Budget amp for Dahlquist DQ-10's

i have a pair of the alon II's. a cousin to the dq10's ( they are pigs when it comes to power requirement- to say they like current is a understatment)

i would not go any less than 200 wpc with a high quality design.the aragon should do fine but alot will depend on how much you want to spend.

they can get buy on a quality 100 wpc but really they really open up and breath with 200 wpc. the sound is very effortless and organic.

here are some options:

muse 160 stereo mk II($600- $625 used) and add another( the muse has a very nice top end that is a good match for the dq10's)and that would put you at $1200-$1300 for 2 near state of the art amps.

or

2 muse stereo amps- $375 each or 2 pse studio IV stereo amps($325 each) - $ 700 - $750 for 2 stereo amps

or

4 pse studio v mono blocks - $500 - $600 pair - $1000 - $1100 for $5000 (retail) of very quality amps (this is the route i went). the pse's studio V monos are very hard to come by.

the lower price pse studio V and muse 100 are very good amps( $1k range new ) but lack the last bit of sonic refinment when compared to their more $$ counter parts. the muse 160 mk ii was a $2k amp and the pse studio V are a $2500 pair amps

you do have some choices - the speakers will sound very good if you have a tube pre in the system.

hope that helps,

mike

Hafler

DQ-10's have a really wild impedance characteristic and dip as low as 2 ohms at one point. This makes them amp hogs. You don't really need a super high wattage large amp, but you do need one with a very high peak amerage capability. Or an amp that doesn't get broken up when it sees that load that it can't put out enough amps for.

I drive my DQ-10's with a GAS Son Of Ampzilla with GAS Works mods. I've also heard amps with twice the power rating sound terrible trying to drive the DQ-10s. I would think that NADs might be a good choice for a read ecomomy speaker for the load.

In a small room I've heard DQ-10s not sound too bad driven by a Dynaco Stereo 70. It couldn't put out many amps, but it didn't get all broken up and put out lots of hash due to it's tubes and transformers.

typo on above sorry..

the lower price pse studio IV and muse 100 are very good amps( $1k range new ) but lack the last bit of sonic refinment when compared to their more $$ counter parts. the muse 160 mk ii was a $2k amp and the pse studio V are a $2500 pair amps

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Although, I would have liked a used DNA 2,Threshold, or a Classe CA300 ect.. economics reared it's ugly head and I've got a late model Bryston 4B pro on the way. I've heard that the highs on these amps are a little much so I'm hoping that my cheapo Superphon Revelation II pre works out OK. It's ugly as hell but supposedly isn't a complete POS (but then again I may be wrong). If not, any suggestions for a low cost tube or ss pre that might mellow things out a bit? Thanks again.