Wharfedale W45 10” woofer very interesting.

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I took a look at one of the 10” Woofers on the W45’s and I was surprised and very pleased with what I found. While the Tweeters (BIC - 8983) Midrange (BIC-413) are British Industry Corporation speakers the 10” woofer is manufactured by Wharfedale. It has a heavy cast frame and a cloth surround.
The crossover as expected is like the one on the W35 4 inductors, and 3 Minerva NPE’s

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hmm, I just picked up a pair at auction in really great shape(paid a whole $5 for the pair), Have yet to open them up(or listen to them for that matter), wonder if the drivers are the same as yours. I expect the pots will need to be cleaned and the caps replaced. Do you happen to know the cap values offhand?
 
The 2nd speaker is still in transit and I will have it Thursday. I have not listened to them yet. Other then pulling out the Woofer to see who it was made by and to get a peek at the crossover, then giving the case a heavy paste waxing I have done nothing with them yet.

This is the crossover out of the W35, along with the Minerva NPE’s that came off of them. What I saw in the brief look at the W45 was the same layout. The inductors and NPE’s will be different values of course. The Mundorf E-Cap’s I used replaced the Minerva’s were fantastic.

W35 crossover
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These 48 year old Minerva’s on both of the W35 crossovers all tested out in spec’s with good ESR’s. Despite this finding on the W35’s I will still change out these the cap’s on W45’s with the Mundorf E-Cap NPE’s.
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I am using this Class “D” audio amp to power the W35’s I remember the minimum drive needed for the W35 was 20 Watts. 20 Watts was the standard minimum suggested drive for all acoustic suspend speakers back at the time. Unsure of the maximum drive. I am going to go no higher then 50 Watts. The Dayton Audio DTA-120BT does 60 Watts per channel into 4 Ohms, the Wharfedale’s are 8 Ohm speakers so That would be about 35 Watts which is working great the W35’s do not sound strained even at maximum volume. This amp is on sale right now at Parts Express I think I am going to purchase a 2nd one. Note it has Bluetooth nice to stream from my iPhone.

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The 2nd speaker is still in transit and I will have it Thursday. I have not listened to them yet. Other then pulling out the Woofer to see who it was made by and to get a peek at the crossover, then giving the case a heavy paste waxing I have done nothing with them yet.

This is the crossover out of the W35, along with the Minerva NPE’s that came off of them. What I saw in the brief look at the W45 was the same layout. The inductors and NPE’s will be different values of course. The Mundorf E-Cap’s I used replaced the Minerva’s were fantastic.

W35 crossover
View attachment 1307325

These 48 year old Minerva’s on both of the W35 crossovers all tested out in spec’s with good ESR’s. Despite this finding on the W35’s I will still change out these the cap’s on W45’s with the Mundorf E-Cap NPE’s.
View attachment 1307324

Thanks, I'm going to give mine a listen tonite to see where I'm at. I was completely stumped on how to get the grills off - figured they were stapled on like some EVs I have. I took a magnet to see if I could locate the staples and lo&behold the grills popped off stuck to the magnet. I had no idea they used magnets to attach the grill. Of course some of the magnets had become unglued - easy fix . Will see if the cap values are the same as what you posted, will check to see if they are in spec but probably not - expect I will replace with some Daytons from PE
 
I used Dayton’s on the original crossovers on the W35’s, on the second set of crossovers I used Mundorf’s. The E-Cap is actually cheaper then the Dayton’s. Sonic Craft which is one of the advertisers on this site has the best prices on Mundorf capacitors. An example the 4.0μF cap in the photo was replaced with a 3.9μF 70VDC E-Cap Plain that capacitor costs $1.40 cents each. Very pleased with the results.

Here is a photo of the W35 crossovers with the Mundorf E-Cap’s installed. The W45 uses the same layout. The E-Cap is not available in a 12μF value so I installed a 10, and a 1.5μF in parallel that tested out to be 12.1, 12.3μF close enough. Again very pleased with the sound. I have had these W35’s since purchased new in 1972 and with the E-Cap’s they have that wonderful sound of a vintage Acoustic Suspended speaker.

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You will want to do a heavy paste wax job on the cases. They are very well made but the veneer can dry out an start coming loose at the corners good application of a quality paste wax will prevent this. Kiwi paste shoe polish works very well but this time I used Minwax Paste Finishing Wax, Special Dark. The High Plains of Wyoming has a very dry climate so I wanted to make sure it would not affect these W45’s. adversely.
 
I found a photo of one of W35 crossovers done with the Daytons. The E-Cap’s were cheaper, sounded better, and were much easier to install.

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I found a photo of one of W35 crossovers done with the Daytons. The E-Cap’s were cheaper, sounded better, and were much easier to install.

View attachment 1307536

Think Sonic Craft sells those - PE doesn't, maybe give 'em a try. Would like to go with film but I know space can be a little tight. Won't know for sure until I pull the xovers. Thanks for the suggestion
 
Think Sonic Craft sells those - PE doesn't, maybe give 'em a try. Would like to go with film but I know space can be a little tight. Won't know for sure until I pull the xovers. Thanks for the suggestion
As I said above Sonic Craft sells Mundorf cap’s and they have the best prices. I was advised by Wharfedale guru’s the achromatic Wharfedale’s do best on NPE’s and they were right.
http://www.soniccraft.com/
 
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