Sam, what a coincidence!!!!
I just opened up a pair of W60D Mark II an hour ago and have the same observations and questions as you. Now that we both have identical speakers, we can confirm originality.
Your's and my caps are likely original because they match in description.
Here's a post that I just made over on the
"W70 mod advice" thread:
I know that I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm guessing that the advice here still applies....
Several years ago I came across a pristine pair of completely original W60D Mark II's on CL listed for $60. The original owner had a neat story behind them, and they were his babies through college, as he raised his family, etc. He had a hard time parting with them - almost like they were a couple of old dogs that he had raised from puppies. I loved the look of these, the character and obvious build quality, so I pulled the trigger.
I brought the heavy buggers home, hooked them up and wasn't totally impressed by their sound. I'm a vintage JBL L series fan, so maybe comparing the Wharfedale sound to my JBL's may have been a bit unfair. I had to assume that they were somewhat 'stale' and needed to be revived.
Unfortunately, they languished in my basement for several years until I decided to thin the herd a bit, pulled them out to clean them up and put them on Craigslist.
I was surprised at the lack of interest in these speakers, given that I sold a pair of KLH Seventeens in a day and have some considerable interest in my Advent Larges. The more I look at these, the more I'm leaning toward pulling them from CL and keeping them (much to my wife's dismay).
But I have to imagine that there are some things that I can do to bring these neat speakers up to snuff.
It looks like a recap would be the first order of business. I know nothing about capacitors, but I can solder. Google tells me that I should hold out for oil caps like the GE Dielektrol, but maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here.
The original caps are non-polarized Minerva 64uF-50v. And there are what appear to be smaller caps as well: Minerva 6uF-50v.
Are these electrolytic caps?
Should I simply seek out equivalent replacements from Parts Express or the like, or should I attempt to improve them by hunting down some oil -filled caps?
My second question relates to the woofer. Cast aluminum frames make for some seriously nice sounding woofers - at least in the world of JBL. The Wharfedale woofers are by no means cheap, entry level drivers. They seem like they have a ton of potential, and probably sounded great in their day.
Regarding the surrounds: The cloth surrounds are so 'open' that you can see right through them. Without question, air passes right through these surrounds, so these woofers are far from sealed. I know that with any of my vintage L series JBL's if I were to remove the foam surround, the woofer response would be severely diminished.
Brian, you mention doping in #9 and refer to the KLH that 'required doping'. I know that KLH surrounds were treated with a butyl and KLH actually released a memo at one point that all speakers that came in for service should be re-doped. Were 'open' fabric surrounds part of the original design of these Wharfedales, or were they doped? If they were originally doped, or doping would improve sound quality, what substance should be used to dope these, and would they be doped from the inside, the outside, or both sides of the surrounds?
Thanks!
J.P.
