My dad bought his DM4's new back in the 70's. They are in my house to this day and the only pair of speakers I own. Whilst I'm happy to concede that there are modern-day speakers that surpass them I just love the sound. Original, nothing has broken or been replaced. I didn't even know what the they looked like behind the front cover until your review. I've been listening to them for 50 years and my ears still aren't tired of them.

Just love this guy only stumbled across his channel very recently. His appraisals are so honest and down to earth they all make captivating viewing. The guy is a natural love the way you feel like your sitting in an old friends living room listening to his sound advice keep up the good work

Recently (6 weeks ago) purchased off e- bay B&W DM4's £90 (uk) needed woofer positioning / glueing (easy) and box edges wounded in post a little. However, Mr K's shimmering review of them was interesting.. They will make you smile....a lot. The B&W DM4 are classic British monitors, with all the pros and cons of this type of speaker. They sound transparent and precise, with extremely low distortion levels, within their physical limits. They can represent a good project, if you wish to taste that vintage flavour....

Pleasure as alway, Keep the good work coming, Love it

DM4's are pretty good, watch out for early models with the white bass unit surrounds, they can shrink, affecting the bass. DM2 and DM2A are nice speakers too, also using the Celestion HF1300/ Coles 4001G supertweeter.

Great review.I have a pair of B&W dm605 s2 from the 90's and they sound great on an old Tandberg reciever.

Hi, Been a long time since you last had a video pal.Glad to hear from you again. Enrique

Thanks to your advice I just turned around the drivers on my Ditton 250s, magic is beginning to happen... Much better balanced sound now, and that's before I re-cap them! 👍👍

I have just added a REL Sub to my system with DM4s. Not only does it fill out those lacking low frequencies, it actually improves the midrange tone. Beautiful. The timing has also really improved, big big win. Love these speakers mid and top end but they lack authority in the bass.

Thanks for the tip on rotating the drivers. I just rotated all four bass midrange drivers on my 1984 B&W DM1400 speakers. There's a noticeable improvement in sound.

Hi Kelvin, I do look forward to your reviews and this one was well up to your usual high standard, very enjoyable! I had a pair of B&W speakers back in the day, DM1600 if I recall the model number correctly. 1980s not 1970s, great speakers though seeming to do most things right. I replaced them after a kids birthday party - little fingers and tweeters don’t go together. I wish I’d have been aware of your tips regarding indented tweeters back then. Would have saved a shed load of money on “more modern” replacements. It’s entirely possible I’d still have them now. Do take your point regarding progress or sometimes apparent lack of it. Not sure all can be brought down to a single issue but I think “computer says” is part of the conundrum. Measurement only goes so far, ears should be the final arbiter. Also, given that kit is truly international these days, catering to the “British sound” is low down on the list of priorities. Just a thought. Wish you every success with the channel and keep up the good work.

I agree with everything you say ...except the price !! ..they are £250+ now ! ... I blame your glowing review !

I love the way you explain the things, so easy to understand and passionate! thanks to be man

Bowers & Wilkins DM4s were the first good set of speakers I ever bought and I still have them.

Thank you for making me buy them!

Agreed Kelvin, those early Sugden amps are excellent, I have an original wood cased A21 and it betters every new amp with my Klipch Forte II's.

Hi very nice review . I followed your suggestions and I twisted by 180 degree the woofers and added a thin sealing tape at the inner perimeter of the woofers . I also changed the internal wires and soldered the terminals. The woofers were covered with foam at the back of the basket but it crumbled completely so I replaced the foam as well. I agree with you the dm 4 resulted to be better sounding than the dm 14 in a direct comparison I made. I have to say that dm 16 are the best sounding vintage b&w speakers I listened to so far… but I did not listen to dm 6.

Got a pair of these in the mid 70’s still sold great. Enough said.

Hi, thanks for the amazing video again, much appreciated. I'd like to hear some more reviews of some true 3 way speakers (not so much, bass driver with two tweeters) that are good in your opinion.

