wharfedale super3

[mozmax]

hello. ive recently got my hands on some wharfedale airedales but when i opened them up i found they didnt have the original crossovers or tweeters in them, ive looked everywhere for a set of tweeters but to no avail, there the super3 could anyone recommend an alternative please, heres what was in them, any help would be appreciated, thanks guys.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

The alnico Super 3's are out there, even though it may take a few days/weeks. Trust me when I say, you want to source a pair of originals. The Super 3 was Wharfedale's main tweeter back then (for the upper-level stuff) and was used on many different models, so you should be able to find a pair soon enough. It will be worth it, believe me. Those tweeters are ESSENTIAL to that classic Wharfedale sound. The alnico Super 3 was used in the SFB3, W3, W4, and Airedale, as well as the early W70 and W90 models, and it was their primary tweeter throughout the '50's. You want them, trust me on that. They will make all the difference in the world to those.... ESPECIALLY those, which have the tweeter facing upwards (The original Super 3 is great for either forwards or upwards-facing applications, and it is a WONDERFUL-sounding tweeter... Surely one of the best cone-tweeters ever made, and you do NOT want to substitute a cheap Japanese/Chinese tweeter in it's place... It's sacrilege).

By the way, nice going scoring a pair of TOTL'ers. Give those the proper attention, and I assure you, they will sound amazing. I have a pair of W90's from the same early '60's era, which share the same tweeters (The W90's have TWO Super 3's per cab... Somebody just scored a pair of W90's... Go read his listening impressions of them if you want to get an idea of the tonality of those Airedales).

Someday I'd like to find a pair of W4's, which are the next model down in that series. They're like the Airedale's younger brother (By the way, the modern reissue/interpretation of the Airedales are like $40,000 a pair... The originals cost as much as a downpayment on a very-nice house back in the early '60's).

 

[mozmax]

hello. thanks for that info, im sure your right, they actually sound pretty good the way they are so i could only imagine what they would be like all original, ile definately keep looking, thanks again.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

hello. thanks for that info, im sure your right, they actually sound pretty good the way they are so i could only imagine what they would be like all original, ile definately keep looking, thanks again.

Good plan. You won't be sorry. The models in that series were Wharfedale's "all around the room" speakers, and with the original tweeters, they will fill the room with absolutely-beautiful sound.

Check out this pair of originals. Even with the lackluster camcorder mic, you can still hear that classic Wharfedale sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwb9OCivhtg

And here are a pair of W4's (their little brother). In this video, the owner removes the tweeter cover on one of them so you can see the Super 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HslFhBBvITA

Get those going and throw some warm tube power behind them, and it's game over, man... Game over.

 

[mozmax]

hello, im not sure which ones they are now, theres no sticker with the model on them, but my guess is there airedales...they need plenty of work doing to them, heres a pic of them recently. thanks again, mozmax

 

[Gang-Twanger]

hello, im not sure which ones they are now, theres no sticker with the model on them, but my guess is there airedales...they need plenty of work doing to them, heres a pic of them recently. thanks again, mozmax

Those are either Airedales or W4's. Either way, you're talking about a true classic (That guy who owns the Airedales and W4's in those videos I linked says he actually prefers the W4's, although that could be a room-size issue... Both are the epitome of the classic early '60's British sound).

The Airedales came with a 15" alnico woofer, two Super 8 RS/DD mid-woofers, and one Super 3 tweeter on top, facing upwards. The W4, came with a 12" woofer (the WLS12, I believe), two Super 5's for the mids, and again, one Super 3 tweeter on top. I believe the woofer is isolated from the mids and tweeter, and there should be some sort of ceramic tiles in there somewhere (I think they were for either dampening purposes or for backwave-cancellation, but I'm not sure). There are a few sites online with info on the Airedale. If I can remember them, I'll post.

Go to troels graven's site for free catalog/brochure downloads from 1962. http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Wharfedale_cat.htm

 

[mozmax]

hello. they only have 1 mid and a tweeter facing up? the mid is a 8 inch

 

[Gang-Twanger]

hello. they only have 1 mid and a tweeter facing up? the mid is a 8 inch

Yeah, those are the Airedales. And I was wrong about the mids. The Airedales only had one Super 8 RS/DD mid-woofer, like you said (The W4 has two Super 5's). The Super 3 tweeter is free-mounted in the top compartment, facing upwards. Watch the W4 video, and you'll see how it fits in there.

Very-cool, by the way...

 

[mozmax]

hi, i just looked they have the tiles in them, the bass section is sectioned off from the top, they have a gold vent on the top in lines cut out of the wood, i dont think the speaker is 15 inch thoe unless you measured from 1 bolt hole to the opposite, regards
mozmax

 

[mozmax]

i cant wait to get hold of the crossovers and tweeters, i listened to a pink floyd album today on them and they was shocking, but in a good way, the album was the final cut.
at the moment there rigged upto a monocor 3 way crossover that was in there when i bought them

 

[Gang-Twanger]

i cant wait to get hold of the crossovers and tweeters, i listened to a pink floyd album today on them and they was shocking, but in a good way, the album was the final cut.
at the moment there rigged upto a monocor 3 way crossover that was in there when i bought them

Yeah, wait til you get the super 3's in there. Then you'll REALLY be blown away.

And yes, they originally came with a 15" woofer. A W15/RS according to the original brochure. The W4, on the other hand, came with a 12" woofer (a WLS/12), but those are not W4's, those are Airedales. The single mid-woofer is the giveaway (I had forgotten that the Airedale only had one mid, not two... The W4 had two Super 5's in the middle section, which were smaller drivers than the super 8 RS/DD that's in the Airedale).

