The DM220 was not one of B&Ws best speakers, however, try this for size.
B&W like a lot of UK speaker designs were designed for the type of music that us Brits like. Japanese speakers used to be designed for their "twing twang" type music that they used to prefer.
That's not true today as Japan like the rest of the World have largely adopted a similar musical taste.
However. For deep controlled bass, B&W used to use quite stiff suspension spiders on their speakers. Correspondingly this made them a difficult load for a Japanese amplifier that was designed to fire a light and fast moving cone.
British speakers always sounded better with British style amplifiers that were designed to provide more current amplification.
So, in an answer to your question. Have a look around on E-Bay for example for something like an Arcam Alpha 8 amplifier that you can pick up relatively cheaply these days. Big Rotels are very good with them too.
A 25W Far Eastern amplifier from the same era will sound pretty thin with the B&Ws.
B&W like a lot of UK speaker designs were designed for the type of music that us Brits like. Japanese speakers used to be designed for their "twing twang" type music that they used to prefer.
That's not true today as Japan like the rest of the World have largely adopted a similar musical taste.
However. For deep controlled bass, B&W used to use quite stiff suspension spiders on their speakers. Correspondingly this made them a difficult load for a Japanese amplifier that was designed to fire a light and fast moving cone.
British speakers always sounded better with British style amplifiers that were designed to provide more current amplification.
So, in an answer to your question. Have a look around on E-Bay for example for something like an Arcam Alpha 8 amplifier that you can pick up relatively cheaply these days. Big Rotels are very good with them too.
A 25W Far Eastern amplifier from the same era will sound pretty thin with the B&Ws.
Er, what?
A stiff suspension doesn't make a driver present a more difficult or easy load to an amplifier. How could it?
Stiff suspension also pushes up Fs, and reduces LF efficiency (more force - and therefore current - needed to move the cone a given amount: F=BIl). You seem to have got the physics backwards.
Chris
Oh, God, you sound like sreten! So rude!
What KatieandDad said made perfect sense to me. Get a good current-capable amplifier that can drive a low impedance, good cables, and get those speakers up off the floor.
It's called inertia. A stiff suspension will not start to move as quickly as a japanese light suspension.
The speaker is basically a motor. To get it moving needs a high current. UK amps were always renowned to be better at providing a high current drive to the speakers.
A high-end valve amp will do the job just as well, but I'm assuming that someone with poor DM220s wont have the resources for a good valve amp.
B&W do make some fantastic speakers, their DM603s3's can be bought very cheaply second hand and are very good.
I've just got a pair of DM 683's and it's very difficult to justify spending thousands of pounds to better them.
The speaker is basically a motor. To get it moving needs a high current. UK amps were always renowned to be better at providing a high current drive to the speakers.
A high-end valve amp will do the job just as well, but I'm assuming that someone with poor DM220s wont have the resources for a good valve amp.
B&W do make some fantastic speakers, their DM603s3's can be bought very cheaply second hand and are very good.
I've just got a pair of DM 683's and it's very difficult to justify spending thousands of pounds to better them.
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Oh, God, you sound like sreten! So rude!
What KatieandDad said made perfect sense to me. Get a good current-capable amplifier that can drive a low impedance, good cables, and get those speakers up off the floor.
The bit that got me was where stiff suspension = "deep controlled bass".
What about guitar speakers?
For decent bass, a good amplifier is of course needed. Completely agree there. I don't want to discuss cables: that way lies madness.
Not sure about getting the speakers off the floor. I can see that this would lose a little LF energy, giving a subjectively "tighter" sound. I think its worth the OP trying that, to see if its to taste.
KatieandDad, inertia is quantified as mass. We don't know the masses of the cones, so its difficult to comment further on that.
Assuming a motor that is adequate in size for both speakers (ie, the B&W one will probably be slightly bigger, to overcome greater resistive forces), current draw can be identical, and produce identical excursion.
I don't mean to be rude, but saying that
stiffer suspension = greater current draw
and ignoring all the other (often dominating) factors just seems wrong.
Chris
Oh, God, you sound like sreten! So rude!
What KatieandDad said made perfect sense to me.
Get a good current-capable amplifier that can drive
a low impedance, good cables, and get those
speakers up off the floor.
Hi,
Don't drag me into your incorrect attitudes,
its rude, and crass, you should know better.
The DM220's have full BSC by default being 2.5 ways,
as I recall they have a heavy rear coating unlike the
DM110's, why the former are sealed and the latter
vented, given the relative cabinet sizes.
(Same bassmid motor systems.)
(Very different for the same "range" of speakers.)
An amplifier cannot sort out the bass of a speaker.
Anyone who thinks so is severely deluded, except
for cases where very low damping is needed, and
that is certainly not the case here.
The bass of the DM220's is pretty much what you
get given the design parameters, and if you want
to change it your looking at active EQ, or if you
have the right set up passive line level EQ.
rgds, sreten.
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Talking about cables - no I don't want to get into snake oil territory here.
Just try some 1.5mm Lighting Ring Main cable from B&Q. It's impressively better than the cheap doorbell wiring that a lot of people use.
Sreten, I'm afraid I disagree with your comment about an amplifier making no difference. It can and does make an enormous difference.
Over the years I've upgraded from an Arcam 8 to an Arcam AVR280 and now a Pass Aleph 4, the difference is quite noticeable.
Just try some 1.5mm Lighting Ring Main cable from B&Q. It's impressively better than the cheap doorbell wiring that a lot of people use.
Sreten, I'm afraid I disagree with your comment about an amplifier making no difference. It can and does make an enormous difference.
Over the years I've upgraded from an Arcam 8 to an Arcam AVR280 and now a Pass Aleph 4, the difference is quite noticeable.
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