B&W DM610i and Polk Monitor 5jr

Art K.

The Voodoo You Do!
Bought these speakers last week. I owned the Monitor 10's I believe back around 1990-1991...been awhile. Anybody with any preferences. If you are familiar with them any particular suggestions for amplification etc. The B&W's appear to be VERY power hungry and the bass falls off rapidly at 70hz or so. I know that the B&W was well regarded at one time and that's the extent of my info on them....not much online so I'm hoping to from AKer's with some experience with these.

Thanks in advance for any responses.
 
If I had to choose between the two I'd pick the B&Ws. I have the 5jrs and 1st generation B&W DM-602s. I'm not familiar with the DM-610i model. My 602s have better sound and build quality and sound more like the floor standing M10s.

Hope that helps.
 
We have a pair of Polk 5jrs in my son's set up. They sound very crisp but the bass is adequate but not powerful---afterall, these are bookshelf speakers.

That said, they work well in his bedroom with all sorts of music.
 
I feel, after owning 5s and 7s, that there's a marked increase in performance when you go to the 7s. Friends who've owned the 5s, 7s and 10s tend to agree with me.

The 5s are great little speakers- but you get noticeably more performance moving up.

The B&W early speakers seem to have a good rep.

Unfortunately for me I've never heard them.

The 5s should run off anything from a 30wpc Marantz 1060, a 50wpc Sansui 317, a (approx) 65wpc Kenwood 7100 or Yamaha 810, all the way up to 100-120wpc units. I've run 'em on all of these.

They get "bigger" with a bit of extra volume knob added.
 
just got a pair of 8yr old BW DM602s and have been blown away with their performance from a 6.5" base/mid and a 1" tweet. Even the base approaches my big JBL Olympus's with 15"ers. But am thinking of supplementing with a subwoofer to cover the floor. Frequency floor that is.
Am only driving them with 50W so far tho. 60W+ is next.
 
Anybody with any preferences. If you are familiar with them any particular suggestions for amplification etc.

I own Mini Monitors, 5Jr's, 5's, and 7b's. Someday I'll have 10's!

The 5Jr's are very capable little speakers for what they are - bookshelf speakers. Mine are at our tiny lake cabin being driven by an el cheapo Vector Research vr2200 and I'm always surprised at how good they sound.

My 5's are a later version but they do have a larger presence than the 5Jr's. Honestly I have not given them an extended listening.

The 7b's are my babies, I've owned them since new and I'd probably run into a burning house to save them.

So far the best combination I've heard with Polk speakers are Yamaha powered. I've driven Polks with both a CR-420 and a CR-620 and the sum is definitely greater than the parts. When new, the 7b's were powered by a NAD 7020 and that combo still sounds pretty good to me.

So it seems that a "natural sounding" amplification source works best with Polks.

Some day I'll have a Yamaha CR-1020 driving Polk Monitor 10s... that is my vintage audio goal!
 
I had a CR450 driving my 5jr's and they sounded pretty good...the problem with the Yammie is that darn dual volume/balance knob...what a pain. For now the polks are in the closet and I'm giving the B&W's a good audition. Their biggest issue is lack of deep bass...even in my 9x10 office. The Polks and Pinnacles (AC650's which embarrased both the Polks and the B&W's but which are now in my wife's system...permanently!!) both performed well in the room for bass....
 
Sounds like a polarity problem. Either a woofer is wired backwards or you have your wiring backwards. Lack of bass is not a B&W issue.

Or, you aren't pumping enough watts. And that's probably the case with the CR-450.
 
Check the B&W specs, the DM 610i falls off pretty good after 70hz. I drove them with my Sansui G5000 and Rega Mira 3 and they could have used lots more.

I'm definitely keeping them, however today I found a newly restored pair of Boston 120's which really sound good in the office with the CR450...needs more power to be at their best though.
 
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