Wharfedale e70's and "E" series speakers

Jcricket

Jcricket

not someday, but today
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Not too long ago I found a set of the E70's at a thrift shop. Brought them home did the usual clean up, recapped them etc. I have had them now for almost 8 weeks. I have done some searching for opinions on the interent. I found one review which says these are okay, good for rock, but not fantastic. But especially good for tubes.

Well, here is my opinion. That guy had a head cold they day listened or was on drugs. These are quite possibly the finest sounding speakers I have ever heard. These are a just a little shy on bass, but the bass it has is extremely clean and tight. The mids an highs are as open and detailed as any speaker I have ever heard. The clarity is beyond phenominal. I have done comparisons to most of my other speakers, including the venerable Forte's (one). The wharfedale's have better detail and clarity. The forte's are very rich and have wonderful bass.

I was wondering if anyone out there has an opinion on the E sereis and particularly the E90's. I like these so much I think I am going to track me down a set.

Mark

BTW - I am curretnly driving these with an 80's vintage km207 amp controlled by a denon precison series pre-amp. Thw wharfedal is the speaker on the right.








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Very nice Wharfies there. I've only heard the smaller 3 way E50's, and I was quite impressed by those little horns. They do rather well on rock, but strings and female vocals come out with stunning realism - I completely agree with you! I'd love to hear your E70's or even the E90's as the E50's are a bit bass shy.

They look a bit cheesy with the 80's style shiny metal baskets, but they sound much better than they look IMO.
 
I heard them when they just came out and they sounded fantastic but at nearly $1000.00 they were out of my price range at the time.

Good find!
 
My favorites of that range were the E-90 and E-50. The 70 was a little too forward for my personal tastes, but my brother much preferred them to the E-50.
 
I have a pair of e-90's (sadly in disrepair due to a car accident a year ago) and they were amazing sounding.

May I ask what you payed?
 
Jcricket said:
These are quite possibly the finest sounding speakers I have ever heard.
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:thmbsp:

The 50 and 90 models were a bit better balanced bass-wise due to a better distribution of drivers. I have owned the E-50's, and they are one of a very few speakers I would like to have again. :music:
 
Jcricket said:
Not too long ago I found a set of the E70's at a thrift shop. Brought them home did the usual clean up, recapped them etc. I have had them now for almost 8 weeks. I have done some searching for opinions on the interent. I found one review which says these are okay, good for rock, but not fantastic. But especially good for tubes.

Well, here is my opinion. That guy had a head cold they day listened or was on drugs. These are quite possibly the finest sounding speakers I have ever heard. These are a just a little shy on bass, but the bass it has is extremely clean and tight. The mids an highs are as open and detailed as any speaker I have ever heard. The clarity is beyond phenominal. I have done comparisons to most of my other speakers, including the venerable Forte's (one). The wharfedale's have better detail and clarity. The forte's are very rich and have wonderful bass.

I was wondering if anyone out there has an opinion on the E sereis and particularly the E90's. I like these so much I think I am going to track me down a set.

Mark

BTW - I am curretnly driving these with an 80's vintage km207 amp controlled by a denon precison series pre-amp. Thw wharfedal is the speaker on the right.

'
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Somewhere I have a test of high efficiency speakers that included the E90, a Goodmans and another, think it may have been Yamaha. This test was when the E90 was in production. The E90 came out the best, all were a bit bass shy. None of the HE speakers in this test had particularly good integration of the drivers.

This is all from memory and that is not always so good!
 
Radfordman said:
Somewhere I have a test of high efficiency speakers that included the E90, a Goodmans and another, think it may have been Yamaha. This test was when the E90 was in production. The E90 came out the best, all were a bit bass shy. None of the HE speakers in this test had particularly good integration of the drivers.

This is all from memory and that is not always so good!
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Out of interest, do you remember which Goodmans that was? I've heard that they dabbled in high efficiency designs but I haven't seen any.

Most of their speakers were pretty inefficient, certianly not anywhere near that of the E series. Goodmans' Achromat series, built in the late 70's, were probably the most efficient of the lot at 90db/m.

The early FR Axioms and the like were very efficient to match the tube amps of the time, but I'm guessing they weren't included in the test due to the age.
 
MunkeyQ said:
Out of interest, do you remember which Goodmans that was? I've heard that they dabbled in high efficiency designs but I haven't seen any.

Most of their speakers were pretty inefficient, certianly not anywhere near that of the E series. Goodmans' Achromat series, built in the late 70's, were probably the most efficient of the lot at 90db/m.

The early FR Axioms and the like were very efficient to match the tube amps of the time, but I'm guessing they weren't included in the test due to the age.
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It was a test in a Hi Fi mag many years ago, will look for it. The Goodmans was definately a High Efficiency model, probably designed to compete with the Wharfdales.
 
Ahh I forgot about the HE series. There's also a smaller HE2 with one mid. Quite efficient thanks to that aperiodic vent. Very interesting article there, thanks!
 
Wow-That brings me back! I sold these when I first started selling audio back in the very late 70's. IIRC, the 50's and 30's were vinyl veneer and the 70's and 90's were a really nice walnut veneer. We had a lot of blown tweets and burnt level controls-mostly in the E-30's-probably due to unrealistic "party" expectations, but the big boys could really take the juice.

I found it unfortunate that the appearance of the E series were designed to look too "DJ like" as they were actually a really nice sounding speaker and I always like what Wharfedale did when they got it right. I have kept my current wharfedales(a different series from the same era) since new. The E70's are good clean fun! Good luck on tracking down the 90's.
 
Rotoplooker said:
I found it unfortunate that the appearance of the E series were designed to look too "DJ like" as they were actually a really nice sounding speaker and I always like what Wharfedale did when they got it right. I have kept my current wharfedales(a different series from the same era) since new. The E70's are good clean fun! Good luck on tracking down the 90's.
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Wharfedale actually did a commercial version of the E90 with a more rugged cabinet (corner protectors etc.) and wheels.
 
MunkeyQ said:
Wharfedale actually did a commercial version of the E90 with a more rugged cabinet (corner protectors etc.) and wheels.
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Yeah, I seem to recall that, although I never saw or sold them first hand. I think folks over here never took the E series seriously because of their looks. That wire mesh driver cover thing just seemed to say "I'm loud" but they were more than that. The next generation from the e series over here was called the Mach series, and again with the "dj" mesh driver covers...

IMHO-The E series were definately better sounding than the newer Mach series.
 
Just took a peek at kfa888's link above, looks like the e50's were also finished in the handsome real walnut veneer as well. Very nice!
 
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