Those speakers are just great.Go for it, if you find a pair of these you can sell both you parents and your sisters. The sound is amazing, the aspect is sumptous, well, just amazing. Thx BW.

Hard to find taugh.

Those speakers are just great.Go for it, if you find a pair of these you can sell both you parents and your sisters. The sound is amazing, the aspect is sumptous, well, just amazing.

Thx B&W.

P.S.Hard to find tough.

Year of manufacturing: 1986-1990

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I have used Pierre Etienne Leon, and Celestion Diton 130

Very good low/high ratio.

weak connector on backside.

Very high quality speakers. Tried a lot of speakers to match my old Pure Class A Amplifier (Sugden A28). After lots of listening in the showroom, the salesmen showed me a second hand pair of DM220i speakers, which he was selling in his basement. They were only $150 each, comparising to the over $500 new speakers I was listening to. There was no quistion about it, these we by far the best I could purchase. The low is very ballancd in comparison with the high tones. The mid is a little thin, but now we're talking small details. Tried it on spikes, found out that placed directly on my parquet floor gives better sound-definition.
The connectors on the back are a litle weak, and cannot hold my thick, special wiring without using plugs (I prefer to directly attach the wires underneath the screws of the connector).

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KEF, JBL

Stability under all conditions. Can handle all kinds of music.

Speaker is very placement sensitive. Does require a speaker table to stand on.

I have been using the speaker for over 10 years now under miscellanious conditions (rooms). It can handle all these conditions as long as you take some time to find the appropriate speaker positioning. If you don't you will loose a lot of definition. If you do you may be treated with exceptional sound and may discover new things in music you thought you knew in detail.

The speaker's sensitivity is good but not exceptional and it handles all music types beautifully. It's neutral sound makes the speaker itself 'disappear' from the music.

Please review is low frequency response. In my case it is much better than B&W promised it would. It will even respond to unhearable frequency (below 25 Hz, you will the the speakers move). I use a low filter to keep this frequencies out (some old vinyl records may produce this ....).

I am getting curious how B&W could improve themselves with the new product ranges that they have (Nautilus series).

Excellent sound considering the following weeknesses...

No internal bracing, woofers are not flush mounted, the holes were not routed!

Excellent sound considering the above weaknesses!

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Other good speakers

In the right environment, generally consistent sound with a range of equipment.

'One-note' bass, sensitive to placement.

The DM220 was my first 'real' speaker 15+ years ago, back when I decided to graduate from mid-fi. At the time they were in a small room tucked into corners. Electronics were a Yamaha receiver and (ugh) The Carver Receiver. They sounded reasonably good as I recall.

I later upgraded to Rotel electronics and moved to a 26x13 listening room, medium absorption, and a low (7 ft) ceiling. The speakers were well out from the side and rear walls. The sound was fatiguing, with a harshness in the upper mid and treble. The only way I could really tolerate them was to sit off axis. The bass had a 'one-note' quality - you'd hear the low tone of the scale but barely any of the higher notes. I replaced the DM220 with the Magnepan SMGa. These worked exceptionally well in that room, with a much better balance in the overall sound, much more open midrange, better ambience retrieval, and more usable and musical bass. Not more bass (these are the little Maggies after all), but definitely easier to follow the bass line. The Maggies give up some dynamics though, and can sound congested with full orchestral works or solo piano. For jazz, chamber music, and most rock recordings they were very listenable.

I moved to a 24x18 listening room with a 16 foot ceiling. Because of furniture placement I could not place the Maggies in optimal position and they produced almost no sound at all in that environment unless the amp was up in the 70% volume range. Very strange. I replaced them with the Cambridge Soundworks New Ensemble system (2 satellites, 2 passive woofers). These fit into the room better and certainly have a higher wife acceptance factor but they sound particularly thin in that room at the low volume levels, even with the woofers tucked into corners, and the satellite sound did not integrate well with the woofers. I am again using the DM220s and they sound much better. There is none of the harshness from the old installation, but the 'one-note' bass is still there. So the conclusion is that they need a lot of space. (Don't you hate that about audiophile speakers? You buy smaller speakers because you don't have the space for large ones, but the small ones can't go anywhere near the walls.)

All three of these can be had in the used market for $200 - $300. For my money if I had the proper room the Maggies are the best of the lot. But Maggies are not for everybody so that is a qualified recommendation. I get the sense sometimes that people who like Maggies have the same religious fervor as Mac users so I won't get into that debate. So I think the DM220s are worth a listen if you can find a pair, just give them room to work with. (Hint: check eBay, I'll probably be selling mine soon.)

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Magnepan SMGa, Cambridge Soundworks New Ensemble.

If you can get your hands on a used pair of DM220s....do so. I picked mine up for $200. They sound great. Great smooth midrange.....that British sound. I also own a pair of Sound Dynamics 300Ti, and they were readily put to shame.

bass weight, midrange clarity, believable imaging, extremely good power handling and efficiency

bass tends to boom and mid to cloud over when used to near to room boundaries; occasional treble "spit"

A very accomplished speaker indeed, considering its age. (It's a mid 1980s design). I have owned mine for 12 years now and have to strongly agree with the chap who pointed out their ability to reflect source and amplification quality...like his pair, mine have successfully seen me through many electronics upgrades.

I have extensively auditioned potential replacements over the years, but found few affordable speakers which I liked as much. The current 603 S2 has a remarkably similar tonal balance with slightly (but not much) cleaner bass and treble extremes.

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a variety of budget speakers of many sizes over the years

None

Absolutely stunning sound. If you can find a used pair of DM-220's, I would highly recommend pickeng them up. These speakers have a clarity that is truly fantastic. Highs, lows, and midrangees are very accurately represented. WONDERFUL SPEAKERS!!!

sensitive to placement.lacking a little in bottom punch for hard rock

stumbled on these speakers a few months back when a friend who runs a 2nd hand shop showed them too me. I did a swap for a large pair of technics speakers which had overwhelmed the smallish room my stereo is in. Most of my listening is done via headphones(grado sr225/sr60) but I wanted a set of clear speakers with good midrange to handle the increasing amount of accoustic music I'm listening to. At first the B&W's seemed to be very bass shy compared to the big boomy technics and I also found the treble a bit harsh. Since then I've changed my cheap Akai and Yamaha cd player and amp for an Arcam player and a Luxman amp(with valve preamp).
This has made quite a difference to the sound getting rid of a lot of harshness and giving a richer sound especially on female vocal and accoustic instruments. I have also experimented with placement of the speakers and found them to be very sensitive to toe-in in my room. Because of the small room they're close to walls and I found with the wrong angle for my listening spot the bass especially vanished into the walls. I now find the best position is angling each speaker for my opposite shoulder,ie right speaker to left shoulder. This keeps good bass and seems to give best focus on midrange and also cleans up the highs getting rid of any dryness. Another experiment has envolved making up some stands and lifting the speakers from the floor. At the moment they're raised about 20cm on spiked, 3 legged stands with mdf base. This has opened up the sound stage considerably with the lose of a small amount of bass so the next item is to try them on boxed stands perhaps sand filled to see if the bass response is better.
All in all I like these speakers and having listened to many newer models am convinced I'd have to spend about $3000NZ($1600US) to get a better sound. As other reviewers have mentioned they do respond well to better quality gear(the Luxman amp working well here) and to experimenting with placement.They're far from the ultimate rock speaker but for anyone listening to a wide variety of music a good pair of DM220 are very hard to beat.

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technics speakers