DT Swiss is making its re-vamped 1700 to better suit the different purposes its wheels serve. That means the 1700 line diverges in form, with the cross country wheels getting more cross country and the enduro and trail wheels getting more gravity-focused.
At the cross country end, the XRC 1700 Spline moves from aluminum to a carbon fibre rim, because the world (and DT’s line) needed another carbon fibre rim. That also sees the price jump up to a range much closer to DT’s 1501 range than the other wheels in the 1700 group. The XRC 1700’s roll on DT’s venerable 350 hubs with Ratchet SL internalsand DT’s Competition Race spokes. That does drop the XRC 1700 weight to a claimed 1,410g, which is lighter than the current, more expensive XRC 1501 wheelset. It’s a solid weight, but also pushes the price well over USD $1,500.
For all other wheels in the 1700 line, DT moves to the 350 DEG hub, incorporating the new Degrees of Freedom integrated anti-pedal kickback system. The rest of the line runs on welded alloy rims, keeping their price much closer to the USD $1,000 ($1,142-1,157, depending on the model). The XM, EX, and HX Spline 1700 wheels all run between 1,825g and 2,019g for a wheelset. Of those, the XM all mountain wheelset is the lightest.
Both the carbon fibre and alloy rims all now use an off-set rim carrying over the 30mm internal width from the previous generation of 1700-series rims. Both the XCR and XM use straight pull spokes while the burlier EX 1700 Classic and HX 1700 use J-bend spokes.