Great review , i totaly agree with your listening experince of those dm4's , had 5 years second hand hifi shop in brussels and its beats in midhighs many highend speakers...its amazing with subs added ....

Wow been a long time not upload video .. nice review 👍🏽

Actually a really good combination with these is a Toshiba SA500 receiver.They are really excellent sounding receivers.The DM4 has more of a studio monitor balance-quite neutral and dry sounding compared to Spendor BC1.Rogers Studio 1 are more half way between the two.What is interesting about the DM4 is that there are no resistors in the crossover at all .That is very unusual and shows very closely matched driver driver sensitivity.Also the woofers are 4 ohm whereas all the other BBC inspired speakers are 8 -10 ohm.So the DM4s suit SS amps best.

Thank you for the review!

Just picked up a couple of pairs of DM4's to use with my Sansui A-317 amp, they sound fabulous. Thanks for the tips on both these items Kelvin. One of the Celestion HF1300 tweeters is gone on one of the speakers, but otherwise they are perfect.

Hi nice detailed review. I own 2 pairs of these speakers for years . and I can endorse your findings. consider putting an AWS608 next to it. To give the DM4 Mid/woofers some rest. and the bass deficiency is probably supplemented (not too much) And Keep up the good work and keep going.

Got a pair of DM4s thanks to this review, and they sound lovely. Then I stumbled over a pair of DM2a. Had to get them. Same sweet tweeters as in DM4, and they have really nice bass, thight and punchy. Do you have experience with Dm2s? I think you might just like them. This is by far my favourite hifi channel, honest and entertaining. Most other hifi reviewers almost always end up saying "very good for the money" on just about anything they talk about. Keep up the good work! Cheers B

Great reviews, thanks. Always wanted to listen to these. I have the similar looking DM2 Mk1's - same drivers but a transmission line design internally which made them (i) heavy and, (ii) just too expensive and complicated to build. These were, indeed, more expensive than the Wharfedales and Celestions of the day and I recall doing listening comparisons at B&W's shop in Worthing (couldn't afford them then of course!).

i bought a pair of DM4's from my friend in 1996 for about £80 as a stopgap until i could get my 1978 Tannoy Cheviot's re-coned and i still have them i only replaced them about 2 years ago for a pair of Q Acoustic 3050's but i intend to set them up in a 2nd system and i never got the Tannoy's re-coned but i still have them stored in the spare bedroom

You're always so positive, you should some videos about rubbish gear so we know not to buy them, so thanks for mentioning Toshiba, now we know to avoid. 😁 When can we hang out so I can ask you a million questions?...

Great video educational and correctly said. I have them so I agree with most of things you said, very realistic and true review. I wanna add they have polypropylene crossover, for this model Bower imported it from Sweden company called ITT, very quality crossover.

You should be on the lookout for any audiolab 8000a about 130 £150 very good integrated amplifier and probably one of the best phono stage you'll get in an integrated even today, but like with anything you have to be careful buying old have some burning issues and you don't know what sort of repairs it might have had if any same with the Sugden might have been upgraded. Could be electrolytic capacitor issue in the speaker. if you changing the cable you're changing the capacitance and inductance. Find electrolytics probably the blue alcap Changing for the same value but metal film polyurethane capacitor and you'll need a small non- inductor resistor value 4 Watts in series 0.3 Ohm's help with that mid-range bass. Especially the higher frequencies should come to life the tweet might sound overly bright substitute for higher value resistor if it feels bright you could do this with the capacitor or change the resistor that will go to the tweeter something like a .5 to .7 Ohm's

Great review Calvin...I have a pair of these that I did a little bit of your suggested advice...what of these 3 is your favorite, if it is the BCll...what makes it better than BCl ❓ B&W DM4, BC1 or is the BCll the best?

I'm listening to this review on my B&W DM4s (in teak).

