vintage B&W DM17 info?

pinchechris

pinchechris

New Member
I picked up a beyond ugly pair on ebay for $90 after shipping (heck for the price I couldn't help it). Someone had spray painted truckbed liner type stuff on it. WTF??!! It scraped off with no trouble (thankfully) and now I have a beautiful pair of vintage B&W speakers with a tweeter that looks as if it might have been the beginnings of the nautilus series.

As far as sound, the tweeter sounds amazing, making my DM602's sound like tinny garbage. The mid/bass sound sorta crummy though, nowhere near the detail that the 602's produce. I'm thinking with a woofer replacement I might have a fantastic speaker for peanuts.

I can't find any info on these speakers though and have no idea what to replace them with. I'd like to keep it fairly affordable as I'm not sure these speakers are even worth more than $200. If I could keep the replacements under $150 I'd be tickled pink.......if they sound good. Problem is, the only info I have is that these are 8 ohm.

Since the original drivers are 8 ohm do I need to stick with that? The cabinet is sealed and fairly small. They have the tweeter mounted on top, similar to the 805's.

Any ideas?

thanks

chris
 
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Awesome, thank you for the link. Funny you should mention, I'm currently using them as desktop speakers for the computer. I scooped out the bass on the itunes eq between 125 & 250hz (a few db) and they sound pretty damn good. I'm running them with a spare Boston Acoustics sub but it doesn't have pre-outs for the crossover. Bummer.

I really dislike using eq but for now maybe I'll be patient and wait for a highly inefficient pair of 7" woofers to pop up on ebay :)

thanks again

Chris
 
pinchechris said:
I'm thinking with a woofer replacement I might have a fantastic speaker for peanuts........................
I'd like to keep it fairly affordable as I'm not sure these speakers are even worth more than $200. If I could keep the replacements under $150 I'd be tickled pink.......if they sound good. ..................................
I really dislike using eq but for now maybe I'll be patient and wait for a highly inefficient pair of 7" woofers to pop up on ebay

Any ideas?

thanks

chris
Click to expand...

I'm out of my element on this one, however Parts Express has several choices for 7" woofers..... just a thought.
 
I've owned a pair of very similar, little B&W DM-12 monitors for 28 years.
For their size, they are truly awesome!
Your B&W DM-17 speakers SHOULD sound equally as awesome!?
Any other drivers other than the original B&W bextrene cones, will SERIOUSLY degrade the sound!
If I remember correctly, your speakers listed for around $800. back in the early 80's?
I paid $650 for my B&W DM-12's, and the B&W DM-17's were considered a step up!
Don't go the cheap-n'-easy way out with these speakers.
It is WORTH finding the proper woofers!
Check on flea-bay, or contact B&W customer service.
It will NOT be cheap, but then again, these are NOT cheap speakers!!

Good luck!!
Steve
 
I looked into replacing them with B&W drivers but it seems that most of them these days are 4 ohm. Would I be creating a problem if the tweeters are 8 ohm and woofers are only 4?

I may try the partsexpress.com route, in fact that was the first place I looked. It would just be a pity to purchase a couple drivers only to have them sound like poo and have to ship them back. I'm trying to make as much of an educated "guess" as I can.

thanks
 
The DM17 Limiteds were among the first "high end" speakers I ever auditioned with a nice Perreux 200 WPC amp many years ago. Along with similar sized Mordaunt Shorts, they were very clean, revealing, and dynamic - if a little on the "bright" side. Paired up with a decent sub, they produced excellent results. I think these were introduced in the early 80's if memory serves correctly.

Do they look like this:

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/11404-bw_dm17_limited_edition_bookshelf_monitors
 
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I own a pair of DM-7II s. This used the same top mounted soft fabric tweeter, but with a 7-8" Kevlar woofer in a 40litre passive radiator enclosure. They are extremely fine sounding speakers - I gave them to my neice (wife factor) and now use a pair of matrix 805s in the living room. Just did buy a pair of DM 17s for the bonus room though - plannign to use with a pair of woofers underneath.

This speaker used a butterworth 24db/oct. crossover with matched conmponents. I recall visitng the B&W factory in Worthing UK with Peter Hayworth, who was then the worldwide sales director for B&W. They were measuring each capacitor and coil! I asked why and he said "to match them exactly - the marked value is only within 10% - we get them to within 1%"!

Don't just slap any old woofer in there. I may replace my woofers as the bextrene is getting very old, but will measure the parameters to get a really suitable replacement, and re-design the xover to match the original voicing.

If there's enough interest I could post my jouney with it - meanwhile enjoy that wonderful smooth 80s B&W tweeter!
Bill Boyd
Cary, NC
 
Seriously cool speakers. If I were you, I'd do some troubleshooting before chucking the original woofers: Crossovers, surrounds, tinsel leads, spiders, etc. See if you can get them working right.

I would love to see pictures!
 
Bill -

I just acquired a pair of DM 17 a few months ago. I am trying to rebuild the xover and I see that the woofers are becoming a little brittle after thirty years of use, albeit light use I guess from its condition.

This evening I was trying to uncover the woofer. But it got stuck on the opening. I have seen some internet pictures of the x-over unit, and there are 1MFD, 4MFD, and another cap I cannot identity. I guess they are 100v tolerant.

Considering there is only limited documentation about rebuilding the DM17, it will be great to see your input here on AK.

Cheers

Terence
 

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Found this:

DM17_crossover_PCB_1.jpg
 
That's a very sophisticated dividing network...

It will present a difficult load to under specified amplifiers. These are just lovely loudspeakers, and replacing drivers willy nilly will degrade the performance substantially...in fact, they will simply cease to be DM17's, and will instead be a bastard Frankenstein. Purchase amplification commensurate with the engineering...that's the plan.
 
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