The Unofficial Wharfedale Gush Thread

Gang-Twanger

Resident Wharfedaliophool
:smlove:

Any model, new or old, cones or domes (or horns :rolleyes: ), upfiring or direct-radiating, ported/sealed/OB, alnico or ceramic, as long as it's Wharfedale... Feel free to post any and all gushings, musings, or downright lovefests here. :)
 
The speaker that sucked me in to the Wharfedale sound.

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Couple odds and ends.

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After owning the Denton's, a pair of classic Wharfedales is on my "to buy" list. Just waiting for a pair to come up, I don't see them on CL often in my area.
 
You'd love them for sure. Definitely a different animal than the Dentons. The old ones have a decidedly-VINTAGE sound. Richer than the Dentons, but also a little drier for sure (Almost ANY brand/model is when compared to the Dentons... That's one liquidy-sounding speaker). Very, very-smooth and easy to listen to for hours and hours, and for a speaker from the early '60's, they have a very-accurate response. There's no bass-overhang and no audible bumps. The Dentons have a faster, snappier response than the old models One thing they have in common with the Denton reissues is midrange-coherency. In other words, the old Wharfedale is a vintage speaker for classic times while the Denton reissue is a vintage speaker for modern times.

If you're playing something like "Ball Of Confusion" by the Temptations, you want the OLD ones. They'll have you dreaming of rice patties and M16's. :yes:

Now, THAT'S gushing.
 
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Now you're talkin'! :yes:

Seriously, that's their biggest strength. On old analog recordings, from mid sixties 2 & 4-track stuff (Think '60's Blue Note jazz and Sgt Pepper) to the 8-track recordings of the late '60's and 16-track music of the early '70's, the ported Wharfedale models really take you back.
 
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Back in the '60s had a set of W70Ds. Absolutely loved them with a Marantz 19. My brother took the system to college.

About a decade ago bought a set of W70s that needed new caps. Due to reasons beyond my control only got them up and running last year. Been downsizing and after the competition ended the W70s became the winner. A lot of good speakers were sacrificed to get here. Only other survivor was the small ADS L300 that was not part of the competition.

I was more than amazed at the results. I never thought the W70s would win. I could have just kept the W70Ds. The drivers integrates so well it sounds like a single driver system. The sound with the Sherwood S9500C's 20 watts is so smooth, really really smooth while maintaining detail and resolution. If I did not know the system was ss, I would swear it is tube driven. The combo comes closer in satisfaction to the old KLH Nine based system than any other speaker, including my big Bozaks.
 
Did you get to try them with the Sherwood tube amp you had? I seem to remember you going back and forth between tube & SS, but I assume it was about finding the right amp for the Bozaks at that point.

One thing about the Fishers that several of us are running with our Wharfies, they give vocals a very-relaxed sound that goes a long way towards eliminating shoutiness in small and medium-sized rooms (The oil caps pick up where the Fisher leaves off... Between the two, you could probably make a pair of large Wharfies sound great in a broom closet).

I'm curious to know how some W70's or W90's would do with a Scott tuber.
 
The Sherwood tube amp went about the time I got the W70s. Other sounded fantastic with them considering the speakers' condition. The amp made the 302as it came with really sing. I had by that time decided to get out of tubes as I had my paor of ARC D76a amps that between them had what seemed like a years production of 6550s and when replacing the the tunes matching them was critical. It looked like I would have to mortgage the house to do the retubing. I just decided it was the time to bail on tubes.

I have had a chance to run a S5000II in a system, not mine and compare it to a S9500, not mine. The speakers were a set of rebuilt JansZens Z600s, sadly not for sale. The sound of the system with each amp was so close many times I was not sure what amp was in system. I finally figured out the S5500 midrange was slightly more forwarded had a slight harshness compared to the S9500. The S5500 has been gone through but not restored while the owner of the S9500 had just had a complete restoration done so, what I heard may have the difference in the condition of the amps. It was this audition that made me decide to look for one of these 1st gen Sherwood ss amps. I ended up with the later S9500c interation.

