Refurbishing Wharfedale W60D Mark IIs

[hotwheels22]

Hi hotwheels22,

You should take the backs off and take a look at the crossover capacitors, if you haven't already, to verify the capacitor values, as there seem to be a few versions.

If they are, indeed confirmed to be the, the 6 and 64 uf items.... Looks like these will work and you'll need 2 of each. (1 each type per speaker)

2 x 6uf: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/solen-capacitors/solen-6-mfd-fast-cap-400v/

2 x 64uf: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/solen-capacitors/solen-60-mfd-fast-cap-400v/

If you want clarity instead...

6uf: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/px-cap-250vdc/claritycap-6.0-mfd-px-range-polypropylene-caps/
64uf: don't see one that's close to the needed 64uf.. As I understand these need to be +/-10%.

The MDL should also work fine for the 64uf, but if I were in your shoes, I'd order the 2 solens, so that they have matching voltages/types.

can i also please be a bit pedantic here and try to make sure i understand what you are saying?
when you say “clarity” you are talking about a brand or capacitors and not a clearer sound?

“If you want clarity instead...
6uf: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/px-cap-250vdc/claritycap-6.0-mfd-px-range-polypropylene-caps/

64uf: don't see one that's close to the needed 64uf.. As I understand these need to be +/-10%.

> here you are saying why don’t have matching Clarity capacitors for my other set?

The MDL should also work fine for the 64uf, but if I were in your shoes, I'd order the 2 solens, so that they have matching voltages/types.”

finally, what is MDL and what is “uf”? please?

THANK YOU

 

[Sam08861]

can i also please be a bit pedantic here and try to make sure i understand what you are saying?
when you say “clarity” you are talking about a brand or capacitors and not a clearer sound?

“If you want clarity instead...
6uf: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/px-cap-250vdc/claritycap-6.0-mfd-px-range-polypropylene-caps/

64uf: don't see one that's close to the needed 64uf.. As I understand these need to be +/-10%.

> here you are saying why don’t have matching Clarity capacitors for my other set?

The MDL should also work fine for the 64uf, but if I were in your shoes, I'd order the 2 solens, so that they have matching voltages/types.”

finally, what is MDL and what is “uf”? please?

THANK YOU

Yep, that's correct, I did mean the brand by 'clarity.' Since you linked to those, wasn't sure if you had a brand preference. Similarly, "MDL" is also another brand in your links.

By 'uf' I meant this as a short for of microfarad, since a u is easier to type. Two things to look for besides type of capacitor. That's voltage (measured in voltage, should be equal to or greater than what's being replaced) and capacitance (measured in farads, should be the same or close to what's being replaced).

That's also correct with regarding the matching. I saw 50uf and 80uf capacitors from the brand Clarity, but neither of these is close enough to 64uf.

 

[hotwheels22]

Yep, that's correct, I did mean the brand by 'clarity.' Since you linked to those, wasn't sure if you had a brand preference. Similarly, "MDL" is also another brand in your links.

By 'uf' I meant this as a short for of microfarad, since a u is easier to type. Two things to look for besides type of capacitor. That's voltage (measured in voltage, should be equal to or greater than what's being replaced) and capacitance (measured in farads, should be the same or close to what's being replaced).

That's also correct with regarding the matching. I saw 50uf and 80uf capacitors from the brand Clarity, but neither of these is close enough to 64uf.

THANK YOU. it’s two yards snd a big cloud of dust over here for me with this stuff! going to print out wikipedia on microfarad and order these things!

 

[Sam08861]

No worries, I started out just the same way not long ago. Learned a lot by asking questions.
Best of luck with the refurbishment of those speakers. I really liked mine a lot and wish I hadn’t let them go.

 

[gravyrobbers]

Thanks again Biggles, I'm not too broken up as I got these and a minty reel to reel player for $100 altogether. Just found the Wharfedale owners thread in the British section and posted there as well for advice.

Will sign up for the subscriber option setup the epay search. The resources on this forum have been amazing and I am due to pay it forward for all the help I've gotten in such a short time.

Here's the speaker ready to be rotated. For those taking the woofer out of one of these, there's no need to take the screws out from the front, just the nuts and washers on the back (I used a 3/8th in 1/4 drive socket on an 18" extension). They're not steel so they don't jump and stick to the magnet. Boy those engineers are so smart! And that green felt is just cool. Too bad they don't sound as good as they look, lol!

View attachment 691713

Enjoying the 1 speaker in mono for now.. Just hear a rap song on the tube radio and it sounded pretty good, lol!

By the way, even with one woofer out, the stereo separation on these are really, really good for the mids/highs. Will have to learn where to finally set these between the tone controls on the pre-amp and the knobs on the back.

