Wow! Denon and B&W pickup

gmjungbluth

Just had to share now - sorry there are no pictures yet....

My wife took me Goodwill hunting yesterday and I'm glad she did - I found a pair of B&W DM601s for $35, and then a Denon AVR-1907 receiver for $35 as well!

The B&Ws are a little beat up - the veneers on one side of one are scratched like from a cat, and it seems that the speaker was dropped at one point as the plastic front baffle is cracked at a corner. But otherwise they look and sound perfect. They don't have their bi-wire leads so I fashioned some myself from 14ga copper strand and plugged them into the Denon.

Wow!

The imaging is huge and exact. I'm hearing details in the same old songs that I've never heard before! I always put on "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" to test a system - I find that it's a song that is very dependent on media, especially in the guitar solo. Sometimes it sounds like a march with the heavy drumbeat, sometimes the organ overpowers and floats in front of the guitar, sometimes the guitar is way out front. For the first time, the B&Ws put it all together for me cohesively - all instruments complemented and got out of eachother's way. Very impressive. Sound was clean and not overpowering - highs were a little laid back but just right to enjoy the music.

And my wife loves them! She heard the quality of the sound right away. But a check in the WAF box! I'm sure it can't help that these babies are less than half the size of all the other monsters I have in the basement!!

Of course there's not too much bass but nothing a decent subwoofer wouldn't fix. BTW - I have a PSW10 doing HT duty - would that be a good match for the B&Ws, or should I be looking for something new?

The Denon also impressed. I only plugged in in and turned it on in 2-channel for this test so I have no idea otherwise what else it can do, and I'd like to test its SQ against my HT Pioneer VSX-820k.

So the B&Ws are keepers. I like the Denon but don't have a home for it - it doesn't have HDMI switching and I already have a Harman Kardon 3380 upstairs doing 2-channel duty that I really like. I'll have to decide what do to there.

I may sand down the scratches in the wrap on the B&Ws, fill in a few dents and try to wrap new vinyl from Parts Express over the top - then these would be real lookers. Does anyone have experience with re-wrapping vinyl veneers?

zingo

Congrats!

amgala

I seriously need to take a trip to a couple of local Goodwill branches!

boston1450

Good find--yesterday i looked on Clist. Found Mint B&W v201 for 60.00 they sound VVERY nice for little speakers--good luck with touch ups on those

coolsax

at our local goodwills, something like B&W speakers would be put aside for their weekly auction.. almost impossible to find anything decent in my local area goodwills

DON73

gmjungbluth wrote: »

Just had to share now - sorry there are no pictures yet....

My wife took me Goodwill hunting yesterday and I'm glad she did - I found a pair of B&W DM601s for $35, and then a Denon AVR-1907 receiver for $35 as well!

The B&Ws are a little beat up - the veneers on one side of one are scratched like from a cat, and it seems that the speaker was dropped at one point as the plastic front baffle is cracked at a corner. But otherwise they look and sound perfect. They don't have their bi-wire leads so I fashioned some myself from 14ga copper strand and plugged them into the Denon.

Wow!

The imaging is huge and exact. I'm hearing details in the same old songs that I've never heard before! I always put on "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" to test a system - I find that it's a song that is very dependent on media, especially in the guitar solo. Sometimes it sounds like a march with the heavy drumbeat, sometimes the organ overpowers and floats in front of the guitar, sometimes the guitar is way out front. For the first time, the B&Ws put it all together for me cohesively - all instruments complemented and got out of eachother's way. Very impressive. Sound was clean and not overpowering - highs were a little laid back but just right to enjoy the music.

And my wife loves them! She heard the quality of the sound right away. But a check in the WAF box! I'm sure it can't help that these babies are less than half the size of all the other monsters I have in the basement!!

Of course there's not too much bass but nothing a decent subwoofer wouldn't fix. BTW - I have a PSW10 doing HT duty - would that be a good match for the B&Ws, or should I be looking for something new?

The Denon also impressed. I only plugged in in and turned it on in 2-channel for this test so I have no idea otherwise what else it can do, and I'd like to test its SQ against my HT Pioneer VSX-820k.

So the B&Ws are keepers. I like the Denon but don't have a home for it - it doesn't have HDMI switching and I already have a Harman Kardon 3380 upstairs doing 2-channel duty that I really like. I'll have to decide what do to there.

I may sand down the scratches in the wrap on the B&Ws, fill in a few dents and try to wrap new vinyl from Parts Express over the top - then these would be real lookers. Does anyone have experience with re-wrapping vinyl veneers?

geoff727 has done some remarkable work restoring vintage Polks. Look up some of his threads on restoring Monitor 5s. His methods will apply to your B&Ws. Congrats on your STEAL!

skrol

I have a pair of the DM601 and they do sound quite nice. They were also a thrift store find. I am missing one of the bi-amp bars and one woofer is missing a dust cap but are otherwise in very nice condition. Are yours the original, S2 or S3?

gmjungbluth

original

skrol wrote: »

I have a pair of the DM601 and they do sound quite nice. They were also a thrift store find. I am missing one of the bi-amp bars and one woofer is missing a dust cap but are otherwise in very nice condition. Are yours the original, S2 or S3?

cnh

I thought you were selling these from your title? lol

Nice finds for sure. That year Denon (have the 2807) was a "good" year. Maybe the last good year before Denon started to put its mid-level receivers on a diet that they are still LOSING weight on?

Enjoy!

cnh

skrol

I managed to pick up my AVR-888 (basically same as AVR-2308) for cheap. It was the lowest of their AVRs that year that were build in Japan. You could tell a difference between this one and the made elsewhere models. The SQ, however, still can't touch my DRA-835R for 2ch listening. But then the 835R doesn't do HT.

gmjungbluth

I'm going to hold on to the B&Ws for sure. The Denon is interesting but I really don't have a use for it. I'll find some time to A/B the B&Ws on the Denon and my Pioneer VSX-820K to see what I like. If the Pioneer wins, then easy and the Denon's out. If the Denon wins, then who knows!

I'm still working on getting my Pioneer SX-1250 recapped, so once that is done I'm hoping it will take my main 2-channel duties.

cnh wrote: »

I thought you were selling these from your title? lol

Nice finds for sure. That year Denon (have the 2807) was a "good" year. Maybe the last good year before Denon started to put its mid-level receivers on a diet that they are still LOSING weight on?

Enjoy!

cnh