Wharfedale Dovedale SP

Baz64

Active Member
i posted a thread in dollars and cents but thought I'd see if anyone here can tell me about these. I bought them not working, stored in a barn for 20 years. Just finished a complete refurb on them. Lit them up tonight to hear if I had made a good investment of time and money...

They sound amazing! I'm really impressed. They are as nice a sounding speaker as I've heard. Maybe it's partly because I had such low expectations due to the condition the were in when I got them and the fact that I couldn't really test them but they are blowing me away now.

Are they really this good or is it my mind/ears playing tricks on me?image.jpg
 
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Not questioning, just curious. There is not a lot of information on them on the web.
agree there is little to anything on the web regarding wharfedales. i picked up 2 pair of W70Ds a couple years ago @ neighbor's estate sale. my experience is that they're very nice with jazz; however they lack big bass and are easy to overpower. treat them nicely and they'll continue to serve well. mine date back to early 60s and still sound great. look up "gang twanger." he was a lot of help when i was looking for more info.
 
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Will do. I'm actually surprised by the lower register in these. As the foams loosen up they are digging deeper and deeper. I wasn't expecting much from just two 6 1/2" woofers.
 
Wharfedale speakers have always been good. A credit to you for not giving up on them.

I remember reading about these as a kid. Doesn't that midrange driver have lines of holes to help ensure there is no pressure build up behind the cone? Not that you'd get much anyway, since the enclosure is ported.

Lee.
 
It does indeed. I'm curious about the cones on the bass drivers. It appears to be some sort of plastic, but not stamped or molded. When examined closely, it has an inconsistent pattern that is different in all four. Almost looks poured or painted...image.jpg
 
I believe the midrange is encased in its own internal box.

Those Dovedales look very different from the dovedale 3s I used to have. They were excellent sounding speakers in my opinion. Mine had 12 inch woofers, midrange, and purple tweeter iirc.

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...Are they really this good or is it my mind/ears playing tricks on me?
This maybe pure nostalgia on my part, but they really were that good. :beerchug:
I bought a pair (new) circa 1975/6. I sold them circa 1978/9.

The tweeters were the weakest link - my Rotel RA-812 managed to 'blow' both of them (due to clipping). :yikes:
The person that bought the Dovedale SPs from me wrote to Wharfedale and received 2 x updated tweeters F.o.C. and took great delight (schadenfreude) telling me just how good they sounded with new tweeters! Bastard! :(:rflmao:

The bass and mid drivers were coated with or made from some synthetic material. I can't recall its name.

And these little bass drivers in the bass reflex cabinet do produce a prodigious amount of bass.

Enjoy them and the music - I certainly did... :music::music:
 
Interesting the tweeters and mids look to be the same as the Leak 2030/2060 and of course the woofers
invented by Leak were a proprietary hard cone material.

Owned by Rank at the time [Leak] I suppose Warfedale was also part of the family.
 
Getting in a little late here but ............
I am about 95% finished restoring a pair of Dovedale 3's. I know how good they are and how low they can go and always found them great to use with rock music. I had an opportunity to grab hold of the current set and I thought, what the heck.

About 3 weeks ago I picked up a pair of SP's, more out of curiosity (stupidity) than anything else for an almost give away price. Mind you the twin bass drivers in each had been blown into next week so I'm having them rebuilt. The mids and tweeters turned out to be fine. I have been told that the bass response with the SP's is a bit more focused (punchy) than the 3's. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks but it should be fun doing the A/B thing.

I found out today that the Leak versions of this bass driver had a cone made from, wait for it, corn leaf. The Wharfedale version used white plastic. I was told that if you held the Leak ones up to the light you could see the leaf outlines. Is someone having a lend of me or what? I do know for certain that Wharfedale and Leak were all part of the Rank Organisation at the time as mentioned by "totem" and that Wharfedale were providing Leak with Super 3's, amongst a lot of other drivers for their gear but with different branding, model names, numbers and so on. I was offered four of them (Leak versions of the Super 3) a while back but turned them down as the seller was asking for a bit more than I was prepared to pay. Probably should have taken them but in this hobby stupidity kicks in quite regularly.
 
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