I suspect the Scott with the Wharfedales would be a trip down memory lane for me as being from NE many Wharfedale systems I saw were using Scott amps. Fisher was a dirty name to old Bostonians. The Scotts are less authoritative and have more delicate sound but a might more veil with the speakers from memory. I used to think of the difference as the Scott system was made for polite proper society while the Fisher based ones were more in your face aggressive New Yorker attitude and lacking the polite society I was used to. Hey, I was a teenager back then so subjective impressions had to be based on what I was familiar with. In some ways I still think in these terms in describing Wharfedales and systems based around them.
 
That's a surprise. I always figured the Scott would have the more-authoritative sound of the two while the Fisher would be the delicate, laid-back one, because honestly, that's precisely the way the 500C/800C models sound with a pair of W90's
 
For the past year or so, I've been noticing something about all the W*0 models with sand-filled construction. The isolation is like nothing I've ever heard. Stand to the direct left or right, or behind, or even directly-above the baffle area, and you don't hear much, if any sound at all (especially behind and directly-above). But walk around the front, and it's like the knob was at zero and someone turned the volume back up. Resonance-dampening, sound/driver-isolation, and backwave-cancellation/elimination was always a high priority at Wharfedale, even back in the early days, and you can hear all that experience in their '60's models. The W90's are just dog-nuts in that regard, especially the earliest ones. I walked into the bathroom a few hours ago, directly to the left of the left speaker, with the door open while they were playing at a pretty-good background level, no neighbors upstairs, no other noise in the house except for the speakers, and I couldn't hear a thing coming from the speakers until I was back out in front of them again. I always knew about Wharfedales being designed to work in the smaller residences in Europe, but that's impressive. I mean, how else could I make a pair of speakers this large work in an apartment?
 
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OK, here's today's gush for thought...

At some point, a couple other AK'ers were mulling over the idea of bypassing the pots on the back of the W90's, something I was against at first. But then I decided to try mine full-up, and it wasn't offensive in the way it used to be (I had removed some stuff in here and opened up the room quite a bit since I last messed with the pots, and the bass response was much better now, allowing me to raise the mid and tweeter pots). Since trying them full-on this last time, I've settled on having the tweeters at full and the midwoofers backed off a hair, which smoothes out the highs by dialing back a little of that midrange grit (Plus, the room adds a noticeable notch in the midrange, and dialing the midwoofers back a bit somehow eliminates this). The W90's have quite a learning curve, but once you begin to understand them, you can basically tailor them to sound right in ANY room, plus you can also tailor them to your individual tastes. It's a hell of a thing, how these speakers just get better and better, the more you mess with them (Just don't do it when you're stoned, otherwise you'll probably just end up making them worse).

I used to joke about this, but the W90's really ARE the Bentley S3 Continental of speakers... Tell me I'm wrong.
BentleyS3-1965-Continental%20Mulliner%20Flying%20Spur2.jpg


By the way, John C. Reilly is a comic genius of near-epic proportions.
 
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OK, here's today's gush for thought...

At some point, a couple other AK'ers were mulling over the idea of bypassing the pots on the back of the W90's, something I was against at first. But then I decided to try mine full-up, and it wasn't offensive in the way it used to be (I had removed some stuff in here and opened up the room quite a bit since I last messed with the pots, and the bass response was much better now, allowing me to raise the mid and tweeter pots). Since trying them full-on this last time, I've settled on having the tweeters at full and the midwoofers backed off a hair, which smoothes out the highs by dialing back a little of that midrange grit (Plus, the room adds a noticeable notch in the midrange, and dialing the midwoofers back a bit somehow eliminates this). The W90's have quite a learning curve, but once you begin to understand them, you can basically tailor them to sound right in ANY room, plus you can also tailor them to your individual tastes. It's a hell of a thing, how these speakers just get better and better, the more you mess with them (Just don't do it when you're stoned, otherwise you'll probably just end up making them worse).

I used to joke about this, but the W90's really ARE the Bentley S3 Continental of speakers... Tell me I'm wrong.
BentleyS3-1965-Continental%20Mulliner%20Flying%20Spur2.jpg


By the way, John C. Reilly is a comic genius of near-epic proportions.

