Dahlquist DQ-12 - much better now

[donberry 44]

Picked up a pair of Dahlquist DQ-12 a couple of months ago and all I had available amp wise for them was a Kenwood KA-8100. Using that amp, a CJ PV2AR pre and a PS Audio Digital Link III dac, with pretty much mostly high res files, let's just say the speakers were lacking.

Seemed really bright to me, not much bass and I ended up hooking up a ML Abyss sub.

Better, but still not the "magic" I had hoped for and I figured the main problem was I just didn't have enough juice driving them.

 

Picked up a pair of Mirage OM-7 not too long ago and I swapped them in for the DQ-12 - much better. The little Kenwood drove them seemingly effortlessly, very good sound in that room.

 

It did have me questioning the Dahlquist tho. I normally try to re-do the xo's but didn't want to sink a whole lot of money into them if they just weren't my cup of tea.

 

Enter Carver.

As I disabled my M1.5t and m-500t temporarily due to an upgrade gone bad, I picked up a PM-175 to use until they got going again. Had a little problems with it also, but everything was finally working on it so today I pulled the KA-8100 and put the PM-175 in it's place.

 

I only did a cursory listen with the Mirage speakers and you could tell a pretty decent difference with those, even tho I thought they sounded fine with the KA-8100 - the biggest thing I noticed was more bass. Not flabby or too much, but tight and just...better.

 

Not sure what to expect as I really liked the Mirage speakers, I dragged the DQ-12 into the room and swapped them in for the OM-7. I had left the preamp on so it was nice and warmed up, flipped on the Carver and yea.......there will go. Sounds like a totally different speaker.

I did expect them to sound better as everything I have ever read about them said they need some power , so while not totally unexpected, it does, or did, remind me why I always like to go for higher power amps.

For the types of speakers I seem to always end up with - ML, Acoustat, Dahlquist etc, it's pretty mandatory you have high power amps to drive them - and as mentioned, this just once again confirmed that for me.

 

I didn't give them a full blown audtion, headed in to do that in a second . It does have me wanting to get back to my other amps to get those up and running so I can give bi-amping them a try....

 

 

Just a cursory opinion that may change, but it seems the PM-175 is a pretty good bargain as they go for around $100.00. From the brief time I listened, the amp seemed to have good control of the bass, nice and tight, not "bloomy" or rolled off and enough juice to give me that midrange magic I enjoy so much.

 

I will wait until i get the other amps back up as my track record with Carver isn't too good, but I am now interested in checking out what maybe some decent film caps in the signal path can do for it..... seems I always want to fiddle.

 

Got the playlist set up, time for a good listen.

 

[fill35U 1,848]

Nice catch on the PM-175, Don!  No fan on her to become distracting. She looks to be in great cosmetic shape- and she's got her handles, too!

 

Funny, I've never heard a speaker described as needing *less* power.  Seems they all sound better with lots of headroom. 

 

Good luck with your other repairs! 

[donberry 44]

-------to be honest, the pic wasn't mine, but mine is exactly like it. Has the handles and looks as tho it has always been kept in a cabinet actually because there was virtually no dust inside it. If they did clean it out, they did one good job as you can't tell it.

Most important thing tho is she now works...