Bowers & Wilkins DM10 loudspeakers

Produced between 1981 and 1983, these neat mid size speakers follow the winning strategy of B&W, initiated in the late seventies: produce high quality speakers, carefully designed and tested, while controlling the costs in using mid size drivers. For this series, the objective was simply to… approach their 801 reference monitor series, a model to be found in most major recording studios. And their measurement tests were really not disappointing in that respect!

While former B&W speakers were adopting a close layout, the DM10 uses a vented enclosure. The company’s advanced computer techniques, which have been largely responsible for the outstanding performance of their more expensive speakers, were used to develop the woofer, enclosure, and crossover network of the DM10. Its tweeter is the usual one inch dome type used in a number of other B&W speakers. The crossover, unlike those of most comparably priced speakers, is a third-order Butterworth filter that gives an 18-dB-per-octave attenuation outside the operating range of the drivers.

Voices are real, coherent, really clear and warm, which meant a very good crossover alignment. High frequencies are round and silky… Lows are very deep and controlled with the bass reflex. Completely balanced and showing a mastered presence even in lower notes, the listening session was unsurprising after listening to lots of B&W products. The only domain were these were aggressive was the pricing, the strategy of B&W being in these early eighties to expand their market.

Put them on mid rise stands, it can be close to the wall as the bass reflex does its job; or on your bookshelf. Awarded Best Buy by the HifiChoice magazine in 1981.