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Wharfedale Owners Thread

I'm a fan of this thread. Had some Wharfedale Diamond 9.6 floorstanders for a few months...they were pretty sweet for the price! I'd love to hear/have some W90's with tube power some day.
 
Here is a pair of the rarest of the rare.. W80a Wharfedale. These are sweet sounding speakers. I will post some updates as I recapp and clean.
 

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I have Wharfedale Laser 130 and finde almost no informations about?
I think that on one woofer Speaker voice coil is burned.....
 
bevador said:
Here is a pair of the rarest of the rare.. W80a Wharfedale. These are sweet sounding speakers. I will post some updates as I recapp and clean.
Click to expand...

I have the W60E's from that series, but never heard the W80's though. That deflector disc design is quite-different from anything Wharfedale had released prior.

Speaking of rare, I discovered that there really WAS a W50 model back in the early '60's. I have yet to actually SEE a pair, but I've seen ads for them in old issues of "High Fidelity" (plus they mention them in the Briggs biography). Also, the W2 is NOT the same size as the W60 (The W60 has about 2.6 cubic feet of cab volume while I think the W2 has about 2.3... Same basic drivers though).

Also, Wharfedale was considered a high-end company until the Rank Group bought Leak from it's retiring owner, and then Rank had the bright idea of relocating Wharfedale to mid-fi status, even though I believe Wharfedale was the bigger moneymaker at the time (The Wharfedale employees were PISSED when they found out). That's when you started seeing the 2XP/3XP stuff. This went on until at least the SP series of '75 and the E** series of the late '70's, although I think this the beginning of the end of Wharfedale as we knew it (Well, okay... SOMEBODY knew them, not me... I was 5 at the time, so I knew Stretch Armstrong and Rock'em Sock'em Robots). Briggs was interviewed on film a short time before he passed away (I think by some Australian documentary filmmaker), and I guess he looked right into the camera, and the first thing he says is, "The biggest mistake I ever made was selling my company to the Rank Corporation."

He may have been right, but had he not, I would never have gotten these W90's (and you wouldn't have those W80's either).
 
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Welcome back Gang-Twanger... your Wharfedale "enthusiasm" was missed, as was your expertise.

Here's a funny pic for you enjoyment :)

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Cheers,
Wayne
 

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Scott! Yessssss.......

scuba said:
I've had a pair of W60's for over 20 years now... They have been paired with the Scotts all their life and sound absolutely marvelous when driven by tubes.
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I've finally got some tube power, my pristine little AGS TRIO (MEL) 40! (That's a mouthful!) A Canadian badged Kenwood KW-40. Earlier owner's pic:

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The W90's just sound better and better, especially after about 1/2 hour. Everything's all warmed up and ready to work out.

Next up is my Scott 399 (299B powered)! Really looking forward to hearing that (post-recap)! :yes: (Note to self: get off ass!)
 

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Russian KBG paper in oil capacitors

Hi,
First, I've got a pair of W60e's that were my first vintage
foray about a year ago. I've since gone on to KLH, AR, EPI,
Large Advents and been diagnosed with a speaker problem
by my wife. They each have a voice, and I love the wharfedales
I'm gearing up for a crossover rebuild on them.

My title to this post is Russian KBG paper in oil capacitors. I've
Been eyeing these as the cap I'd try when I finally score a pair
Of W 60's. (And pass on one of the aforementioned pair to keep a
homeostasis at home).
How is the sound of these KGB PIO's?
Any suggestions to look for when purchasing?

Thanks
Mark
 
Omegaman said:
More awesome goodness

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=517275&highlight=barzilay

I really love these Wharfedales
Click to expand...

That is truly-awesome. You scrubbed the hell out of that thing. Now, THAT'S a complete refinish. And the level of synergy with Wharfedale and Fisher is shocking. Try an old Dual idler with that setup, preferably one of the TOTL ones like the 1019, 1219, and the 1229. My ideal console would probably have a 1019, a Leak amp/preamp, and the W90's I have now.

You might want to hunt down some NOS oil caps for them (especially if they're all-alnico). It was like a transformation when I did mine, and they had already been recapped three years earlier. Another W90 owner did the same thing and said the same things I did. Like getting new speakers. It was like hitting a 'perfection' switch.
 
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Paper in oil caps for old Wharfedale crossovers

Gangtweeter,
What brand was the NOS Paper in Oil cap you used? Where did you
get them? I asked in a previous post to this thread about the sound quality of
the Russian KBG pio caps.
I've read of people considering the old motor run caps, although I wonder about the sound quality of those. I know there's boutique pio caps but they're too expensive.
I guess I'll just try the Russian PIO when I eventually find my W60's.

Cheers
 
markkb said:
Gangtweeter,
What brand was the NOS Paper in Oil cap you used? Where did you
get them? I asked in a previous post to this thread about the sound quality of
the Russian KBG pio caps.
I've read of people considering the old motor run caps, although I wonder about the sound quality of those. I know there's boutique pio caps but they're too expensive.
I guess I'll just try the Russian PIO when I eventually find my W60's.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Just look for any US-made, PCB-era oil caps. Motor runs are OK, but the key to look for is the age (You want something from the peak of the PCB era, basically the '50's to the mid '60's, give or take... The non-PCB ones apparently don't sound as good). Also, you want to keep track of the voltage (and you need to know the conversion ratio between "volts AC or VAC" and "volts DC or VDC"... I think AC is something like 2.272 bigger or something along those lines).

I put NOS 1000VDC Sprague oil caps (from the early to mid '60's) on the mid-woofers. l got REALLY-lucky with those. Sony6060 and Crestwood23 were helping me shop, and those happened to be up at a killer BIN. About as high-quality as a speaker like that would ever need. For the tweeters, Sony6060 found me a pair of 600VDC Sangamo oil caps. Both pairs were US-made and PCB-era, and that's what you look for.

Or if you want to go with the Russian ones and make sure they're the ones that say "KBG". Those are the ones that were custom-spec'd for the KGB exclusively. But check the voltage as well. You probably don't need more than 50-100VDC for an old Wharfedale crossover, but the higher the voltage rating, the better the construction quality. Just get as close as you can to the uF value the speaker needs, get the highest voltage-rating you can find and afford, and that's it. The value on mine wasn't perfect, but let me tell you, they sound GOOD. It completely-eliminated the polypropylene glare I was getting, plus it woke them up to the point of them sounding like new speakers, and mine had just been recapped 3 years ago. And Crestwood23 used Russian KBG's on the mids of his W90's and the same exact Sangamo ones that I put on my tweeters, and he's been thrilled with the results.

Just start looking on Fleabay for names like Sprague, Sangamo, G.E., Industrial Condenser, etc. There were so many different brands. You'll get the idea.
 
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