Wharfedale E50 Worth Restoring?

[Airjmax]

My latest acquisition - a pair of Wharfedale E50 speakers. Very dirty, but salvageable condition. I got them on the last day of the estate sale for 75% off the original price. I auditioned them last night after carrying the beasts downstairs. Everything sounded fine, but upon further inspection the midrange speakers were not producing any sound. I pulled one and connected it directly to my receiver, and it does work! A quick look at the crossover revealed that the speakers have been worked on before, since the heads of the screws holding the crossover to the back of the cabinet are stripped. I have no reference to check for proper connections, so I'll have to go by trial and error. New caps are probably in order, so I'll wait until they are installed before I mess with the wiring. Any help or guidance with troubleshooting the problem is welcome. Some of you may notice that the woofers don't look original, but they must be factory replacements or a later production change because the aluminum trim rings are part of the basket.

 

[Airjmax]

Wow, no comments from anyone?

 

[Dazaa]

I had a pair or two, they’re nice. Cabinets were very solid, some of the best wharfedale boxes ive ever seen. Well worth fixing

 

[rothwellaudio]

I know nothing about those speaker but the two level controls on the front would be the first things I'd check out when trying to discover why the mid range drivers aren't producing sound (since you've already established that they do work).

 

[Airjmax]

I know nothing about those speaker but the two level controls on the front would be the first things I'd check out when trying to discover why the mid range drivers aren't producing sound (since you've already established that they do work).

Thank you for the recommendation. I cleaned the controls well, but that didn't solve the problem. All the wiring appears to be soldered properly. I ordered new capacitors for them, and hopefully that will solve the issue. Unfortunately, there is precious little info about these speakers online. I contacted Wharfedale about sending me a copy of the crossover schematic, but they wanted £40 ($50 US) to send me a copy!

 

[superdog]

I had some E70s a while back.The problem I encountered was the paper cone of the woofer tends to separate from the driver frame.Its indicative of these.I just glued it back.It was early in my vintage audio Trip and looking back I never gave them a real audition.

 

[SaSi]

These are pretty decent speakers. Never listened to these but my uncle had a pair of E70 that also had the problem of the paper cone surround getting separated from the basket. An easy fix.

These are very efficient speakers, E stands for Efficiency according to the Wharfedale literature, and sound decent. They reproduce classical music well and also play rock and pop with decent punch. They are well made and look good. Certainly worth of restoring, since they don't look to need much. Cleaning is easy as is replacing caps and fixing broken solder joints. Repairing worn veneer and dents is the hard work.

 

[Nicholas M]

Hey everyone. I have a pair of vintage Wharfdale Super Linton 30D loudspeakers hooked up to an old Technics SU Z35 amp and a Dual 504 turntable I just acquired yesterday. The amp is being used while my Marantz 2230 is getting a blanket recap and power supply replacement. Just yesterday I was hooking up my Dual 504 to the receiver and grounded the wire to the amp and began to immediately hear distortion out of the bass driver on my right channel speaker. It can be heard across all inputs e.g., phono, aux, and tuner, and increases with volume. Cables are grounded to the amp and speaker because of age, no banana plugs. Does it sound like a blown bass driver? Cone is not ripped and is intact, could it be a melted coil? Mostly playing jazz and light rock with loudness switch but not really cranking it. Amp holds 8omhs with the speaker. Any advice would be super helpful....not sure if I've got a dead speaker on my hands or what

 

[Twinsig]

FWIW, I restored a pair of W45s, although quite different form yours, which sounded fantastic...very detailed...shortly afterward I changed the new "economy" Caps with Mundorf EVO Oil Caps.