Tinsels seem to be OK, so must be ze coil.

View attachment 691714
View attachment 691715

Hey there, anyone still kickin' around here? I just got a pair of these for free.99 - haven't hooked them up yet, but have confirmed at the least that the tweeter isn't working. I've done a bit of research into those and seems that it isn't hard to either get an OEM replacement, or use something off PE. But definitely curious to hear if you got the rest of the drivers working.

 

[Sam08861]

Hey there, I ended up selling these off (mistake, but now have a 70E/rosedale, which is almost as good stock and quite good after damping).

If I recall correctly, the woofer coil had a bit of a rub and was fixed by running it upside down for a few hours and a broken lead on one of the tweeters which I was able to (very delicately) solder.

My opinion is that the wx0 Wharfedales are that the mark II D series have the absolute best build quality and sound of the versions. But that’s based on owning w70 alnicos (series a or b, but not identified as such) and now w70 E. The D Mark II had a little better everything and build quality and they also stopped with the sand filled backs with the E series, among many other obvious cost cutting measures. Don’t get me wrong, I love my rosedales, but wish they were one series older.

That said, I think cost effort of fixing these is worthwhile.. real sleepers I wish I hadn’t have sold. W70 or W90 in the D II series must be sublime, but even the lesser one I had, they all sounded amazing with tubes.

In your shoes, I’d buy replacement oem tweeters in a heartbeat, if yours are un repairable and the rest of your speakers are in very good condition or can be refurbishe.





Sam

 

[gravyrobbers]

Hey there, I ended up selling these off (mistake, but now have a 70E/rosedale, which is almost as good stock and quite good after damping).

If I recall correctly, the woofer coil had a bit of a rub and was fixed by running it upside down for a few hours and a broken lead on one of the tweeters which I was able to (very delicately) solder.

My opinion is that the wx0 Wharfedales are that the mark II D series have the absolute best build quality and sound of the versions. But that’s based on owning w70 alnicos (series a or b, but not identified as such) and now w70 E. The D Mark II had a little better everything and build quality and they also stopped with the sand filled backs with the E series, among many other obvious cost cutting measures. Don’t get me wrong, I love my rosedales, but wish they were one series older.

That said, I think cost effort of fixing these is worthwhile.. real sleepers I wish I hadn’t have sold. W70 or W90 in the D II series must be sublime, but even the lesser one I had, they all sounded amazing with tubes.

In your shoes, I’d buy replacement oem tweeters in a heartbeat, if yours are un repairable and the rest of your speakers are in very good condition or can be refurbishe.





Sam

Appreciate the reply! Curious - can you recall why you got a 60uF capacitor? It looks like the original capacitor (that it replaced) was a 64uF. I've been having trouble wrapping my head around capacitor replacements, as it often seems to my view like people replace them with slightly different uF's, but I can't figure out how to calculate what you can replace with (other than the exact same measurements).

 

[Sam08861]

Appreciate the reply! Curious - can you recall why you got a 60uF capacitor? It looks like the original capacitor (that it replaced) was a 64uF. I've been having trouble wrapping my head around capacitor replacements, as it often seems to my view like people replace them with slightly different uF's, but I can't figure out how to calculate what you can replace with (other than the exact same measurements).

As I understand, these can be within about 10% with little appreciable change. 60 was the closest I could get to 64 from that supplier for that type of capacitor, and within that 10% max differential range.

 

[gravyrobbers]

As I understand, these can be within about 10% with little appreciable change. 60 was the closest I could get to 64 from that supplier for that type of capacitor, and within that 10% max differential range.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[gravyrobbers]

As I understand, these can be within about 10% with little appreciable change. 60 was the closest I could get to 64 from that supplier for that type of capacitor, and within that 10% max differential range.

So here's something else - I finally got around to opening the backpanel on my W60D's (not mark ii) - the capacitors on mine are 25MDF and 8 MDF - seems like that's a big difference from yours. I thought the only difference between the mark II's was the tweeter grill. Do you know if the crossover capacitors changed over the years as these were made?

 

[Sam08861]

There may be several variants, even within the same model and year as these were produced in several regions, so can be different cabinets, alnico or conventional magnets, different speakers, layout/speaker-configurations, names, etc.

I think the differences between D mark 1s and 2s is pretty significant, performance wise and I believe different speakers and configuration.

In your shoes, I'd replace with whatever value of caps are there, as a starting point that will probably yield good results.

Debatable, but I noticed a fair bit of break in time for best sound on my solen capacitors, maybe a few hours before the bass came on full power and the treble gained clarity.