Loved your comment on the LS50...I hear them at shows and at dealers and they never sound any good to me. Look nice though.

Nice review.

I have had a pair for decades, brilliant, mine have a slightly different looking bass midrange drivers wonder which one is the newer.

Do you have any experience with Castle Acoustics? I bought a pair of Richmond speakers last year and I haven't found that much information about them online. I'm curious to know more about where they fit in the context of other speakers from the period (February 1974). The main things I know about them are that they were one of the first designs to use front-facing bass-reflex ports and that they have rubber surrounds.

when you rotate it are you putting it up side down or just half way ?

I have a pair of Walnut DM4s that I bought in 1976, I think for £160. Not used them for quite a few years now, though.

I managed to get a mint pair from gumtree £190 2022 I paid they are mint . I have them hooked up to my Harmon Kardon Fisher Akai pioneer receivers with a Sansui 212 turntable with a selector box so I can switch between the receivers.

Very good your video,

My first speakers were the B&W DM4s.

Interesting 👍

Incidentally, off subject, but Stevie Wonder is indeed sublime. My favourite of ALL time. Speaking of test songs. Interestingly, seeing as you speak of lack of definition in the bass, whenever I change my stylus or something, I deliberately check the sound through my DM4s with the opening couple of minutes of Side One, 'The Essential', from Mark King's solo album 'Influences' which is a lovely mid-tempo slap bass track with a brass section and electric guitar part. So, how ironic that I use a 'bass guitar specialist' track to test my DM4s!!....(and personally I think all the tone of Mark King's JD is there)....so, go figure, as the Americans say! :)

hi...just received a used pair of bowers & Wilkins DM4(Pro 40) - (not sure what pro 40 has over normal Dm4) today that were in good condtion...i turned the bass driver 180 degrees and tightened but when i took the other bass driver out and rotated noticed a metal round piece was stuck to the on the magnent of the bass driver...don't know where it came from...maybe it fell off inside during shipping...it's not a capacitor but looks like one...i put the driver back in after rotating and tightened...seems to play well so who knows?🤔 PS/ they need a subwoofer that i'll get...the sound is SO CLEAR!😮...I'm impressed! edit: found out the piece stuck to bass driver magnet was a piece of metal that came unglued from the center of one of the coils...I just glued it back...no problems...sounds great

Hi Kelvin, enjoying your video's, great info! I am offered a pair of B&W DM2A (transmission line) speakers in very good condition for €250,-. What is your opinion on those? Or would the DM4 be a better choice? Want to use them on my Luxman R1500 receiver which sounds great to me (very nice midrange, detailed, smooth, 2x 75W).

My dad Had a pair of these when I was a kid. Pretty certain they were this model definitely bowers and Wilkins don’t no how long he had them for but eventually sold them in favour of a pair of bc1s. They certainly are a good looking speaker tho

After seeing your review I got in search of this Speakers. I found it! The detail is wonderful. Very nice bass, always controlled. I also own a pair of S pendor 2/2 and is a good fight on who is the best ... in the b&w probably the super tweeter makes the difference expanding the scene and details. Spendor perhaps have more body .... what do you think? Luca

FIY, SOUND IS WHAT THE LISTNER PRESEVIVE your options wont appeal to everyone, with that said. I have a pair of the B&W dm4s ive had them since 1978. Untill i blew the last midbass driver i listed to them all the time. But I ran them on a 20 watt reciver and ran it into clipping. Becuse my young at the time dumbass didn't know any better. I think the pair back in the 70s were like 350 us it was an entry leval speaker into the B&W line. They also changed peoples views on what size a speaker you needed. I mean in the 70s people were building speaker out or 4 sheets of plywood per speaker with 2 18" drivers in them. This is no joke one guy I knew had 2 of these monsters in his apartment and barely room to sit down it was Hella loud. Remember the maxell comercial well it wasnt just his hair moving you could hear it 3 blocks away.

