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B&W DM 12 vs DM 110

F

fren

New Member
Hi,

I'm trying to gather a basic TT setup for in the living room but i'm having trouble finding & deciding on speakers. I'm from Belgium and supply is limited.

I currently have a Technics SL 2000 TT (for free, yay) and a Onkyo A801 amp on the way but i'm not sure about the specs on that one. The seller says it has 2 x 65watt 8 Ohms & 2 x 90watt 4 Ohms but the other info i find on the net says 2x 40watts 8 ohms & 2 X 85watts 4 ohms. I can't seem to find any official documentation.

Looking around i found 2 sets of speakers that i'm interested in but i'm doubting they will work decent with the amp i got. Perhaps someone can shed some light?

Speakers;

B&W DM 12, i found a review saying an amp with 2x 100watts 8 ohms would suit better.

(http://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Speakers/B-W/DM12/speakers/29/294648.html)

B&W DM 110, found a service manual that states an amp of 10 - 75 watts should be used.

Or should I just keep looking?

Thanks for any advice!
 
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Specs aren't hugely useful as a way to match amps to speakers. How big is your listening room? How loud do you like it?

The 2 specs that are (sort of) useful are the speaker's nominal impedance (All things being equal 8 ohm is easier to drive than 4 ohm - but mfrs can play "games" with this number) The other is efficiency - how loudly will the speaker play with 1 watt: expressed, for example as "87db/1 watt" - a typical number for an "average" speaker. The higher the first number, the louder the speaker plays for a given unit of power: some horn-lloaded speakers can do 105db/watt. Anything over 90db/watt is probably usefully better than average - but again, manufacturers can "game" this number to make it seem better than it is.

The same "gaming" with specs mean 2 amplifiers with the same rated output power will perform differently, too. You Onkyo is probably fine with most speakers, at least at low to moderate volumes.

In general, all B&Ws are decent speakers. (And some are pretty great).
 
I cant speak to the 110's, but I do have a pair of 12's.
Tough to drive, it takes alot of juice to get them up to speed. I agree with that 100 watt concept, in fact, they sound best with my SAE 2400L (200 wpc).
 
dm 110

I had a pair of 110's and never used anything bigger than 45wpc to drive them. I really liked them alot and listened to them daily for a couple years. Only reason they are gone is they went to a friend starting a system. They are his main speakers and he drives them with a SX-727.
 
bobaloniny said:
I cant speak to the 110's, but I do have a pair of 12's.
Tough to drive, it takes alot of juice to get them up to speed. I agree with that 100 watt concept, in fact, they sound best with my SAE 2400L (200 wpc).
Click to expand...

Ditto. I push 55 a side. It is not enough.
 
Thanks guys for the feedback.

The room the setup is in isn't that big and i dont plan on cranking up the volume too much, since i live in an apartment.

I'm gonna go for the dm 110 i think, see how it does.
 
I have a pair of DM12s myself and they sound better with my Yamaha AS-701 than my Marantz PM5005. However, the Yammie pulls 60wpc extra than the Marantz. The Marantz is warmer through the speakers but not nearly as detailed.
 
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