Wharfedale Owners Thread

[ian_munday]

Oil is great for longevity - you will never have to replace them, and they probably have less parasitic resistance, but I doubt that you'd actually be able to hear the difference.

As I have already recapped the W2's, I may try Paper in Oil in my older W2's or in my Kingsdales instead.
The older W2's have quite a different sound and are wonderful with Jazz and blues (before a recap). They are also much heavier and infinite baffle.

My Kingsdales are a bit later, but have a tuneful bass and image well which is quite different to a pair of Dovedale III's that I also have. I find that strange, as the Kingsdales just look like larger Dovedales, so I expected them to have a similar sound (just with deeper bass).

I am not so sure that I would recap the Dovedale III's, as I find them quite a disappointment.

 

[Quadman2]

Nothing wrong with PIO's. Mine are prob as old, or older than you...and still doin' well.

Q

 

[BilboBaggins]

Did you use electrolytic or poly? I found polys made them brighter. Those Dovedales have a sound that you need to let grow on you. At first, you will find them dull, but after a little while, you start thinking how good these sound! The ones I had (3s), imaged beautifully. And after some use, the bextrene woofer surround seems to loosen up somewhat. But it is a sound you will remember.

 

[redhills51]

Hi there, does anyone know what the resistor value is for the metal oxide resistor on the Glendale XP2 crossover, thanks.

 

[swamppirate]

Hi there, does anyone know what the resistor value is for the metal oxide resistor on the Glendale XP2 crossover, thanks.

I recently recapped mine and cannot recall. Good luck with them.... how are your rubber surrounds?

 

[sinnerboy]

I found a pair of W70d's a couple of years ago, paid very little for them. They were dead due to a couple of bad drivers and a corroded crossover. They sat in my basement, I was shuffling all kinds of speakers in and out, looking for the "right" pair. I finally settled on some Thiel 3.5s, so I sold all my other speakers. Today I decided to get the Wharfies back in business, cleaned and recap'd the crossover, installed some drivers I had picked up over the past couple of years when they became available (1 upper mid, one mid, and two tweeters), and wired them up. I'm amazed at how good they sound! Not surprisingly I would guess, they actually work better with my 'interim' amplifier, a Kenwood KA-5700. The Kenny just doesn't have the wpc the Thiel's need, but the Wharfies sound great. The tweeter was replaced with a Visaton DT94 9003 from Parts Express as I only had one working purple tweeter, all other drivers are original style. Once my Peachtree Nova 150 arrives, I'll probably use these Wharfies as the main front speakers in my home theater setup. But I'm really impressed with the sound, I've had big cabinet speakers like these that can be 'boomy', but these are pretty well balanced! I just can't believe it took me so long to get them up and going!

 

[infullview]

I found a pair of W70d's a couple of years ago, paid very little for them. They were dead due to a couple of bad drivers and a corroded crossover. They sat in my basement, I was shuffling all kinds of speakers in and out, looking for the "right" pair. I finally settled on some Thiel 3.5s, so I sold all my other speakers. Today I decided to get the Wharfies back in business, cleaned and recap'd the crossover, installed some drivers I had picked up over the past couple of years when they became available (1 upper mid, one mid, and two tweeters), and wired them up. I'm amazed at how good they sound! Not surprisingly I would guess, they actually work better with my 'interim' amplifier, a Kenwood KA-5700. The Kenny just doesn't have the wpc the Thiel's need, but the Wharfies sound great. The tweeter was replaced with a Visaton DT94 9003 from Parts Express as I only had one working purple tweeter, all other drivers are original style. Once my Peachtree Nova 150 arrives, I'll probably use these Wharfies as the main front speakers in my home theater setup. But I'm really impressed with the sound, I've had big cabinet speakers like these that can be 'boomy', but these are pretty well balanced! I just can't believe it took me so long to get them up and going!

Wow! Those look like they are in great shape. I'm running the same DT94 tweeters in my W70E's and they sound great. It seems they are a very close match to the original purple dome tweeters in terms of efficiency and frequency response. Mine were surface mounted so I used the original tweeter to make a cast in clay, then used the cast as a mold and used boat resin to make the flange the same as the original. You can see the modified DT94 in this image:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?attachments/img_3196-jpg.1310683/
I've since acquired a replacement for the one bad original tweeter, but have left the new tweeters in place because they sound as good if not better than the originals. Anyway, nice job on these and welcome to the club!

 

[shanereed524]

stumbled on this thread....looking to pick up a pair of W60's from a local seller. One of the cloth grills is heavily stained. I haven't read this entire 58 pagers yet, but I have seen a few posts about how difficult it is to remove the grill for replacing the fabric.

