B&W DM2A refurb's

[ramsden]

I was able to check the supertweeters, they don’t show anything.
Did some testing of random resistors just after that to be sure my multimeter works, the values shown were ok.
But battery is low I need to buy new battery.
What to do in case I would like to use them without supertweeters?
With my limited understanding and little time available I was able to put temporarily 22ohm resistors in place of supertweeters, they are now disconnected.

[spendorman]

I was able to check the supertweeters, they don’t show anything.
Did some testing of random resistors just after that to be sure my multimeter works, the values shown were ok.
But battery is low I need to buy new battery.
What to do in case I would like to use them without supertweeters?
With my limited understanding and little time available I was able to put temporarily 22ohm resistors in place of supertweeters, they are now disconnected.

No problem just disconnecting the supertweeters, no problem with what you have done connecting 22 Ohm resistors in place of the Coles 4001G.

Are you going to buy new Coles 4001G supertweeters?

[ramsden]

Thank you spendorman 🙂
I think I am going to go through matching phase first.
Like with subwoofer is just for fine bass extension analogy.
First they have to sound to my liking 🤪
So far I have tried a few amplifiers with them.
And they seem to be dependant on that, will be back after my work to tell more..

[spendorman]

Sheffield, I was there in the early 70's doing Electronic Engineering at the University. I still have a friend in Sheffield, he picked up the speaker bug from me, he's got it worse than me.

[ramsden]

Lol, would be nice to meet him 🙂
It is already about 5 years now I bought almost everything for 3way speaker project called Black Box, creation of Tony Gee (humblehomemadehifi web site I think). So hard to get myself to finish it 😂
But now DM2 came along the way.. So Black Box will have to wait a bit longer 😎

[ramsden]

Would you guys share what amplification you use with these speakers, whether you did some comparison with various amps, sources, cabling etc and how you think they sound in general, strengths, weaknesses, odds etc?
As said before, my DM2s operates without supertweeters, 22ohm resistors there now, so it may influence the sound output..

[ramsden]

So I did some search in order to find good match for these speakers from the amps I have at home available.
They are Hegel H90, SoulNote SA3.0, Proart PP-7160, Sansui 5000, Teac AS-100, Akai AV-U8, Akai AM-U55.
As source were used Denon DCD-3300 (PCM56), Sony CDP-337ESD (TDA1541), Marantz CD74 (TDA1540), Marantz CD6002 (CS4398), Subbu DAC (ESS9023).
Interconnects Oehlbach, Silver, Wireworld.
Speaker cables QED XTC, Sharkwire 2.5mm2. So nothing exotic there.
As music, various genres with a bit emphasis on Keiko Matsui - Moyo, Opeth - Heritage, Katie Melua, Biffy Clyro, Steven Wilson, Suzanne Vega, Diana Krall, some metal music like Lamb of God, some audiophile recordings selection I made, and more..
Everything started with PP-7160, although I like that amp, it is not suited for DM2.
Then I continued with Hegel, that amp is able to push wide range of speakers, however the sound here was strong controlled bass, too bright for my ears with emphasis on upper midrange here, so it sounded kind of nasal, although fast and detailed, no match.
Here I would stop for a little. Interaction between the amp and speakers is very obvious here, as both of the amps above I like a lot with different speakers.
Next SoulNote, otherwise musical, smooth sounding amp, with DM2 again too much trebles, recessed midrange a bit, wooly bass, bigger then Hegel though, but all together not good match again.
These amps are more recent designs, coincidence?
I would need good at least treble correction to get Hegel sound great there, it might if I would have it 😎
And in general, good bass correction would help too, for lower level listening or music source compensation, fortunately all other amps are old and they have both.
So I have tried Sansui, midrange focused amp, again, no luck, something was not right there, too colored sound, not close to real at all, not match.
Teac connected.. wow! That’s it, the match found! At least to my ears. Still needs some tone corrections here and there, but the basic sound is very good indeed. The drivers ability control not fully there like with Hegel, not going as deep too, it just sounds right through whole spectrum. Sound is bigger, balanced, non nasal with quite right timbre, speed, clarity, ambience.

[ramsden]

After Teac I tried also smaller Akai U8, it didn’t disappoint too, sound was good.
Finally bigger U55, and again very nice match with DM2.
Experimenting with sources Denon was the best of the batch, it is my main CD player.
However I was quite surprised with Marantz CD6002, this one is usually put aside.
It has quite rich sound, nice for lower level listening.
So at the end, one can get extremely pleasing listening experience for not much money.
Marantz CD6002, Akai AM-U55 with B&W DM2 are all affordable components these days.

[VinylChef]

Hi All,
My first (real) post!
I've read every post in this insanely long thread!
I have a pair of DM2A's with the same crossover as the original one the OP posted.
I've viewed the schematic diagrams on the B&W website, but they are different to mine. I believe Spendorman was stated as the authority on this. Spendorman, do you have a schematic diagram of the DM2A's the OP put picture up of?
Thanks,
David

PS I wanted to upload a picture of my crossover but it constantly says it fails. Any advice?

[walpurgis]

PS I wanted to upload a picture of my crossover but it constantly says it fails. Any advice?

I don't know what device or O/S you're using, but you could try a fee image hosting site like ImgBB: https://imgbb.com/