Instead of messing with the pots you might explore DFX Audio Enhancer. You can download it for free to get limited features or pay either 15 or 30 bucks (I forget which version costs what) for the full features. Depending on which amp/speaker combo, genre of music you are playing you can custom the sound for quite dramatic results e.g. jazz, classical, ambiance, large ambiance, hip hop, folk, etc. etc.. And admittedly, there are times when certain selections sound best when DFX is off.

As an example I listened to Ben Webster playing Stardust from a youtube demo of JBL L100's through my W70E's. Sounded great. I went to the exact same track on Amazon and Spotify and couldn't get the same great sound. I turned on DFX, made a few small adjustments and there was that sound. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.fxsound.com/dfx/download.php
 
So do you have a list of recommended Wharfedale speakers for the uninitiated?

Oh, most-certainly. Obviously, there's the original W60, W70 and W90 models (The W60 was the model that started it all back in 1960, a speaker that Gilbert Briggs intended for North American customers... The W70 followed later that same year, and I believe the W90 debuted in 1962). I have the W60's and W90's, both first-generation with alnico magnets throughout. Definitely not a speaker for modern, digitally-recorded music (except for early digital stuff like "The Nightfly"). The W60 and W90 have their roots steeped in pure, un-futzed ANALOG. These had the cone-tweeters and ported cabs, plus the sand-filled rear panels. Eventually, the alnico magnets gradually got replaced by ceramic ones, and the cone-tweeters would get replaced by those purple mylar dome/pressure tweeters starting with the W60C (The W70C and W90C both still had cone-tweeters at that point, although they both had sealed cabs by then, although the W90 still had the rear-vent for one of the woofers... The W70D and W90D would both get those purple tweeters, the W90D being the LAST W90-type model they made).

Wharfedale, due to a decision by their parent company (The Rank Group), eliminated the sand-filled construction after the W*0D series. The W*0E series is still very, very-good though. The W60E can be favorably-compared to models like the AR3a. But also keep in mind, if you see a pair of W60E's AND a pair of W60D's, you'll want to grab the latter. That series was full-on 1960's high-end, just like their earlier stuff (Wharfedale went through a mid-fi crisis between '71-'75 before returning to true high-end form with the SP series in the mid '70's and the E*0 series of the late '70's).

And look for the E*0 series as well. Models like the E50, E70, and E90. Like every other Wharfedale, they are best with tube gear.

I'll get to Archie's post in a bit... My eyes are exhausted after typing all that.
 
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Instead of messing with the pots you might explore DFX Audio Enhancer. You can download it for free to get limited features or pay either 15 or 30 bucks (I forget which version costs what) for the full features. Depending on which amp/speaker combo, genre of music you are playing you can custom the sound for quite dramatic results e.g. jazz, classical, ambiance, large ambiance, hip hop, folk, etc. etc.. And admittedly, there are times when certain selections sound best when DFX is off.

As an example I listened to Ben Webster playing Stardust from a youtube demo of JBL L100's through my W70E's. Sounded great. I went to the exact same track on Amazon and Spotify and couldn't get the same great sound. I turned on DFX, made a few small adjustments and there was that sound. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.fxsound.com/dfx/download.php

Thanks. I'll check it out. Seems like it's more about adjustiing the speaker to the room rather than adjusting the speaker to one's personal tastes. The W90 is particularly-versatile in terms of it's ability to adjust to one's own tastes or a certain type of music. Like I mentioned before, setting the mids a smidge lower than the tweeters is great for dialing back some of that midrange grit and smoothing out the highs even more than they already are (I'm a smoothness freak, so I go for the ULTRA-smooth). Or you can dial both the midwoofers AND tweeters back to give them a bigger, fatter bass. Just a matter of learning the learning curve.
 
So do you have a list of recommended Wharfedale speakers for the uninitiated?

W60D, W70D, W70E, E70 (looks kabooki but sounds great), W90 series and Diamond 10.2 and 10.7.

Prices are fairly reasonable on ebay but shipping kills you. Local searching is your best bet by far.
If you at all can, listen before you buy. Although vintage Wharfedales are prized they do not suit everyone's taste.
 
