B&W DM70 Continentals

[wolfgang]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=220051795225

This is not mine. There are some nice photos of these speakers that I have heard of many times but never seen a real pair as they seem to be out of production long ago and quite rare. I just thought there might be a few more B&W lovers who would like to drool over them a bit before they are sold.

Some more details here.

http://www.mats-enterprise.co.uk/dm70page/

[chinets]

Very cool Wolfgang 8)

Yup, never seen one before either, until you sent this picture :T

They look like that new garbage can type of B&W speaker, that B&W will produce in the future ,that they say sounds better than the 800 series :roll:
I believe someone in the forum displayed these new R2 D2 type of B&W speakers, and WOW, they look like these old DM7 speakers ( I think that is what they are called) that you attached here Wolfgang and white too. :lol:

Got the 800 series, but still drooling ( love all B&W speakers) :T ;x(

Cheers and thanks for sharing

[Fraise]

I think its unfortunate that B&W didnt further develop their hybrid electrostatic speakers. They're so open sounding without the negative characteristics of have having an enclosure and also a crossover right in the middle of the midrange.

[caleb]

I had a pair of these about 30 years ago and they were very advanced for the time with the electrostatic driver and the regular bass unit.

Also they were farily easy to drive compared to the 800Ds.

However, the electrostatic drive units were a bit prone to arcing and damage resulting from it.

[wolfgang]

Nice to need an ex-owner of these speakers. We now know reliability issues ESL could resolved. What do you think of the present generations of B&W's designs compared to those in the past in that was it a correct for them to move on to more conventional cone drivers over the ESL?

[caleb]

ELS v/s cones

It is a bit difficult to answer this Wolfgang as the sound quality from the ES unit was very "sweet " compared to the kevlar unit and diamond tweeter.

I do believe however that if B&W had put more effort and research into the development and reliabiblity aspects of the ES driver then we would have had a marvelous combination of speaker elements.

My reason for saying this is that if you take the original Quad electrostatic full range electronic driver (FRED) and compare it to the present range of Quad electrostatics they are worlds apart...

The reason is the company's comittment to the electrostatic principal that Peter Walker started, and which was very evident in the various improvements - (that is until the yellow perils bought them out).