Wharfedale W60?

[finkerbell]

Oh, by the way...

Something I forgot to mention.

There were two versions of the W60 5" tweeter. One had a foam surround (a real challenge to replace even if you can find the right material) which, of course, disintegrates. The other had a felt surround with at least one neat pin hole in it.

Given a choice, I opt for the felt.

 

[Erkenbrand42]

I had a pair of W90s, and they really benefited from an updated crossover and replaced Lpad.

Before the tune up, they were muddy and non-responsive. The Lpads were pretty much shot. The rebuild brought life back to the top end.

 

[drknstrmyknight]

Agreed, the caps need to go and the l-pad cleaned or replaced.
If those woofs are mismatched, I prolly have one of the red-bands around here.

 

[godzilla]

With Yamaha CA-800 in Class A they sound killer!

I have the W60 hooked to a Yamaha CA-800 Integrated Amp switched to 10W/ch. Class A and a Pioneer PL-71 Turntable. Sounds amazing!

 

[Markw]

Yes, they are sand filled and removing the sand is an option I've never thought of. By looking at how they were made originally*, I'd say it's nort really a viable option.

*panels were filled separately through holes on top of them while on a shaker platform so it filled them completely and then assembled into a box.

 

[c-atle-79bay]

Man this thread is killing me a nice set right now just a couple miles away but GW has really spiked it's prices. And I don't need them. But they sure sound enticing.

 

[Locobreth]

Good will sure has spiked there prices....also there auction site ( GW version of ebay ) hs been discovered by too many people and there driving prices to retail levels. I guess all good things must end sometime.

 

[doctorolds]

I would say that your pair is the first version of the W60, no suffix. If you look inside of the cabinets there will be a date stamp. I have a set also and provided a link below that shows the dates of manufacture. I am not sure what year the W60B version was produced but Gang-Twanger may know. I believe the "B" version had a 2 position slide switch using 2 capacitors. It is possible that someone repaired your crossovers previously and might have replaced that woofer as well. As others have stated, clean the L-Pads up and replace the capacitors and give them a listen. Good luck.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=614492

 

[Dingman]

My update is that these sit in a closet upstairs, haven't used them for a long, long time.

They were just too laid back, even after re-capping. I even opened them back to up to doublecheck my work, I really thought they'd sound better. But I don't remember (I'm a space case) pulling the tweeters - I may not have, might have just stuck them in the close in favor of the multiple sets of Klipsch I had at the time.

I probably need to drag them out, and oil up the veneer- they are in pretty good shape and it gets dry here in the winter.

 

[drbiggles]

Hey Dingman,

I found the early W60's to be quite dull, not very precise and had a pretty decent hole in the midrange. The box is too small for that woofer, and that's a woofer. It's not a full range driver and doesn't do midrange well. New caps should open up the tweeters a bit, but not a heck of a lot. I put new poly caps and then tried vintage PIO caps, neither gave me anything worth keeping them for. Oil them up and pass them along!

Biggles

 

[PastTechFan]

Hey Dingman,

I found the early W60's to be quite dull, not very precise and had a pretty decent hole in the midrange. The box is too small for that woofer, and that's a woofer. It's not a full range driver and doesn't do midrange well. New caps should open up the tweeters a bit, but not a heck of a lot. I put new poly caps and then tried vintage PIO caps, neither gave me anything worth keeping them for. Oil them up and pass them along!

Biggles

I wonder if that was the reason the later ones were 3-way. That tweet doesn't like to go very high. I have a pair in the basement. I've been tempted to lower the crossover and place a (super?) tweet above. Or replace the factory tweet with an FR, and really drop the xover. I have some interesting little Philips that might fit.

 

[drbiggles]

I wonder if that was the reason the later ones were 3-way. That tweet doesn't like to go very high. I have a pair in the basement. I've been tempted to lower the crossover and place a (super?) tweet above. Or replace the factory tweet with an FR, and really drop the xover. I have some interesting little Philips that might fit.

That was part of it, the later purple tweeters did go up quite a bit higher. However, the midrange hole ruined them for me. We live in the midrange, and if a speaker doesn't get it close to functional, it's no dice. This and the tweeter is why I think they went to a 3-way later on. I considered loading my W60's with my 1959 Super 12, those have kick ass midrange. But I didn't want to get into it because the bass would still suffer.

Biggles

 

[Manchophile]

I love my w25's they are a great speaker. How much did you get them for?

 

[Dingman]

You got it man, your description matches my experience exactly. And I mean EXACTLY.
Mine are in really nice shape, so ya - I need to oil and sell them, clear out space in the closet for something else I'm not using, LOL.

Hey Dingman,

I found the early W60's to be quite dull, not very precise and had a pretty decent hole in the midrange. The box is too small for that woofer, and that's a woofer. It's not a full range driver and doesn't do midrange well. New caps should open up the tweeters a bit, but not a heck of a lot. I put new poly caps and then tried vintage PIO caps, neither gave me anything worth keeping them for. Oil them up and pass them along!

Biggles

 

[drbiggles]

Yup. But thankfully, they sell pretty darned well. You'll do FINE.

Biggles

 

[Dingman]

Now I'm wondering which closet they are actually in.
One of these days (I'm going to cut you into little pieces)

 

[PierceH]

IMG-9664

• PierceH
• Aug 5, 2020

IMG-9663

• PierceH
• Aug 5, 2020

Hello, first time poster/long time reader here. I picked up a pair of Wharfedale speakers yesterday at a thrift store for $40. From what I can tell, they appear to be W60's. I popped open the backs and looks like the cabinets were manufactured May 29, 1960 and the speakers are from July 1961, from the crayon marking on the speaker. Tweeters sound good, but woofers are farting out consistantly. I'm curious still because all other pictures I'm finding of speakers of this era of Wharfedale have a coil mounted next to the L-Pad and cap. As you can see in my pic, I am coil-less. It looks like the speaker in the pic has a mount for one, but the matching speaker doesn't have that extra bolt/nut or hole drilled there. Anyone know what's up with that? Also, I'm guessing recapping will fix the woofer sound? Thanks for any help here!

 

[woofercooker]

Hi! and welcome. I'm not a Wharfedale expert, but yours seem to be the W30 speakers.

Hopfully someone will chime in or you could start a new thread..

 

[Eric Krupp]

I bought a couple more sales brochures from the bay. They should be here this week.

Wharfedale sold some speakers called expandables. This was part of the w series. I do not know a lot about them. Your speakers might be part of that series. I believe they would have been refered to as the E60's then. I'll let you know when the literature arrives.

9 years later do you have a spec sheets for the w60 2way ported model? Just bought a pair and can’t find much on them other than basic info.

 

[Jcricket]

Hello,
I "might" have some literature around here somehwere. It has been a very long time since I was collecting the wharfedales. The only pair I still have are the E90's.

PierceH, what woofercooker said is correct. I think those are w30's. That is one model I have never run across or seen. I cannot comment on coil vs no coil on them. I can state the capacitor is fpr the tweeter. I can't see how it would cause a woofer problem. Changing the cap would likely help those tweeters, but I think there is another issue going on with them.