Half-dead Dahlquist DQM-9c... advice?

[Russell[_5_]]

Recently I revived my pair of Dahlquist DQM-9c that had been stored at
my parent's house for years. Unfortunately, my heart dropped when I
soon noticed that one of the speaker's sound was off. I tried
switching the inputs on my Onkyo, re-wiring them, etc. and everything
still ended with the same result: the same speaker sounding bad. The
sound has become very recessed, especially the hi-ends.

I am so bummed! I thought that the DQM-9c sound was just fantastic. I
stumbled on a pair of Sony speakers (for free) that MSRP for about
$200, and I used them to further test whether it was my DQM-9c or my
Onkyo that was the problem. My original diagnosis was right, but even
with the a faulty speaker, my DQM-9c still made the Sonys sound like
enlarged iPod earbuds.

Does anyone have any advice to what it could be, or ever better, what
my options are?

I see that Dahlquist offers repair services for this speaker, but
shipping about 100lbs worth of speakers from California (me) to New
York (Dahlquist) is probably not an option due to costs. I am a
student living off of Ramen, so my budget is pretty limited, and will
be for the next few years.

Would this be a problem that could be addressed at a good stereo
repair shop? Should I start building their funeral pyre?

Any will help, advice, pointers, suggestions, etc would be GREATLY
appreciated. I feel like a piece of my soul died when I first heard my
DQM-9c sound give out, especially cause I don't have the money to
replace them. Hopefully, someone here can point out some options for
me other than years of therapy....

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Peter Wieck]

On Oct 19, 11:43=A0pm, Russell > wrote:
> Recently I revived my pair of Dahlquist DQM-9c that had been stored at
> my parent's house for years. Unfortunately, my heart dropped when I
> soon noticed that one of the speaker's sound was off. I tried
> switching the inputs on my Onkyo, re-wiring them, etc. and everything
> still ended with the same result: the same speaker sounding bad. The
> sound has become very recessed, especially the hi-ends.
>
> I am so bummed! I thought that the DQM-9c sound was just fantastic. I
> stumbled on a pair of Sony speakers (for free) that MSRP for about
> $200, and I used them to further test whether it was my DQM-9c or my
> Onkyo that was the problem. My original diagnosis was right, but even
> with the a faulty speaker, my DQM-9c still made the Sonys sound like
> enlarged iPod earbuds.
>
> Does anyone have any advice to what it could be, or ever better, what
> my options are?
>
> I see that Dahlquist offers repair services for this speaker, but
> shipping about 100lbs worth of speakers from California (me) to New
> York (Dahlquist) is probably not an option due to costs. I am a
> student living off of Ramen, so my budget is pretty limited, and will
> be for the next few years.
>
> Would this be a problem that could be addressed at a good stereo
> repair shop? Should I start building their funeral pyre?
>
> Any will help, advice, pointers, suggestions, etc would be GREATLY
> appreciated. I feel like a piece of my soul died when I first heard my
> DQM-9c sound give out, especially cause I don't have the money to
> replace them. Hopefully, someone here can point out some options for
> me other than years of therapy....
>
> Thanks in advance for any help!

OK - a three-way speaker with (as these things go) a fairly complex
crossover, a fuseholder and so forth.

If all the drivers are working, only at a low volume or otherwise
surpressed, then you have a failure either in the crossover or the
terminals, not unknown.

If any one driver is not working and you have checked the fuse(s) and
verified that they are good (try switching them from the good to the
bad speaker if they are not glass-types), then you have either a blown
driver or a failure in the crossover.

If several drivers are not working, likely it is in the crossover, or
(the) fuse(s).

You might carefully remove the individual drivers and test them
individually. In the extreme, you might switch them between the
speakers. If the failure follows the driver, you have found your
culprit. If it does not, you are very likely going to have to rebuild
the crossover - neither rocket science nor the end of the world.

Bottom line: Start with the fuses - then proceed systematically, one
driver at a time. Then, to the crossover.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Bruce Esquibel]

Russell > wrote:

> Recently I revived my pair of Dahlquist DQM-9c that had been stored at
> my parent's house for years. Unfortunately, my heart dropped when I
> soon noticed that one of the speaker's sound was off. I tried
> switching the inputs on my Onkyo, re-wiring them, etc. and everything
> still ended with the same result: the same speaker sounding bad. The
> sound has become very recessed, especially the hi-ends.

If these have the "magnat" drivers, I'd try swapping the midrange drivers
from one to the other and check the results.

I had an early set (sans the "c") I bought in the 80's and that was (what
you describe) one problem I had with them. Either speaker playing on its own
seemed ok, together you could tell one just didn't match the other.

It's kind of hard to beleive they are holding up otherwise, two other people
who owned them besides me ran into the foam deterioration problem on the
woofers, two gave up (including me) and the other had them rebuilt by some
place in florida if I'm not mistaken.

I'm not sure about this but you may end up having to use substitute midrange
drivers if they are bad. I think (this going back 10 years or so) that
whatever they used with that Magnat branding wasn't available anymore (or
Magnat themselves are gone).

But the point is, since you have both speakers and one seems ok, it's really
simple to swap the 3 drivers (one at a time) back and forth. If you are
still left with the one sounding bad, is probably the crossover or the
cheesy binding posts/fuse assembly they used on those things.

-bruce