Hi all. Leading on from my recent experience with a pair of Ditton 44's I now realize the DM2's I currently own are unlikely to be bettered within a budget I can afford and as a consequence it would probably be wise to throw a little cash at them in a bid to wring out even more from them. I've taken note of the work James has carried out on the 44's and I feel the DM2's could benefit from a similar makeover. Apart from having to have a bass driver replaced due to a broken terminal 18 months ago they are more or less as they were when they left the factory back in 1972.
When we had the baffles off I did note that the wiring is of a reasonable quality and is connected to the drivers and crossovers via spade connectors, which might be the first port of call. From what I've read elsewhere, directly soldering the wiring to the terminal tabs and crossover can offer up some improvements in SQ, which sounds reasonable to me. If I choose to replace the internal wiring what should I be looking at as a replacement? I think I should steer clear of anything too fancy such as silver plated copper wire as the DM2's are already quite a lively sounding speaker in standard trim and I wouldn't want to push them into sounding brittle. I'd also like to replace the speaker terminals as the original fitment items are quite worn from over 40 years of use so recommendations would be welcome here also.
I have been informed that B&W installed good quality components onto DM2 crossover boards as a matter of course so in light of this, is it worth messing about with them at all? If so then some advice would be welcomed here as well although I would need to find someone to carry out this work for me as I am not confident enough in my own skills to carry out the work myself. I should note that these are DM2's and not DM2a's therefore there is no HF adjustment pot present. Not sure I'd want one to be honest as it is just another component in circuit to get in the way of the signal.
When we removed the front baffles from the speakers I noticed that a couple of the securing screws have begun to pull through the baffle board. Ideally I would prefer to fix this issue as eventually it will end up damaging the baffle board permanently. I've thought of two possible options, one is a quick fix and t'other would be to completely replace the baffle, however the latter option would probably be prohibitively expensive. The quick fix option would be to replace the existing screws with slightly longer items made from brass which would sit in raised brass ring washers (sorry, I don't know the proper term for these) which would not only prevent further damage to the baffles but should also look very smart.
Another slight cosmetic issue with this particular pair of DM2's is that there is some surface rust on the faceplates of both the Coles tweeters. This doesn't affect their performance in any way however it is a minor niggle for me whenever I remove the grills and one which I would dearly like to remedy. Other than replacing both units does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of the rust?
Just in case I have missed something I would welcome any other recommendations on how to improve these already wonderful sounding speakers...
Thanks in advance
Dave...