The Official Nola/Dahlquist Speakers Thread

[Big Daddy]

Please discuss your Nola speakers in this thread. You can include pictures, reviews, or any other comments regarding your speakers.

Nola Website: http://www.nolaspeakers.com/
Dahlquist Website: http://www.dahlquistspeakers.com/

[crazyBLUE]

Someone needed to put something here !!

I only wish I was vary rich and could afford some of the many nola's there are !!
STUNNING AREN'T THEY !!

[Driver_King]

Now those are some gorgeous speakers.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

Now those are some gorgeous speakers.

They are DK !!

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

Now those are some gorgeous speakers.

Those are the Nola Baby Grand Speakers. I had the chance to hear them at Lyric Hi Fi in New York City in December. They are a beautiful set of speakers and sound wonderful. But they should. When I listened to them, they had a list price of $55,000. I think that they now have a list of $65,000. I have considered getting them but they are a bit steep in price, even if I could find a used pair (one is available from the UK for $23,000 on Audiogon). The buyer replaced them with these, the Grand Reference which I also saw and listened to at Lyric Hi Fi (at the time their list was $145,000; I think they are now $185,000):





Rich

[Big Daddy]

They are ideal for a one-bedroom apartment.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

They are ideal for a one-bedroom apartment.

THEY WILL fit
I WISH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JJ]

Wait, wait, who here actually has Nola's? I thought Rich N. just had the Dahlquists. Is this thread one of those "For Future Use" type things?

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

Wait, wait, who here actually has Nola's? I thought Rich N. just had the Dahlquists. Is this thread one of those "For Future Use" type things?

I believe Rich has a C/L/R Nola. Look at his sig.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

Wait, wait, who here actually has Nola's? I thought Rich N. just had the Dahlquists. Is this thread one of those "For Future Use" type things?

I think this will be A thread with many gorgeous speaker pictures for people to drool over JJ ! & when someone does join with these nolas we will all be envious !!

[naturephoto1]

Let me give you a little history of what led to Nola Speakers. I own a one of a kind completely rebuilt, redesigned mirror imaged set of Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers. I have owned these since 1977 when I purchased them from the owner of HIFi Haven in New Brunswick, NJ. Around 2004 and again last summer, these were totally rebuilt, upgraded, and further modified and improved (previously in about 1994 they were set up as bi-wire speakers by adding a 2nd set of speaker bindings). All of the drivers have been replaced with Dynaudio (soft dome tweeter and upper midrange) and Peerless (open back lower midrange) Drivers and a proprietary woofer; along with a new biwire set of terminals; the crossovers were totally redesigned and split between the upper and lower cabinets; and each driver is individually wired to its own crossover and the binding posts using Van den Hul 12ga silverplate/Teflon wire. Additionally last year the woofers were better sealed, the woofer stuffing was replaced, the crossovers were modified again, and a little extra work was done in the upper cabinets. The speakers have 4 drivers per cabinet and have dispensed with the Super Tweeter of the original design. These would be competitive with $10,000+ speakers. These should not be confused with the refurbished and upgraded DQ-10s available for sale for $2300 on the Regnar/Dahlquist website that Big Daddy has listed above. The only similarities between mine and those on the Regnar/Dahlquist website is the cabinets and pedestals.



The DQ-10 speakers were some of the most successful high end speakers of their day introduced in about 1972. They were time aligned and a semi Dipole design, designed in appearance based on the Quad Electrostatic speakers of the time. They were designed by Jon Dahlquist with the help of Saul Marantz (founder of the Marantz Company). A young engineer by the name of Carl Marchisotto was hired by Dahlquist soon after the introduction of the DQ-10 speakers. Carl was the designer of many of the Dahlquist speakers that followed including the DQ-20, and the DQ-30.

In about 1994, Carl founded his own company with the trademark name Alon. Soon after Carl's departure Dahlquist went bankrupt. But, Carl carried on with designs that had started with Dahlquist many of which became full Dipole designs, particularly for the tweeter and midrange speakers. Also, as the designs continued, from the time of the DQ-10 speakers the number of drivers were reduced from 5 per speaker cabinet (Hence the name 10 for 10 drivers per pair as far as I know).

Somewhere around 2003 or 2004 I believe, Carl had a falling out with his partner and he formed the company with the trademark name of Nola (Alon backwards). Carl has continued many of his designs and improved them now for over 30 years.

You have seen the 2 top of the line speakers in the Nola line in the previous postings. I use in my system the Nola LCR Reference which I am including photos below. I chose this so that it would match fairly well my rebuilt Dahlquist DQ-10 speaker cabinets and my Dahlquist DQ-6CI which I use for my rear speakers.







My Nola LCR Reference has a list price of about $2200. I purchased this on Audiogon for considerably less than that figure. My speaker is actually one of the speakers used for a review in one of the audio magazines. These speakers are wonderfully open sounding with an open back baffled tweeter and mid range driver. There are 2 woofers on either side of the tweeter and midrange drivers that are each in their own sound box.

