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Pictures of Wharfedale W90's....

No Regrets

Active Member
Would anyone have pictures of the Wharfedale W90's that they would like to share with me?

Are their various iterations of the W90's as with the W60's and W70's?

Is there such a thing as W90s Lowboy's?

Thanks in advance.
 
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There is a gentleman that says he has Wharfedale W90 Lowboys that he would sell me and is willing to deliver them to me. He sent me pictures of one of them in a PDF file and I'd like to post them on here to get your opinions but I don't know how to do it. I figured out how to attach them to an email, but not to this thread. I'm afraid I am technically challenged!

Anyone have an idea?
 
Please forgive my ignorance if this doesn't work, but I am trying to post a pdf file of a group of pictures.

The cabinet and grill looks great, but I'm concerned about the picture of the drivers.....that they may not all be original.

I need your expert opinions.

Also if you could tell me which iteration of W90 they may be and what you think of them.


Well, I tried to attach the file but it was too large because of the multiple pictures. I don't know how to just attach one of the pictures. I keep trying.
 
Here's what I have in an old brochure...


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Hi Ed,

Thank you for your response. It is very helpful.

The W90's that are being offered to me are similar in that they are very large like the one that is shown. They also have two tweeters, mids and woofers. I can't tell from your picture, but the ones for sale have the purple tweeters with the black (plastic?) defractor over them. The bass woofers look the same and that was my major concern (It looked like two different types of woofers in my picture). The cabinet looks a little different with different grill cloth and detailing, but it is sandfilled. Probably a different suffix on these than the "C" He says they weigh about 100lbs each.

Thank you for sharing with me. It makes me feel more confident in the purchase now.

Would love to see other W90's as well, if members are willing to show them or to hear your thoughts on the W90_'s.

Thank you much!
 
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I'm not aware that when Wharfedale converted to the Acoustic Suspension design of the WxxD series the W90 continued in production. I think the W90C was the last of the model line. If he has a set of W90s with the fried egg speaker from the "D" and "E" series then they are probably replacement drivers. The fried egg tweeter with the black plastic is the later type used in the "E" series so I doubt they are original even if the end of production W90s used the fried egg tweeters.

The fried egg tweeter rolls off at a higher frequency than the SuperTweeter3 and do not go as low so if a replacement then there may be a dip in the response. Original SuperTweeter3s come up on the auction site on a pretty regular basis and don't go for lots of money.
 
Thank you for sharing the link. The picture of the front of the cabinet with the drivers exposed looks identical to the photo of the one being offered to me. However the drivers of the one being offered to me look like new in comparison.

What he said about the purple tweeters makes me a little bit nervous though.
 
I'm not aware that when Wharfedale converted to the Acoustic Suspension design of the WxxD series the W90 continued in production. I think the W90C was the last of the model line. If he has a set of W90s with the fried egg speaker from the "D" and "E" series then they are probably replacement drivers. The fried egg tweeter with the black plastic is the later type used in the "E" series so I doubt they are original even if the end of production W90s used the fried egg tweeters.

The fried egg tweeter rolls off at a higher frequency than the SuperTweeter3 and do not go as low so if a replacement then there may be a dip in the response. Original SuperTweeter3s come up on the auction site on a pretty regular basis and don't go for lots of money.


Hi Brian,

Thank you for the information. So it is likely that the original tweeters went bad and has been replaced with the purple fried egg. The seller also mentioned that he has an extra crossover network that will be included. I wonder if that is the original crossover network for the failed tweeters and he changed the crossovers for the fried egg? I have an email out to him asking about the additional crossovers but haven't heard back from him as of yet.

Do you think they are worth getting having the fried egg tweeters in there?
 
I'm not aware that when Wharfedale converted to the Acoustic Suspension design of the WxxD series the W90 continued in production. I think the W90C was the last of the model line. If he has a set of W90s with the fried egg speaker from the "D" and "E" series then they are probably replacement drivers. The fried egg tweeter with the black plastic is the later type used in the "E" series so I doubt they are original even if the end of production W90s used the fried egg tweeters.