Any tips? Suggestions? It may deter me from buying them
Thanks, Shane

 

[infullview]

stumbled on this thread....looking to pick up a pair of W60's from a local seller. One of the cloth grills is heavily stained. I haven't read this entire 58 pagers yet, but I have seen a few posts about how difficult it is to remove the grill for replacing the fabric.

Any tips? Suggestions? It may deter me from buying them
Thanks, Shane

Take the time to read the thread and also search for info on site. There are many version of the W60 - early ones had two drivers, later on 3 drivers with a port. In order to know how to get into these you must first know which model you're dealing with. Also have heard that some of the W60 versions were lackluster.

 

[shanereed524]

^^ for sure, plan on diving into it when I have a chance

AFAIK, the seller claims these are W60's without a letter suffix. There are dates inside of March 1965. They work (per the seller) and he's just moving them as he has too many other projects at the moment.

 

[transmaster]

There are 3 versions of the W60.

The W60 was a ported 2-way it came out in 1962. I have not heard much about this one but ported speakers from this era had issues with the port, resonates, boomyness, huffing from the port, etc

The W60



The W60 D came out, I think in 1964 it is acoustic suspended it's problem is it has the infamous purple fried egg tweeter which more often than not doesn't work properly, if at all. It is very easy to replace there are several modern tweeters that drop right in the hole with out modification.

W60D


I think the W60E is the best one it came out in 1970 and was the last model. it is Acoustic suspended and had a much better tweeter.

W60E


Part are easily to come for both the D, and E models.

You live in Maine? That is a good thing Wharfedale's of this time were mostly marketed on the East Coast.
My W45's, and W25's both came from New York City. So you live close to the Wharfedale mother load.

 

[shanereed524]

ah, thanks for the info! based on your post....I believe the are original W60's. Unfortunately no pics of the inner cabinet

Also, located in PA

 

[infullview]

ah, thanks for the info! based on your post....I believe the are original W60's. Unfortunately no pics of the inner cabinet

Also, located in PA

View attachment 1570861

Do they come with the stands as shown? The stands themselves are well over $100 on eBay. The high end is also a bit lacking on this model.

 

[shanereed524]

yes, confirmed those are screwed on feet, not separate "stands"

 

[transmaster]

This could be the beginning of your collection of the Achromatic Warfedale line. Keep in mind these speakers do not require much power the W60 requires about 15 watt minimum, and 40 watts maximum. If you need an amp the Dayton Audio BTA-120 is ideal I have 2 of them the do a great job with the W35, and W45. You don't need to get fancy recapping the crossovers I have Mundorf E-Cap (NPE) in my W25/35/45 they preserve the original sound and are real cheap.

 

[shanereed524]

This could be the beginning of your collection of the Achromatic Warfedale line. Keep in mind these speakers do not require much power the W60 requires about 15 watt minimum, and 40 watts maximum. If you need an amp the Dayton Audio BTA-120 is ideal I have 2 of them the do a great job with the W35, and W45. You don't need to get fancy recapping the crossovers I have Mundorf E-Cap (NPE) in my W25/35/45 they preserve the original sound and are real cheap.

I have a Sansui 661 laying around, so I think that should be good and not over powered. Picking up this afternoon....will share some more pics once I get them home.

This is my first venture into "vintage" speakers and I have ZERO experience with speaker repair, so I will likely have lots of questions

I appreciate the info so far!

 

[Mark_in_Lex]

Hi all, does anyone know if the Wharfedale W70d MK2 can be used with a low power amp? Or can point me at that info? Thanks, Mark

 

[infullview]

Hi all, does anyone know if the Wharfedale W70d MK2 can be used with a low power amp? Or can point me at that info? Thanks, Mark

I'm not sure about the MK2 designation but the W70D is very efficient and will blow you out of the room with 20 watts.

Found this thread on AK:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/wharfedale-w70d-mkii-recap.300642/

 

[infullview]

Hi all, does anyone know if the Wharfedale W70d MK2 can be used with a low power amp? Or can point me at that info? Thanks, Mark

@transmaster has a thread with specs for all all the E series versions. I'm not sure if he has any specs on the D series. I'm sure it's 92db or better though. A 5-10 watt amp would drive them.

 

[transmaster]

The Mark II’s have revised tweeters.

The ideal amp to drive these Wharfedale’s is the Parts Express Dayton Audio DTA-120BT. into a Wharfedale they input between 30, and 35 watts. $86 bucks. I am using 2 of them.