Wharfedale Laser 150
- Thread starter Kale
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
I have some problems with those vintage speakers;
The crossover has some burned elements on which I cant see theirs value, so because of that I need a schematic diagram of crossover for those speakers system.
Thank you for any kind of help!
The schematic may be tough to find, what with this being a late-era Wharfedale model. Those look to me like they're from the early to mid '80's (I would guess), and the factory burned down in like '86 or something... Can't remember), so I doubt that there are a ton of these kicking around (unless they're from the resurrected Wharfedale line, but I doubt it). Either way, I don't imagine there's much paperwork for these kicking around online. Hopefully someone here on AK can help get you squared away with cap values and all that, otherwise you'll have to try googling...
I'm curious about these speakers. They have the brushed-metal look on the driver frames just like the E50's (and E90's), but it looks like they went back to another sealed design. Their older sealed models were nice (Back in the '50's and '6o's, Wharfedale made ported models... Then in 1967 they redesigned their entire speaker line with acoustic-suspension models... Then in the mid to late '70's, the company went back to a ported design, but the E50/E90-series models had very-lttle in common with the original ported models from the Gilbert Briggs era... And now, it looks like they went back to another sealed design).
How are the cabs on those? How's the build-quality? Are they nice and heavy? Just wondering. Don't know anything about this model.
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Kale
Super Member
Those speakers are from late 70ies till early 80ies.
I tried to googling, but without result, just only some review and pictures.
E series of Wharfedale speakers is different series than Laser Series. E Series is High Efficient Speakers with efficiency 95 or 96 dB 1 m on 1W power. They are like some PA speakers...
I tried to googling, but without result, just only some review and pictures.
E series of Wharfedale speakers is different series than Laser Series. E Series is High Efficient Speakers with efficiency 95 or 96 dB 1 m on 1W power. They are like some PA speakers...
If I remember rightly, they're from about the time that Wharfedale went through the management buyout from Rank Audio - I suspect just after as there's no mention of Rank on my pair of black Laser 150s. I've not got a circuit diagram for the crossovers though I'm afraid.
They do pop up on Ebay so it may be worth picking a pair up on there and transplanting the crossover. I think I paid about £25 for mine from a guy in Leeds. Wharfedale also used to be really good at keeping spares - they kept them for up to about 20 years - so it may be worth giving them a call or dropping them an email.
They do pop up on Ebay so it may be worth picking a pair up on there and transplanting the crossover. I think I paid about £25 for mine from a guy in Leeds. Wharfedale also used to be really good at keeping spares - they kept them for up to about 20 years - so it may be worth giving them a call or dropping them an email.
Kale
Super Member
Those Laser 150 speakers are fixed and now they sound great 
First of all I had to fix burned part of crossover board:
as second, I have found that end of coil was not soldered in factory !?!
Look how it was looking original crimp terminal
and the new one...
finally restored crossover board
First of all I had to fix burned part of crossover board:
as second, I have found that end of coil was not soldered in factory !?!
Look how it was looking original crimp terminal
and the new one...
finally restored crossover board
Excellent work!
What happened to those crossovers? It looks like someone hooked them to mains voltage!
What happened to those crossovers? It looks like someone hooked them to mains voltage!
Kale
Super Member
That burned hole I filled with two component epoxy.
I a sure that they are OK because I tested them. That small coil what was not connected (and because of that it is like a new
) has the same impedance like the same coil on another crossover board. I have FLUKE 45 bench meter and I can measure with it very small resistance (I can calibrate it to real 0 ohm).Bigger coils has the same impedance (normally if you are looking the same coil on each board), so I think that they just look burned (because burned labels on them), but they are OK.
The biggest heat was on those resistors, so I putted MILLS 12 Watts non inductive resistors (the biggest ones) and MILLS 5 Watts (the small ones).
Kale
Super Member
I dont know, really
I was surprised when I opened those speakers. But now they are working very well in my working place where I am doing restorations on Sansuies They are connected on restored Sansui G901DB, and as music source is Akai GX635D R&R tape deck
Kale
Super Member
All what I can say about sound what they are producing is that I am satisfied, and they are still connected to the my Sansui G901DB. Bass is deep and real (because of that I was looking closed speakers system with min 25 cm bass unit diameter). Tweeter is maybe weak element at complete system, because it is not nice and natural as today production, but maybe that is because of age... who knows... maybe material of tweeter becomes different than when it was as new... One more thing, until now I smeared two or three times the rubber surround of the bass speaker with glycerin to get flexibility which is probably lost during all this years...