of the few speakers I would like to hear. I always Love it when someone steps outside the box (so to speak) and tries a different approach. Congrats!

I'm diggin' it so far. Not sure I can go back to a "rock n roll" speaker now. I must say, though, that I have not heard as many speakers as most of you. My hobby is still in it's infancy, much to the chagrin of my wife.
 
If they're set up like my 30s, they'll respond well to bi-wiring. I'm not sure why, but when I bi-wired the 30s the midrange lost a bit of congestion. It was subtle enough to not be that huge of a deal, but noticeable. It may have just been the bypassing of the jumpers I was using that resulted in the improvement, but there was an improvement.

I'm sure this has been played out many times here on AK but how would I go about bi-wiring these? Do I use the A channel on my amp for the lows and the B channel for the highs? (forgive my ignorance)
 
Nevermind - I got it.


how-to-bi-wire-speakers-2.gif
 
I just strip out the end of a run of 10 gauge enough to go through both the termanals so I don't need no stinking jumper plates in my 12's and 20i's. :scratch2:

I don't consider bi-wiring much improvement over a double-sized single wire unless you go full bi-amping with active xovers, and bypass all internal xover components.

Tried various things on my double DQ-10 stack I put together this year. Rory good to hear there's another double stack out there--seems it was tried way back when, but not many could keep them for some unknown obscure reason. :headscrat

.
 
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