Review: DCM TimeWindow 1 Speaker

I still have a pair of original Time Windows. They probably aren't as accurate, nor as dynamic, as many of the best modern speakers, but they're the speakers I always return to. In fact, I'm listening to my pair as I write. They're just really enjoyable and non-fatiguing, in my experience. I actually wrote a pretty thorough review on Epinions, to which I'll try and post a link. My Time Windows outlasted several well-known speakers in my collection, including Vandersteen 2Cis. I finally sold them (the Time Windows), regretted it, and scored a cosmetically challenged pair cheap, which I refinished and am now using (along with Cambridge Soundworks Towers, AR2axs, KLH 6s, and others, depending on my mood). Really nice speakers, I think.

http://www.epinions.com/review/DCM_Time_Windows_epi/content_511587618436

When I was a kid, my neighbor had a pair of these. He knew I played drums (for obvious reasons) so he had me over once to show off his brand new Sony CD player ("the way of the future, son"). He even had a flashy TEAC graphic EQ to boot. Man oh man, when he dropped in a Rush CD and all the levels started to jump up and down, I went a little spacey. I had never heard anything sound that amazing. I used to house sit for them and spent a lot of time listening to those Time Windows. But I can't remember "what" the sound was like. And as much as I'd love to hear those speakers again, I wonder if reality would hold up to my memory? Kind of like your old neighborhood looking smaller than you remember. Anyhow, those DCM's planted a seed and I'd like to think my younger self would approve of my "grown-up" rig. (Although he'd wonder what I was doing with all these old fashioned records and this laptop/dac/internet thingy.)

I have a pair of DCM Time Windows(they do not have any other numbers or letters )that I have had since 1980. I previously had a Denon DRA-300 running them. It has stopped, I thought I would seek some advise in a new set up. I also am running a pair of Klipsch bookshelf speakers(KSB 3.1)with the time windows. I have approx. 30ft lenghth to each. Any advise you have would be much appreciated?
thank you

I bought a pair in the late 70s from Fat Julian's Audio in Atlanta based on Peter Aczel's review. Perhaps it was the amplification I used back then but I never really warmed up to them. Especially when I think back and realize now I could have gotten a pair of LS3/5a speakers for less money. They just didn't image as well as the LS3/5a speakers. And I wasn't into bass that much but I upgraded from a pair of ADS L-710 speakers and felt that the ADS really had bass slam that could produce drum kicks like no others from the period. The Time Windows just couldn't do that well.

When we were at the showroom in Atlanta one of Julian's assistants A/B's the Time Windows against a pair of similarly priced Magnepans. The Magnepans sounded dull in the highs and my 3 friends and I were all impressed more by the Time Windows although I do recall the Magnepans could throw up a stage quite well even in those days. So maybe my amplification and preamplification just weren't good enough. I sold them to a friend and he's kept them for years and is still happy with his purchase.

I've moved on to home built Linkwitz Orion speakers which are in another league altogether.

I'm pretty sure one of the reasons I wasn't taken with the Time Windows is that I love to hear a 2 channel system create a 3D illusion of a soundstage and still do. I know now from experience that a preamp and amp can prevent a speaker from throwing that soundstage. But the LS3/5as can and do and so do the Magnepans -each in its own way. The midrange of the LS3/5a was also much more neutral than the Time Windows I'd love to hear the Time Windows with some of the newer better amplifiers that are out there as my opinion seems quite out of sync with the rest of this group and I sure as heck might change my opinion if I were to hear them again. I do still recall how we four college students all agreed that the Time Windows beat the pants off the Magnepans.

Incidentally, I don't recall the high end as being dull. In fact, I wasn't taken with that metal dome tweeter at all.

All due respect to the PR fellow from the new owners, but I used to be an occasional member of Bob Waterstripe's monthly breakfast club out at his house on North Territorial road. If you were the top seller of Time Windows in your store, you were welcome to his historic home for a killer breakfast...then a day of hanging with a few of the other salespeople from around Michigan, listening to the various systems Bob had in every room of the old judge's mansion.

It was during the recession of the early-80s, and a bunch of failing dealers paid their bills with inventory. Every room was a treat. He had way more hifi than furniture.

I would love to have seven of the original Time Windows to make a full surround system out of 'em. We used to pair them with Carver cubes in mono...and spiked them from the moment we discovered TipToes. Nothin' quite like 'em back in 1984.

DCM stood for Drug Capitol of the Midwest, but I like Mitek's spin better. DeCriminalize is ok...but a bare minimum!

Cheers,
John
Detroit