The DQ-12s did very well on the LEDR test from the Chesky Test CD. LEDR is short for "Listening Environment Diagnostic Recording" and is described in detail in Vol.12 No.12. In short, it reveals a speaker's (and the room's) ability to present images in their correct spatial location. (I highly recommend this recording for evaluating speakers and listening rooms.) After my favorable impression of the DQ-12s' imaging and soundstage presentation, I was not surprised that they performed well on the LEDR test, throwing a solid image between and above the speakers.
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Thomas J. Norton wrote about the Dahlquist DQ-12 in October 1990 (Vol.13 No.10):
Following Robert Harley's review of their DQ-12 in April (Vol.13 No.4), Dahlquist sent us another set of the loudspeakers for JA to try in his listening room. Other new equipment waiting in the review line caused a delay in his getting to the second pair. Since JA was embroiled in matters chez Avalon, and since the Stereophile listening room currently being used by DO and myself appeared to be in a rather effective stage of its acoustical transformation (footnote 1), I volunteered to give a serious listen to…
Sidebar 3: Measurements Redux
Since the new DQ-12s sounded clearly better balanced than the old, we decided to rerun a few of the measurements. It's quite clear from fig.1 that the high-frequency response of the newer samples is far better controlled than that of the old, though the current versions bear no "i" designation. Note the drooping response centered below 500Hz; this may relate to the reduction in body of instrumental timbres noted in the listening sessions.
Fig.1 Dahlquist DQ-12, response averaged across 30° horizontal window centered on HF axis of…
Sidebar 4: Specifications
Description: "Phased Array" three-way, sealed-box, floor-standing loudspeaker. Drive-units: 8" woofer, 5" laminate-cone midrange, and 1" low-mass dome tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 400Hz, 3500Hz. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 5 ohms minimum. Power requirements: 40W minimum, 125W maximum. Frequency range: 35–20kHz (no tolerance given). Sensitivity: 86dB (distance and input power not specified, but assumed to be 1W/1m). Connections: Four gold-plated five-way binding posts (biwirable). Fuses: one AGC 0.8A tweeter fuse, one AGC 3A woofer fuse. Accessories included: 1…
In New York City or more specially Corona, Queens, July is the month when thoughts turn to the legacy of one Louis Armstrong. According to his own reckoning, "Pops" was born on July 4, 1900, but in reality he was born on August 4, 1901. Last weekend, I made the pilgrimage with my patient wife to the Pops home in Corona, to view what is now the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Administered by Queens College, which owns the house and also houses the Louis Armstrong Archive, the trumpeter's home is in a neighborhood that has morphed from African-American to Latino since Armstrong died in 1971…
As a kid growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, bassist John Hébert was familiar with old things. Hébert's mom enjoyed taking him and his three siblings to the city's ancient burial grounds, such as St. Greenwood Cemetery & Mausoleum (1852) or Louis Cemetery No.1 (1789). Once inside the graveyards' crumbling walls, the Hébert family often found things natural—and unnatural.
"Because New Orleans is below sea level the graves are in mausoleums or coffins that sit above-ground in concrete bathtubs," Hébert explains. "These cemeteries are very mysterious. Every time they bury someone the…
New York, NY—News Bar Cafe, Union Square. It's 11am. Low jazz can be heard playing on the overhead speakers, along with background chatter and the occasional ambulance. Caffeinated beverages and breakfast sandwiches are present. I take a tentative sip of cappuccino, reach under the table for my trusty Zoom H5. Across from me sits jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch. A man who has meant many things to me in my lifetime—a musical role model, a source of inspiration, a friend, a set of frequently played digital music files... I sit anxiously—is it the awe or the beverage? I think to myself: he…
Editor: I write in response to the so-called "review" of Peter, Paul and Mary's In the Wind (45rpm LP, ORG071), by Art Dudley, in the June 2016 issue of Stereophile (pp.35–36). This reads as little more than an unbalanced attack on Original Recordings Group, one laced with an apparent lack of knowledge of the reissue business. First, let me make two points:
With regard to the creased label [of the album purchased by Mr. Dudley]: This is undoubtedly a bad defect, but one which is not exclusive to ORG product. As someone who has been involved in LP licensing, manufacturing, sales, and…
Twenty-three years ago, in 1993, Charles Hansen cofounded Ayre Acoustics, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado. On Ayre's website, Hansen is named as Research Director for Ayre, and it seems an apt description. Along with experimenting in and developing audio-electronics hardware and software, Hansen has strongly hewn to certain design principles, among them fully balanced operation, an absence of loop negative feedback, and solid-state circuitry. Ayre's current flagship preamplifiers and amplifiers, the twentieth-anniversary R Series, have received reviews and accolades, while at the other end of…
Your little car gets in and out of traffic better than minivans or monster trucks. Your little dog runs rings around the other dogs at the park. Maybe it's time to get a couple of little loudspeakers, too?
The reasons for doing so are pretty much the same: little speakers deserve consideration not because they sell for little prices—although some of them do—but because they're nimble, they're fast, and they get out of the way of the music they play. That last characteristic can be crucial to listeners for whom stereo imaging is important: A small speaker has less cabinetry to diffract…