Thanks. I'll check it out. Seems like it's more about adjustiing the speaker to the room rather than adjusting the speaker to one's personal tastes. The W90 is particularly-versatile in terms of it's ability to adjust to one's own tastes or a certain type of music. Like I mentioned before, setting the mids a smidge lower than the tweeters is great for dialing back some of that midrange grit and smoothing out the highs even more than they already are (I'm a smoothness freak, so I go for the ULTRA-smooth). Or you can dial both the midwoofers AND tweeters back to give them a bigger, fatter bass. Just a matter of learning the learning curve.

DFX tailors the speaker to the room and to personal tastes both. The 3D adjustment will give an adjustable improved soundstage. Because I need to place my W70E's close together it helps in that respect. Not as good as playing through my Spica TC-60's w/o augmentation but then not much matches the Spica's for mid range and soundstage. But DFX not everyone's cup of tea. On some selections it works well on others I turn it off. You may not like it. It also depends on which amp I use and how loud I play.

I pre amp my Altec using a Carver C-5 which has a holigram setting on it which improves the soundstage on the closely placed W70E's (the W70E's are holding up my 47" TV) LOL. However when I use the Onkyo TX-SR502 6.1 surround and those Wharfedale WH-2 side's kick in the soundstage is incredible.
 
DFX tailors the speaker to the room and to personal tastes both. The 3D adjustment will give an adjustable improved soundstage. Because I need to place my W70E's close together it helps in that respect. Not as good as playing through my Spica TC-60's w/o augmentation but then not much matches the Spica's for mid range and soundstage. But DFX not everyone's cup of tea. On some selections it works well on others I turn it off. You may not like it. It also depends on which amp I use and how loud I play.

I pre amp my Altec using a Carver C-5 which has a holigram setting on it which improves the soundstage on the closely placed W70E's (the W70E's are holding up my 47" TV) LOL. However when I use the Onkyo TX-SR502 6.1 surround and those Wharfedale WH-2 side's kick in the soundstage is incredible.

At the moment, I have my W90's pretty far apart and equal distance from my listening spot, and with those dual mids and tweeters, I'm getting a VERY-nice soundstage. I even carry the large-sized ottoman out of the room when I'm listening. Did wonders for my bass response and mid/tweeter dispersion.

I suspect those W70E's are capable of some excellent imaging/dispersion themselves with the closely-spaced woofer/mid/tweeter configuration. Probably can sound like a single driver if the placement distances are tight enough. The Achilles heel of the old Wharfedales has always been placement.
 
At the moment, I have my W90's pretty far apart and equal distance from my listening spot, and with those dual mids and tweeters, I'm getting a VERY-nice soundstage. I even carry the large-sized ottoman out of the room when I'm listening. Did wonders for my bass response and mid/tweeter dispersion.

I suspect those W70E's are capable of some excellent imaging/dispersion themselves with the closely-spaced woofer/mid/tweeter configuration. Probably can sound like a single driver if the placement distances are tight enough. The Achilles heel of the old Wharfedales has always been placement.

True, even with close placement my W70E's create a noticeable but weak soundstage without any augmentation. With the holigraph setting on they give a very open and improved soundstage. Bob Carver did a nice job with that feature on the earlier amps/pre-amps.

I have a couple of rare Hughes AK-100's bought many years ago. These things cost $800. new and do an excellent job of doing what they were designed to do. I haven't used them in years but am wondering what they would do,(probably nothing added) in my set-up. OTOH I read a review where someone hooked up an AK-100 to a Carver C-9 with impressive results. At the very least it looks like a good ebay item as they are going for $100.-$150. The Hughes AK-100 Sound Retrieval System is the only commercial audio product ever produced and marketed by Hughes Aircraft Electronics Division. Hughes built the AK-100 to military specifications of a high order but they really flubbed in marketing the unit in the late 80's. As a result few were sold and the unit was abandoned. In 1993 the Hughes Audio Division became SRS Labs which incorporates the SRS technology into consumer audio, mainly HD TV's. SRS is NOT a Dolby matrix surround decoder but an Audio Spatialyzer that works with BOTH Stereo OR Mono (switchable) recordings and broadcast audio.
 
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