In addition to considering purchasing in the future the Baby Grand speakers, I also considered purchasing the Nola Viper Reference II which have a list price of around $16,000 that I had a chance to also hear at Lyric HiFi in December.





Ultimately, I will in all likelihood be purchasing some very expensive line stage speaker towers that are still in Prototype form that I have a deposit on (and will be listening to in the coming weeks). These tower speakers are supposed to sound much better than the Nola Baby Grands and will cost me considerably less. These will in all likelihood have to await delivery until the time that I move. We will make and design the rest of the speakers in the system to go with these and the Dahlquist DQ-10 cabinets will probably be used for the rear speakers in the 7.1 system. I will probably sell the Nola LCR Reference speaker at that time.

Rich

[Canada]

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

Those are the Nola Baby Grand Speakers. I had the chance to hear them at Lyric Hi Fi in New York City in December. They are a beautiful set of speakers and sound wonderful. But they should. When I listened to them, they had a list price of $55,000. I think that they now have a list of $65,000. I have considered getting them but they are a bit steep in price, even if I could find a used pair (one is available from the UK for $23,000 on Audiogon). The buyer replaced them with these, the Grand Reference which I also saw and listened to at Lyric Hi Fi (at the time their list was $145,000; I think they are now $185,000):





Rich

I'd love a pair, yeah right, the only way I'd hear these is I was up in heaven.

[kenster]

Just discovered this site and wanted to share my love for Alon/Nola speakers of which I own 3 pairs... Alon 1's, which are my all time fave speaker, Alon Lotus SE mk ll's which are doing duty as the main L/R in my HT system and the Nola Viper 1A's which have been upgraded with the AlNiCo magnet midrange and tweeter drivers and soon to be the Viper 1X with the upgraded magnesium woofers :-)

Would luv to share pics but it fails when I try to upload images... any suggestions?

I'm running my Nola Viper 1A's with a McIntosh MC275 mk IV with MIT Terminator 2 bi-wire cables in the main rig and the Alon Lotus' are being driven by an EICO 2050 integrated tube amp with 7591 output tubes via MIT 2 Bi-wire speaker cables. The MIT and Alon/Nola just seem to have a synergy that is a musical match that is hard to beat.

I also have both the bi-wire and tri-wire Alon Black Orpheus speaker cable harnesses but the MIT bi-wire cables are better at portraying a more organically whole sonic picture and have a more solid bass extension as well as a fully fleshed out soundstage.

The Alon 1's are currently in storage but there are brand new woofers awaiting them when the time comes to press them into service again...

Cheers,
kenster

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by kenster

Just discovered this site and wanted to share my love for Alon/Nola speakers of which I own 3 pairs... Alon 1's, which are my all time fave speaker, Alon Lotus SE mk ll's which are doing duty as the main L/R in my HT system and the Nola Viper 1A's which have been upgraded with the AlNiCo magnet midrange and tweeter drivers and soon to be the Viper 1X with the upgraded magnesium woofers :-)

Would luv to share pics but it fails when I try to upload images... any suggestions?

I'm running my Nola Viper 1A's with a McIntosh MC275 mk IV with MIT Terminator 2 bi-wire cables in the main rig and the Alon Lotus' are being driven by an EICO 2050 integrated tube amp with 7591 output tubes via MIT 2 Bi-wire speaker cables. The MIT and Alon/Nola just seem to have a synergy that is a musical match that is hard to beat.

I also have both the bi-wire and tri-wire Alon Black Orpheus speaker cable harnesses but the MIT bi-wire cables are better at portraying a more organically whole sonic picture and have a more solid bass extension as well as a fully fleshed out soundstage.

The Alon 1's are currently in storage but there are brand new woofers awaiting them when the time comes to press them into service again...

Cheers,
kenster

& we would love to see them . You need to have at least 5 posts to start doing some things like new threads and such .

BTW ~ Welcome to the forum

[crazyBLUE]

https://www.blu-ray.com/community/ga...&folderid=3456

[naturephoto1]

Nola, Alon before that, and Dahlquist still before that makes/made some great performing speakers.

Rich

[richteer]

Welcome, kenster. It's always nice to have more audiophile join the fold!

[kenster]

Here is a link for my system details:

http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/2950.html

Got plenty of pics of my system(s) to post...

Cheers

[rayray8]

does anyone have any info on the dahlquist dq-6ci speakers? specs? i know someone selling a set for $100 w/stands, good deal?

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by rayray8

does anyone have any info on the dahlquist dq-6ci speakers? specs? i know someone selling a set for $100 w/stands, good deal?

If they are in good shape, that is a good deal. Replacement drivers cost more than that.

http://www.dahlquistspeakers.com/

http://dahlquistspeakers.com/dahlqui...on_service.htm

http://shop.ebay.com/items/dahlquist...&tt_encode=raw