DCM TimeWindow Seven

[dcmfan]

Ha! Made it!



I'm still playing with positioning, and have ordered capacitors to refresh the crossovers, but as they sit I'm pretty happy.

Some initial impressions and comparisons from last night and this morning:

The Sevens present a larger sound image than the TW3, and have deeper and more physical bass. The conventional drivers are more dynamic than my Magnepans - lots of punch! The imaging is very stable and clear and deeply layered.

I suspect they will sound better with some tweaks to positioning and new electrolytics, and I may get more objective as I listen to them more, but right now I've got no regrets about picking these up.

 

[Goggle1824]

...I've got no regrets about picking these up.

Nope, not expecting many of us would.

 

[dcmfan]

Nope, not expecting many of us would.

Haha! Ok, maybe not the most insightful thing I ever posted.

My wife saw this and asked "are you measuring again?"



But a few minutes later she said "I can hear every one of the backup singers individually. What did you do?"

 

[GD70]

Ha! Made it!

View attachment 929106

I'm still playing with positioning, and have ordered capacitors to refresh the crossovers, but as they sit I'm pretty happy.

Some initial impressions and comparisons from last night and this morning:

The Sevens present a larger sound image than the TW3, and have deeper and more physical bass. The conventional drivers are more dynamic than my Magnepans - lots of punch! The imaging is very stable and clear and deeply layered.

I suspect they will sound better with some tweaks to positioning and new electrolytics, and I may get more objective as I listen to them more, but right now I've got no regrets about picking these up.

Awesome! I didn't realize they were that large! Don't you love when your wife actually notices differences in speaker sound? My wife always "sounds great". To her, all my speakers sund great,
Anyway, congrats on the 7's! Truly special speakers! You're very lucky to have found them.

Cheers, Glenn

 

[Goggle1824]

...My wife saw this and asked "are you measuring again?"

Wait wha...?

 

[Goggle1824]

But a few minutes later she said "I can hear every one of the backup singers individually. What did you do?"

But more seriously... NICE!

 

[Dr. Morbius]

Very nice! Congrats!

 

[gib48189]

Very cool, glad you, and the 7's, made it home safely. Now I'm sure there will be many "I never heard that before" thoughts.

 

[JHauser]

Congratulations on your find and welcome to the club.

I regards to making adjustments, did you get the Calibration and Testing Card that would have been shipped with the speakers? If not, I would start with all the knobs in the Spectral Balance Controls in the 12 o’clock position and adjust by the suggestions from the manual from there.

Feel free to ask if you have any question on the Sevens. If I can’t answer them, I know someone how can.

 

[dcmfan]

Congratulations on your find and welcome to the club.

I regards to making adjustments, did you get the Calibration and Testing Card that would have been shipped with the speakers? If not, I would start with all the knobs in the Spectral Balance Controls in the 12 o’clock position and adjust by the suggestions from the manual from there.

Feel free to ask if you have any question on the Sevens. If I can’t answer them, I know someone how can.

View attachment 929799

Thanks for that! The original calibration card is long gone so all the dials are at 12 o'clock while I get the initial positioning set.

I did find that these do well reflecting sound off the wall behind them. I had an absorber on that wall when using Magnepans, but found that it killed the imaging with the Sevens, so it's gone and the center image is much improved.

Any tips on recapping the crossovers? I haven't pulled mine yet, but the layout looks dense.

 

[trinhsman]

Thanks for that! The original calibration card is long gone so all the dials are at 12 o'clock while I get the initial positioning set.

I did find that these do well reflecting sound off the wall behind them. I had an absorber on that wall when using Magnepans, but found that it killed the imaging with the Sevens, so it's gone and the center image is much improved.

Any tips on recapping the crossovers? I haven't pulled mine yet, but the layout looks dense.

View attachment 929878

If you don't mind sending the crossovers to someone, GordonW is a crossover guru. He did my Snell E II crossovers. He actually kept everything exactly to the original, including bundling of the capacitors. Even Peter Snell would have been impressed. IMHO he is a master at this.

 

[JHauser]

Thanks for that! The original calibration card is long gone so all the dials are at 12 o'clock while I get the initial positioning set.

I did find that these do well reflecting sound off the wall behind them. I had an absorber on that wall when using Magnepans, but found that it killed the imaging with the Sevens, so it's gone and the center image is much improved.

Any tips on recapping the crossovers? I haven't pulled mine yet, but the layout looks dense.

View attachment 929878

The photo of the crossover you posted looks familiar.


If you have basic soldering skills it pretty straight forward. You only need to replace the electrolytic caps. I would also check to make sure you have continuity across the light bulb.


As far as replacement capacitors, keep as close to the original values as possible (electrolytic, non-polar, 100v 10% tolerance, 5% dissipation factor). The dissipation factor is important. Try to stay as close to 5% or lower if you can find them).


For both crossovers you’ll need:



1- (2) 15 uF

2- (2) 47 uF

3- (2) 100 uF

4- (8) 200 uF


Make sure to hot glue them back to the board.

I also attached the schematic for the crossover. One is the original that I got from DCM, the other is a cleaned up and corrected version I did.

 

[dcmfan]

The photo of the crossover you posted looks familiar.

Thought you might appreciate that!

This is tremendously helpful. Thanks!

 

[Dr. Morbius]

Hello Mr. Hauser! How are you doing?

 

[JHauser]

Hello Mr. Hauser! How are you doing?

Good, just living the life.

 

[KingBubba]

I see your crossover has the fuse/limiter lamp. They have saved my tweeters in a brash moment of over driving. I do not see the circuit breaker like I have in my TF 600s. The breakers die fairly often so you are lucky in that respect. I am enjoying your new find vicariously. Have fun.

 

[JHauser]

I see your crossover has the fuse/limiter lamp. They have saved my tweeters in a brash moment of over driving. I do not see the circuit breaker like I have in my TF 600s. The breakers die fairly often so you are lucky in that respect. I am enjoying your new find vicariously. Have fun.

Look at P1, P2 and P3.

 

[KingBubba]

Aha, in looking at them I thought they were resistors. I had not perused the schematic. I had a hard time finding replacements for mine. I finally found some from an electronics surplus place. I have another one gone in my right TF so I'm going to have to start looking again.

 

[gib48189]

Hi Jamie, hope things are well. Still enjoying the SurroundScape Center, it really did finish out that system. I did take you advise and picked up an Onkyo Pre/Processor, very happy with it.

Enough of that, back to the 7's........

 

[JHauser]

Hi Jamie, hope things are well. Still enjoying the SurroundScape Center, it really did finish out that system. I did take you advise and picked up an Onkyo Pre/Processor, very happy with it.

Enough of that, back to the 7's........

Glad to hear that.

The Onkyo PR-SC5508 Pre/Pro is a great unit for the price. Their used prices tanked when Onkyo had all the problems with the bad HDMI boards. If you can find one used and that had the authorized repairs done, they’re a steal.

The biggest factor is the Audyssey MultEQ XT32. The newer Onkyo units don’t have it. I’ll be looking hard at the Marantz units when I replace mine because of Audyssey. I’m a firm believer in what it can do for room correction, especially with dual subwoofers.

No matter how good a loud speaker may be, they can’t compete with a bad room. My room is treated fairly well with Schroeder diffusers, bass traps, heavy theatrical curtains and six large leather chairs and still the MultEQ XT32 has a major impact in sound quality.