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My B&W DW13/4 woofers just arrived!

PastTechFan

PastTechFan

Super Member
So, these are a little obscure. Likely originally built by EMI. A rare instance of round (not oval) woofers from that firm.

AKer "pingu turbo" has a pair of 15" EMIs. Light green cast baskets. Massive!

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=489987

Last summer I saw them listed as "Wharfedales". They were identified by Bazzman as EMI 13/3RS's. (Said to be used by B&W.)

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=537656

Recently saw them still available and reduced, researched them a bit, and went for it! :banana:

Will post with some more info (and questions) later.

One of the pics shows a Wharfedale W12 in comparison.
 

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A little bit I've found out.

So far as I can tell, these were originally made by EMI, but in 1969, Dennis Ward (hence the DW designation?) left EMI and went to B&W. He seems to have brought these with him. B&W then installed them as LF drivers in their new (electrostatic) DM70 model. So far as I can tell there were about 3-4 models of this driver during their (short) production.

These were big floor-standing speakers made from about 1970 to '75(?). There were 2 cab designs, one traditional, and the other pure 70's modern! They seem to have a following, and fetch fairly large $$. That auction site shows big numbers asked for just the woofers too! (search DW13/70 or DW/13/5RS). Well out of my snack bracket!

A German outfit does restoration on the DM70's, at

http://loudspeaker-repair-service.reromanus.net/refurbish_DM70.htm

and kindly provides links to the 1970 (and '74) manuals. (I have the PDFs if anyone's interested.) The 1970 text has a long essay by John Bowers, with test results (and he thanks Dennis Ward). Anyway, the woofers lived in an "infinite baffle" cabinet with O/S dimensions of (Standard model) 32" x 19.5" x 15". Crossed over at "400 Hz".

Specs and questions to follow.
 

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Yet more trivia....

So the drivers went through various models (and designations) DW13/3, /4, /5RS, /70 and 70/BX. Later models lost the green paint, and went to dark grey. Finally, they went to a bextrene cone (I think).

The only specs I can find on these so far are Thiele Small parameters for the last (bextrene) version. I've attached a pdf.
 

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PastTechFan said:
So far as I can tell, these were originally made by EMI, but in 1969, Dennis Ward (hence the DW designation?) left EMI and went to B&W. He seems to have brought these with him. B&W then installed them as LF drivers in their new (electrostatic) DM70 model. So far as I can tell there were about 3-4 models of this driver during their (short) production.

These were big floor-standing speakers made from about 1970 to '75(?). There were 2 cab designs, one traditional, and the other pure 70's modern! They seem to have a following, and fetch fairly large $$. That auction site shows big numbers asked for just the woofers too! (search DW13/70 or DW/13/5RS). Well out of my snack bracket!

A German outfit does restoration on the DM70's, at

http://loudspeaker-repair-service.reromanus.net/refurbish_DM70.htm

and kindly provides links to the 1970 (and '74) manuals. (I have the PDFs if anyone's interested.) The 1970 text has a long essay by John Bowers, with test results (and he thanks Dennis Ward). Anyway, the woofers lived in an "infinite baffle" cabinet with O/S dimensions of (Standard model) 32" x 19.5" x 15". Crossed over at "400 Hz".

Specs and questions to follow.
Click to expand...

In the UK the Shackman name was famous in the 70's for making a hybrid speaker using a moving coil bass unit and an electrostatic tweeter. The model name Dynastatic comes to mind. The Shackman place was not far from here, London England.
 
Radfordman said:
In the UK the Shackman name was famous in the 70's for making a hybrid speaker using a moving coil bass unit and an electrostatic tweeter. The model name Dynastatic comes to mind. The Shackman place was not far from here, London England.
Click to expand...

Hi R,

I had never heard of those. A bit of googling shows that the same German outfit that repairs the B&W DM-70s, also does the Shackman E'stats. Seems the Dynastatic even used an EMI LF driver, later replaced by a "Volt" in the later model.

I'm really enjoying these woofers in my "rough cut" open baffles!

Link to my OB thread; http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=588445
 
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PastTechFan said:
Hi R,

I had never heard of those. A bit of googling shows that the same German outfit that repairs the B&W DM-70s, also does the Shackman E'stats. Seems the Dynastatic even used an EMI LF driver, later replaced by a "Volt" in the later model.

I'm really enjoying these woofers in my "rough cut" open baffles!
Click to expand...

Hi, Shackman was actually in Barnet, London. I will look in old Hi Fi magazines to see if I can find any advertisements for the original Shackman Company.

I think the originator was Alex Shackman, but that is from memory of a long time ago.
 
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