Found for Restoration - Warfedale W70's

[Tim D]

Well, just picked up a set of older Warfedale W70's from CL. The guy was nice, but didn't have the history. The cabinets and grills are rough and will be a challenge to restore, but I like a challenge. I'm currently in the midst of restoring a set of Fisher XP=7B's, so these will be next.

I've ordered some PIO caps from fleabay to re-cap them (per recommendations on other threads), but that's about it so far. I've opened one of them to look around. They are the older "ported" versions. They don't have the Alnico magnets, but I've hooked them up and they sound good. The sound on both doesn't match completely, but I can't tell that any of the drivers are not functioning, so maybe the crossover just needs rebuilt.

For now I'm testing them with a Marantz 2220B. They sound pretty nice unrestored. I'll upload some pics soon. Any recommendations on restoring these?

 

[Drugolf]

Sounds like you are the right track with the caps. Did you confirm the values on the inside? They had several variants.

 

[Omegaman]

Wharfedales have a good following.
There are several W70 variants

I had a beautiful pair of W70E's. Three way with a 14" woofer. American Rosedale's
They sounded particularly sweet with my vintage tube gear
Well built with a sealed enclosure
I recapped them and put a new gasket on the woofer
I remember you pushed on the woofer and you should see the mid-range rise to proof the seal
Good luck. I remember they also had thick veneer

I use a paper towel roll, yes, empty, to listen to each driver. Also a ohm meter will show each driver to be good or not

 

[Tim D]

Anyone know how to take off the grill on these? I'd like to inspect the front of the drivers.

 

[easycraig]

grab and pull (on the grills) -gently of course ! post some pics, -always love seeing the wharfedales, ec. - I need to get out and clean the office so i can listen to mine... its been awhile.

 

[Drugolf]

Depends on which ones you have I believe. Some are mounted from inside between baffle and frame. May need to go from inside.

 

[Tim D]

Looks like I might need to go from the inside. I tried to give them a yank from the front ribs and there was zero movement. They are securely fastened in some manner.

 

[Tim D]

Here are some pics of them.

 

[Finjima]

You make any headway with this since you picked them up?

 

[Tim D]

Hi finjima,

Well not much but the are in the queue. I managed to pick up some Russian POI caps and recapped one before a flood of other speaks came in. I'm planning to get back to them soon. Just picked up a tube receiver to drive them.