You may be able to make the crossovers yourself, if there's a schematic somewhere online (If I find one, I'll let you know). Either way, those will certainly be worth the effort. The Airedale was Wharfedale's flagship model (Well, that and the W90, which was available in the early '60's as well). Quite a unique, but effective design.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

This is the Super 3 that you need. Quite an impressive-looking tweeter. Cone-tweeters, when done right, can be the most-natural-sounding thing you ever heard, and that's the case here. A completely-strident high-frequency response (Gilbert Briggs preferred using cone-drivers, and that's why everything they made during the Briggs era had cone-drivers in it (He even made his own version of the Quad ESL 57, which he called the SFB3, and it used all cone-drivers instead of choosing an electrostatic design). Wharfedale used a cone-material for all their drivers that was similar to what Bozak used on their woofers back in the day. A wool/paper-pulp blend, I believe. Whatever it is, it added up to stellar driver-integration.

One thing though, the alnico Super 3 tweeter does not seem to do as well with modern-style capacitors, particularly the polypropylene types. Your best bet would be to go with some type of oil-filled capacitor instead. They will certainly cost you more, but you'll be glad you did. So far, both Dayton and Solen polypropylene caps seem to add a bit of glare to the tweeters. I'm currently-shopping for a cap for the Super 3's in my W90's. It's gonna' cost me a lot, but I think I might go with some paper-in-oil caps or something similar/more-old-school in design. Here's a great link to a capacitor comparison that this guy did. LOTS of capacitor reviews/comparisons. This page is essential for anyone shopping for caps. http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

Rike makes a paper-in-oil aluminum cap that's supposed to be amazing. I think they're made in Germany. High-quality stuff. http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/rike_scap.html

And here's one I might go with if I can get the right capacitance and still keep it within my budget. I really-like what I've read about these. http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/jupiter_flats.html

 

[mozmax]

goodmorning people...gang twanger you know your stuff when it comes to wharfedales my friend, anyway thanks for all the info, im going to start a new post on the airedales, they seem very addictive, they got me up earlier than normal today, im going to start some work on them now, ive got a bit of uk odyssey cable im going to use instead of that awefull phone wire that was in there, will also be looking at the caps you mentioned thanks again mate

 

[Gang-Twanger]

No problem. You'll love those things once you get the right tweeters in there (If you think they're addicting now, just wait... ). They'll be especially-good with '60's and '70's music. Anything from the Beatles to Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, plus everything in between (The old Wharfedales are scary-good at reproducing classic-rock guitars as well as horn instruments). And you couldn't pick a better speaker for jazz, blues, and acoustic music. They aren't the type of speaker for getting the most out of late '80's Metallica, but if you love your Floyd, Allman Bros, James Brown, and the Doors, then those speakers are right up your alley.

 

[Smitthy]

The Super3 on my SFB3 has an aluminium dust cap,the original surround being being very light foam which disintegrated on being touched.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

The Super3 on my SFB3 has an aluminium dust cap,the original surround being being very light foam which disintegrated on being touched.

I really want a pair of SFB3's someday, even if I have to refoam drivers (Apparently, those surrounds only disintegrated like that when stored vin ultra-dry climates... I've seen lots of old alnico Super 3's with no issues... Love that tweeter... That and the Super 5). The SFB3's seem like they're right up my alley, plus I love the look of them.

I bet yours sound super-nice. Those were designed from top to bottom by Mr. Briggs himself *EDIT: Not true... Raymond Cooke worked on it as well... Sorry about that... Fell privy to some false information online .END EDIT* (The SFB3's were Wharfedale's take on the Quad ESL-57, using cone-drivers instead of an electrostatic design).

 

[krit]

hello from O.Z

I`m trying to find out how to set these up thru the cross-over? can anyone help me????

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...763364.-2207520000.1383101100.&type=3&theater

 

[krit]

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Can't see the pictures... Although, I get the feeling you already know this.... or not (Thought maybe you were trying to repaste them on your 2nd post).

 

[Gang-Twanger]

The Super3 on my SFB3 has an aluminium dust cap,the original surround being being very light foam which disintegrated on being touched.

I wanted to come back and bring up an issue I noticed about the Super-3-type cone-tweeters Wharfedale made and sold throughout the '50's and early '60's. The Super 3/SFB, which was used in the SFB3 as Smitthy sated above, came with an aluminum dustcap (which was apparently for dampening resonances at a certain frequency range). I'm not sure if this had something to do with the fact that the SFB3 was an open-baffle design, but I know some of those earlier Super 3's had the metal dustcap while the later ones did not (The Super 3's you see on the troelsgraven site are NOT from a pair of SFB3's, but it's easy to mistake this, as I myself did, due to the SFB3 pictures he posted immediately-FOLLOWING those Super 3 pics... He grabbed the SFB3 pics off Fleabay, and they were not the speakers from which he got his Super 3 test subjects... I just wanted to be clear on that).

Here is a picture of one of the Super 3/SFB tweeters as seen in the SFB3 model...

So, to recap, the Super 3's you see in the picture below are NOT from the old SFB3 model from the late '50's (as I and others had previously-thought). They are likely from the early '60's and could have been taken from early W70's or W90's (The ones in my W90's look like the ones in the picture), or possibly one of the W* models (W3, W4, and Airedale). The Super 3 was also sold separately for use in kit-type and DIY speakers.

And later on in the mid to late '60's, Wharfedale had developed a ceramic version of the Super 3, which I believe was used in the W70C and W90C and was probably sold separately as well (I'm not sure if this version was ever sold alongside the alnico Super 3, but I kinda' doubt it).