The fried egg tweeter rolls off at a higher frequency than the SuperTweeter3 and do not go as low so if a replacement then there may be a dip in the response. Original SuperTweeter3s come up on the auction site on a pretty regular basis and don't go for lots of money.


Brian,

Could I try and email you the pdf photos to see what you think of them?
 
You can try opening the PDF, press the PRINT SCREEN key, open MS PAINT, paste, and save as a .jpeg.

Doesn't make sense that the purple tweets would be a replacement unless the factory did it, and it's unlikely these went acress the pond for repairs. Could be a dealer did it but I think they're just another varient.

Usually the cone drivers have some dates written on them bby hand, han you see any of that?
 
You can try opening the PDF, press the PRINT SCREEN key, open MS PAINT, paste, and save as a .jpeg.

Doesn't make sense that the purple tweets would be a replacement unless the factory did it, and it's unlikely these went acress the pond for repairs. Could be a dealer did it but I think they're just another varient.

Usually the cone drivers have some dates written on them bby hand, han you see any of that?

I do not have any pictures of the back of the drivers, so no, I can not see any dates written. The seller has emailed me back and said that these are the Lowboy version of the W90D's. He said that when he received them there was one purple tweeter that did not work and he bought an identical replacement from ebay. He said everything is in perfect working order, but to be safe, he would replace all the caps in the crossover prior to selling them just to make sure that I would not have any problems in the future. The extra crossovers are because some people like to experiment with values and he is including them with the purchase.

I tried to post the pictures, but cannot figure out the MS Paint. Sorry, I am terrible with computers.
 
BIC sold the fried egg tweeter as a replacement for the SuperTweeter3 way back when. BIC was more of an importer than an audio company and it did some rather unusual stuff. They also sold the black plastic grilled version in lieu of the original for the D series but this at least made more sense. My D series had its tweeters replaced only about 6 months after the E series was released and the company shipped the plastic grilled tweeter so there was no stock within a short term of the version change over.

The tweeter was designed to go in a 4-way system with a driver that covered the upper mids to lower end of the tweeter that was orginally covered by the SuperTweeter3. That is why I suspect the W90 using them would have a hole/dip in that range.

Not a big problem provided the seller has not modded the crossover and it can not be changed back for some reason.
 
Here are Don's pics
 

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drknstrmyknight

Thank you so much for posting these pictures for me. I gotta say there are a lot of great people on this forum!

Thank you to all very much!
 
Here's what I have in an old brochure...


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That's what I had wondered as well, but looking closer at the literature that Ed in Texas provided, it says that there are two 12" woofers each with a massive 9 1/2 pound magnet, one with a flat 70 sq inch polystyrene radiator that couples the Low bass range into the room. The other 12" woofer with a conically shaped diaphram excells at reproducing the Upper bass range. Both woofers operate in an acoustic suspension type enclosure.


It looks like Wharfedale put alot of thought into the design of these speakers.
 
Those are mine....


And they look identical to the ones you're being offered. Now if only I could get motivated enuff to finish the restore...:D

I did post a thread on the repair of the purple donut tweeter in the speaker forum. If you search "purple donut" you should find it....

If the price is reasonable, and includes a 2nd pair of X-overs AND a recap, go for it. Taking them apart is kinda difficult the way the X-overs are secured to the back of the cabinet....

Good luck!
 
Hello Analog Addict,

Do you know if these came originally with the purple egg tweeters or with the Super 3 tweeter?

Could you share with me what the original capacitor values are supposed to be with the crossovers?

How do you like the sound of these?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
 
Here's what I have in an old brochure...


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Does anyone know if the grill framework on the W90's pictured here are easily removed?

The seller of the "lowboy" version also has these that he is willing to sell me but one of the speakers grill framework has some damage and wondering how hard it would be to replace.
 
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