ITI, have you gotten around to setting up your new DCMs? It appears that you aren’t the only member here that has fond memories of that model. I have traded a few e-mails with a guy within a couple hours drive from me that supposedly has a set of the DCM-10s. I’m really just waiting to hear your analysis on the ones you were going to set up and test. Thanks
Set up, no? Hook up? Yes. We plugged them in yesterday and listened to them for about 45 mins. I'm swamped with projects and, on top of that, planning our new showroom. So it's tough to find a lot of time these days.
The speakers I got were the DCM12. The only difference between the 2 is the woofer size. The 10 had tighter bass if I remember correctly.
I sat down with a long time friend of mine who's been in the audio business a few more years than I have. He wanted to listen to what I was getting excited about and be there to laugh with me if they bombed or high-five me if they were really cool.
Price I Paid: The 17 year old kid who was selling them to me lived about 3 hours away. He bought them from his uncle for $600 4 years ago (wow, did his uncle rip him off!) but now had to sell them because he just had a baby. He was asking $175 for the pair. I didn't haggle with him and told him that if he brought them all the way down to me I'd give him extra. The poor kid couldn't have been a nicer more polite person so I gave him $250 for the speakers and delivery. He can use that more than I can at this point in our lives.
Hooking them up: I just grabbed an extra Onkyo TX-SR608 I had laying around and plugged them in stereo. I set the speakers to large, turned the Sub and all of the other surround channels to "no", and left the other controls to factory (or whatever they were at when I last stopped messing with them from playing around a few weeks ago). I set them in my 12' x 19' x 8' room about 6' apart - not optimal. Mind you, I didn't have time! I set the receiver on the ground between them and plugged in my 2nd generation mini 8GB Zune (NOT the most glamorous of sources or cabling).
Performance: My friend and I listened to several things to test them out. Rolling Stones Live, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Dave Matthews Band Live, Eric Clapton, & Blues Traveler. Two things really stood out with the DCM12 right off the bat: The tweeter & the woofer.
- The tweeter is phenomenal. It really made the music come to life. I could not be happier with it.
- The 12" woofer was a bit sloppy in the upper frequencies. I'm 100% confident that this can be cleaned up with proper set up. For my quick listen I wasn't going to come away glowing about the upper bass. Lower bass tones slammed with punch and were EXCELLENT. Which is why I think the issue is set up & placement. The speaker never struggled to play loud & clean.
A few other notes:
- We sat around 14' away. These can get LOUD without any distortion. 21' away will not be a problem for you. In fact, I think the muddy upper bass could be attributed to the following sum of parts:
1 Placement in room
2: Distance apart
3: Distance from us
4: Doing an actual EQ set up instead of just plugging them in.
5: Small size of the room for such large speakers
6: Is there a worse source in 2010 than an 8GB Zune with a mini jack?
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NOTE: I always liked the DCM10 a little better than the 12 for its tighter bass. I remember listening to both of them over and over again at Circuit City years ago and felt the bass on the 10 was a better fit for me. The listening room at Circuit City, though, was also too small for a 12” speaker like this. -
- The speakers sounded their best with more volume vs. really really low. Part of this is my source and room, I am sure. In your case, being 21' away you'll be putting some power to them and will be fine. These will fill your room. Also, I would not call these your traditional horn speaker.
- The mid range sound & punch was fine. I would not call it bad. I would not call it the greatest ever. I would say it is considerably above what anyone would have the right to expect out of a speaker like this.
- To mess around at the end we hooked up an $1800 PhaseTech PC Sub they sent me to sample. This is a brand new wireless model with a front firing 12 & down firing 12 passive radiator. We set the speakers to small & sub to yes, and put on Kanye West "Amazing". That stuff all slammed with bass. It was more to show him the wireless subwoofer technology PhaseTech is showing at Cedia than to further test the DCMs. It was all way way too much for a room that size. That Sub has been incredible in every room I've tried it in with an absolute TON of punch, accuracy, and feel (much much more so than the similarly priced Velodyne Optimum12 I've also been messing with over the past few months).
At the end of the day my friend said to me that these were sweet for the $250 I paid. He said he was really surprised that a DCM was built like that to begin with because it was way different than their typical speaker. He even called me an hour later and said we need to put them in my bigger room and hook up a CD player. He agreed that the muddy bass was probably caused by the small room we had them in and the source. We were both discussing how crisp and smooth things like guitars, drums, horns, and voices came through.
All in all, carefully plan your demo (source, source material, etc.) and go have a listen to the DCM10. Even take your own receiver if you'd like. You never know what kind of junk the other person is powering these with in their home. I think these are as good or better for your room than anyone would have the right to expect for under $400. I'm happy I bought them and would tell you if I wasn't. Good luck and follow back up with us if you go take a listen!
NOTE: These are not CX, CM or anything like that. These models have a very distinct look and only go by: DCM10 or DCM12. It's a very simple model number.
