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Wharefdale W70 First Edition (I think)

PeterPQ3

PeterPQ3

New Member
I lent these to my son and now they are back, with cat scratches on the grill. I have a few questions about these. I plan to use a Harmon Kardon 930 Refurbished completely with them, like when it was purchased with the speakers back in the day by my great uncle.

1) How can I remove the front part to change the grill material. I found a place that sells vintage grill material.

2) Inside, I have what looks like the most simple cross over system. Does this work well? Is there an improvement?

3) Does the mid speaker interfere with the woofer?

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  1. I'm not a Wharfedale expert (maybe one will stop by) but on cabinets like these, the front baffle is frequently held in with screws from the rear, and the grille cloth is wrapped around the baffle, front to back. You'll have to remove the internal side padding to see if that's the case here. If you're unlucky, it's glued in place, which means a more destructive method will need to be employed.
  2. Unless you know how to design a crossover, I'd leave it as is. I didn't find any results online of crossover mods for these. Those don't look like electrolytic caps so recapping is probably unnecessary (a thread for a later version of the W70 mentioned that they are paper in oil). Are the tweeters working?
  3. One would assume so; however, Wharfedale is one of the oldest high quality speaker manufacturers out there still in business. One would assume the engineers (even back then) knew what they were doing, and even if not, I don't know how you'd get around it, short of redesigning the system with a smaller midrange in its own subenclosure. Remember that this was manufactured before Thiel/Small parameters were invented, so a lot of design was trial and error. It's also possible that they assumed that since it was a vented enclosure, the interference between the two would be minimal.
Before even considering any modifications, give them some serious listening time and determine what they lack. Based on their age, it's quite possible that their weaknesses are many and there's not much you can do short of a complete redesign, which isn't recommended.
 
Hey,

The front baffle is generally held in with glued in wedges, a real pia to remove and put new cloth on. Root around back there and look.

Yeah, the original crossover blows. A simple first order 3 way crossover would do wonders for those high quality drivers.

You're right, that woofers backwave is pounding on the mid. What you end up with is a muddy and confused midrange. Which is why I sold mine as soon as I restored them, no love lost. Sure, you could fashion a cover over the back. But the cabinets are already way too small. Those woofers want a 5 cubic foot box to properly open up. Then you'd put a cover over the back of the mid, then you'd build a nice 3 way first order crossover. You'd have a supreme W70. Today? I'd put new caps in and not bother with anything else.

Biggles
 
drbiggles said:
Hey,

The front baffle is generally held in with glued in wedges, a real pia to remove and put new cloth on. Root around back there and look.

Yeah, the original crossover blows. A simple first order 3 way crossover would do wonders for those high quality drivers.

You're right, that woofers backwave is pounding on the mid. What you end up with is a muddy and confused midrange. Which is why I sold mine as soon as I restored them, no love lost. Sure, you could fashion a cover over the back. But the cabinets are already way too small. Those woofers want a 5 cubic foot box to properly open up. Then you'd put a cover over the back of the mid, then you'd build a nice 3 way first order crossover. You'd have a supreme W70. Today? I'd put new caps in and not bother with anything else.

Biggles
Click to expand...
I agree with the crossover comment but I have no idea how to do that or order proper replacements. Could you recommend a YouTube video?
 
swechsler said:
  1. I'm not a Wharfedale expert (maybe one will stop by) but on cabinets like these, the front baffle is frequently held in with screws from the rear, and the grille cloth is wrapped around the baffle, front to back. You'll have to remove the internal side padding to see if that's the case here. If you're unlucky, it's glued in place, which means a more destructive method will need to be employed.
  2. Unless you know how to design a crossover, I'd leave it as is. I didn't find any results online of crossover mods for these. Those don't look like electrolytic caps so recapping is probably unnecessary (a thread for a later version of the W70 mentioned that they are paper in oil). Are the tweeters working?
  3. One would assume so; however, Wharfedale is one of the oldest high quality speaker manufacturers out there still in business. One would assume the engineers (even back then) knew what they were doing, and even if not, I don't know how you'd get around it, short of redesigning the system with a smaller midrange in its own subenclosure. Remember that this was manufactured before Thiel/Small parameters were invented, so a lot of design was trial and error. It's also possible that they assumed that since it was a vented enclosure, the interference between the two would be minimal.
Before even considering any modifications, give them some serious listening time and determine what they lack. Based on their age, it's quite possible that their weaknesses are many and there's not much you can do short of a complete redesign, which isn't recommended.
Click to expand...

I found the screws by pushing back the padding. Did not have to remove it. Thanks!!!!!!
 
PeterPQ3 said:
I agree with the crossover comment but I have no idea how to do that or order proper replacements. Could you recommend a YouTube video?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about YouTube. I think all you've got in there is one capacitor for the tweeter, correct? It's either an 8uF or 8MFD. Or a 12uF, 12MFD. Look on the cap.

Biggles
 
I’m not a Wharfedale guy either. Although I do have a pair of W90.

I know with some Bozak they use something like a flower pot to create an enclosure around the mid. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work here as well. And it wouldn’t take up too much cabinet space.

My W90 have removable grills. It sucks your grill cloth is part of the front baffle. I’m sure you can change it out with a little work.

So there are things you can do to make the speakers better. And if you plan on keeping them long term it’s probably a worthy investment.
 
Not sure about earlier models but my W70C cloth covers are held in with Velcro and it is original

I don’t think the mid is much of an issue with the one you have because they’re ported, in a sealed enclosure like mine there is some clipping with heavy kick drum tracks but only at very high volume, people in other threads have fabricated bowls over the back of the mid and said they thought it an improvement, but again with a ported enclosure there shouldn’t be air pressure issues regarding the mid on the back swing of the woofer
 
elitopus said:
I’m not a Wharfedale guy either. Although I do have a pair of W90.

I know with some Bozak they use something like a flower pot to create an enclosure around the mid. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work here as well. And it wouldn’t take up too much cabinet space.

My W90 have removable grills. It sucks your grill cloth is part of the front baffle. I’m sure you can change it out with a little work.

So there are things you can do to make the speakers better. And if you plan on keeping them long term it’s probably a worthy investment.
Click to expand...

I found dense cardboard tubes for cement posts that are an exact fit (10" diameter). I am getting them at home depot and will put those over the mid driver. I also found screws to release the front so I can change the cloth.
 
PeterPQ3 said:
I found dense cardboard tubes for cement posts that are an exact fit (10" diameter). I am getting them at home depot and will put those over the mid driver. I also found screws to release the front so I can change the cloth.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a solid plan :thumbsup:

If you unwrap the tape you should be able to see the capacitor values. Hopefully they’re printed right on the caps. Otherwise I’m sure someone else has posted what the cap values are for the W70
They might have used three 4uf caps to make a 12uf cap etc.
 
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