I'm considering B&W, not BMW, DM7 Mk2s. To use with an 85W Arcam integrated amp. Anyone see any problems? They are old but seem tidy.

Good review. I haven't listened to many vintage B&W products but I grew up in the 80's and 90's with my dad's Spendor preludes and have B&W 702 S2's now. Speakers are very subjective but I'm very happy with them....after changing the cables a couple of times and the amp and positioning them better. Any thoughts on the 700 S2 range? Curious to hear what others think.

Kelvin, Review a set of B&W DM2a's if you can snag a pair. I'm curious as to you're thoughts on those versus the DM4's. I have a pair of DM4's and I supplement the bass with a subwoofer. It solves the problem and it all sounds great. To bad you don't have more access to North American speakers. You would be very surprised if you heard a pair of Boston Acoustics HD7, HD8, A60 or A70's. Cheers from Toronto.

Thanks!

Has anyone here tried a subwoofer with these...Carl do you think a subwoofer would help? I think it might fill in the entire sound❓

May i ask if you ever got your hands on a pair of the bigger Keesonic speakers like the KBM oder KRF or Ranger and what your opinion is about them. :) Kindly regards from Germany

Good review! What's about American vintage speakers like Ar, Klh? Are you familiar with them?

🤗 THANKS ….GOOD INFO..👍 I HAVE ALWAYS PREFERRED 3way speakers 🤗. BTW…I think in the case of making 2 changes at the same time that you know from experience will be an improvement is NOT A PROBLEM… (also I learned something NEW …doing a 180 on old woofers😊😍😍😍

listening to this video using my DM4 connect with my NAD C320 amp

Hi Kelvin, I recently got a pair of these to combine with my vintage (1972) Philips GA212 turntable. Any tips for an amp to go with this set?

got a pair of these for a tenner in a car boot sale many years ago. And sold them to a mate for - a tenner. He was made up with them. Yes, im an idiot! They sound great, much better than you would expect a speaker of this vintage to sound, but the bass driver will hit the end stops pretty quickly if you turn the wick up too loud. It's brecause the port is tuned really high on this speaker. Its just a hole in the front of the cabinet so port resonance wont limit the Xmax in the lowest octaves.

These are wonderful need mounting on solid stands as close to the wall as possible bliss

Great video, as all of your honest and unpretentious content are. I recently acquired a nice set of DM4s, and next to my Beovox S45-2 they need to time for me to acknowledge their quality. At first listen, they sound a bit less apparent sound stage and less brightness, compared to the S45-2s. One thing that I would like to find out, because of their age and lack of knowledge on their history, is if the super-tweeters are working. Could you advice me on a how to check this, without too much hassle and unscrewing? Many thanks for all the work you put in your channel!

DM 4 my Love

Hi Kelvin, loving your reviews. I've got a pair of DM110i's right now, thinking of 'upgrading' to the DM4, would you recommend this upgrade or is it not going to make that much difference? Thanks! by the way; I will be using them with a NAD 3020i

Hello there, thanks for the review. Owning by now a pair of DM4 ... nice sound Was wandering what you think of its bigger brother, the DM2a.

Hi - You are doing a great job. I am a music lover and a great fan of punchy Mid frequency and high frequency sounds This is my current setup and looking to do the below based on some of your videos Current Setup 1. Yamaha AS500 Amp 2. Monitor Bronze BX2 speakers 3. Aperion Audio Ribbon Super Tweeter 4. Beresford Bushmaster TC 7530 DAC Upgrade (that I'm thinking of) 1. Use NAD 3020 as the pre-amp (not sure if I can use this as the pre-amp for Yamaha AS500. Please can you advise?) 2. B & W DM 4 3. Aperion Audio Ribbon Super Tweeter (existing) 4. Beresford Bushmaster TC 7530 DAC (existing) Not sure if I can combine Monitor BX2 in this mix. Please can you advise? As mentioned I like the punchy mid and pleasant/clear high frequency Please can you advise me ? Or, please suggest an alternate upgrade option. Thanks

Ican get the DM4 for not much money. I want to ask if a Yamaha CA-410 amplifier can doe some goed job at this speakers ?

Those old bird boxes are bright and spitty

Nice review. I just got a pair of these speakers. Looking for an amp now. You think a Pioneer A-304R (8 Ohm, 35 watts per channel) would be a good fit? Thanks

Great review! I have a ultralineair 2x10watt tube amp. Will these speaker fit? They have high sensitivity right?

Do you know you say Yah at the end of a lot of your sentences? Lol. Good review

I understand a better amp will result in a better sound coming out of these speakers. But how do I know I'm working with a good amp?

Have you tried adding a good sub-woofer with the DM4?

How would they stack up against Bang and Olufsen Beovox CX-100?

Hey Kelvin, great videos. Would these sounds good with a Marantz 2238B? Cheers

Nice one...

Hi Kelvin,did you hear the DM16s?

Hello ! Why do u show us this crappy Kef there, at the left. Didn't u find a buyer for the pair ? U should dig in the broadband speakers rabbit hole on day, Kevin... Seems it's pretty fascinating too.

I read somewhere that European speaker systems, and UK in particular, have a different design "philosophy" from American designs in that you guys prefer a more direct radiation. American ears have been trained to appreciate wide dispersion. One of my most important criteria for speakers is wide dispersion, hence 1" or smaller dome tweeters. What's your take on this?????

Did you test your DM4's on valve amplifiers ? Who you think an 15W push pull will do the trick ? Cheers.

Is it wise to rotate every speaker a 180 degrees every year ?

This upset every body, I bought my DM4 from warehouse clearence from B.M.W 10 years ago brand new never touched for £5.00, made in 1987 for B.B.C. All had to do add active subwoofer from Krell, the Krell Resolution from closing down sale in Leicester for £300.00

Hi Kelvin,these or the Kef Chorales?

Hello! Would C(ssss)yrus be a good match?

Hi Kelvin. After watching your reviews about Sansui amplifiers and B&W DM 4. I would like to know how about matching Sansui 221 with these B&W DM4? I've found both and about to make an offer. Have you ever tried B&W with Sansui receivers?. Hoping to be replied. Thanks...

I might be wrong but I think the supertweeters are so 'super' they may be dealing with frequencies even HIGHER than 12000Hz!!! Sounds like it to me....higher than a hiss through clenched teeth. :)

So your saying that the spider saggs over time?

Don't tell me these are better than the Spendor BC1s now,because i already bought the Spendors 😅...There is another speakers that i would love to hear your opinion about.The Pageant Series 2.

Do you service your own gear?

DM4 very thin veneer......look out! Isold my mothers from 1974 for €175. Very good condition.

Hi Kelvin have you heard "I miss you Kate" instrumental by sting early 90's to audition speakers I find it very revealing see what you think .

Dear Kelvin, I will get DM4 for my office, I use to listen Jazz, Classic and Rock in my 15m square room... Can you give me few different amp's wich can be suit well with the speakers please ? I would like to get a beautiful vintage amp (with wood if possible ?)... Unfortunatly, my budget is around 100~200€ max Thank you in advance for your British helping, Best regards, From a Froggy who loves music ;)

For quicker, cleaner bass, try removing all of that wool from the cabinet. It's supposed to make the cabinet behave like a larger enclosure.. adiabatic something or other. But it just makes the bass sound...well, woolly

EBay in the US would sell them for $1,100. Broken and ripped. People think they have solid gold. Some people actually want more than they paid for stuff. Use it for 45 years and call it “vintage audiophile” for 3X the original cost.

You’re not related to the cricketer Graham Gooch are you? You really remind me of him.

i am surprisd you dont have the vinatg missin 710 kevin

You did 3 things then!!

For me i thinking cut the bass off at 80 hz and use a subwoofer.

NOICE

Store your speakers upside down!!! 😁