Wharfedale W60D-Homecoming

[Ishmael]

So here they are, I got to get a little stand for the Hitachi SR-504 and the Sony CD player. I may look into a little more power as the Hitachi is doing fine, but turned up a bit more on the volume knob than the other vintage gear, but then they are 100 and 60 W into 8 ohm receiver/integrated amplifier vrs. the Hitachi’s 27 W into 8 ohm, ah but for now the time machine is working it’s early 60s and a Hard Day’s Night is playing, life is good.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Very-cool. Those look great. Glad to see you got them up and running. And once they've had some playing time, surrounds loosening and that sort of thing, they will REALLY get nice. Those were competing with some very-well-regarded speakers back in the late '60's ('68-'70, as far as I know... I'm almost positive the W60E and it's brethren were introduced in '71). Those mylar dome/pressure tweeters (whatever) were replacing the Super 3, which had been the company's bread and butter, and they stuck with that mylar jobbie for nearly as many years, so it must have been well-liked. It has better extension than the Super 3.

Have you dated yours? I can't remember.

 

[Ishmael]

Thanks Gang, my thoughts exactly, I am playing a range of classic rock through them now from the 60s just to let things work and loosen up again.

As to the age the best that I can do is that on one speaker, Serial Number: D07457, the date written on the woofer is "3/68" or March 1968. Since the other speaker's serial number is D07477 they were likely made at the same time as their serial numbers are very close. They are both clearly marked on the factory foil gold labeling around the speaker terminals/attenuators as "W60D" speakers (you can see part of this in the picture with my first post about these speakers).

 

[Gang-Twanger]

So, then your drivers were likely made BEFORE Rank's purchase of Leak. Are your mids cast-framed? I haven't put together exactly when they changed to a different one, but I figured it would make sense if it happened around that time, as many financial decisions were made after they acquired Leak (and later decided to go in more of a mid-fi direction with the XP's).

I bet those sound sweet with a Fisher. If you like them now, you'll REALLY dig them with tubes, although the early Sansui solid-staters have a very-tubelike sound that goes well with these models. Depends on the room-size. Fishers tend to relax the vocals a wee bit, which eliminates any shoutiness whatsoever with my W90's in my 14'x12' room. But if you have a little space, then a Sansui 2000x or 4000, or even a Sherwood would do quite-nicely (How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?). That's what I like most about Wharfedales. There's so much life in them, just waiting to come out.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

I like the stands. Let me know how those work out. I've only ever had mine facing straight ahead, no pitching, but it SHOULD work, as long as the drivers are still aiming directly at your eyeline. Some people don't toe their Wharfedales in, but I do.

That's right, yours have the early W60D tweeters, so surely they must have cast mids as well. Those are earlier. MKI. Mine are Mark II (They have the 2nd variation of that tweeter). Those are transition Wharfies, kind of like transition-era Fender guitar amps (Made AFTER the '65 buyout of Fender, but before too many reputation-altering changes could be made).

 

[Ishmael]

I really do like these stands for vintage speakers. They are sold at our favorite stereo shop and their design was for the vintage "BookShelf" sized speakers such as Large/New Large Advents, JBL 100s, Wharfedale W60, etc. sized speakers. They lift the speaker about 8-10 inches off the floor with a slight tilt back so that the speakers fire both out and slightly up. They have worked very well with our KEF Ref 104, Large Advent, ADS L710 and these Wharfedale W60D speakers.

Back in the day I recall that these same speakers would have either sat on the floor, some concrete block speaker stands, or, up near chest level on the shelf in the door room strong enough to support them. I think these stands are an improvement over that.

Given the size of the room, very small, the toe in just makes sense to me, as you are really near-field listening to them so you might as well have the two channels meet and cross right in front of the listening sofa. Seems to make for a better sound.

 

[Dr. Humboldt]

Office Wharfedales

Thanks for all the info in this thread, everyone. I'm following Ishmael's progress closely as I bring up my own W60Ds -- ordered capacitors yesterday. In case anyone is also following this thread with the same thing in mind, this is what I ordered (will report back after installation).

2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-25 25uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor; Part # 027-256

2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-8.2 8.2uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor; Part # 027-242

Forgive the mess in the pic, as my tools, etc., are all over the place, speaker wires coiled, various unforgivable sins. But roughly, this is what the finished product will look like, installed in my office. Everything here is original / unrestored condition (AKer ygor hooked me up with some missing parts to my Empire 598 II), so the restoration process will begin with the speakers and move backward from there. Thanks to all the posters and expertise on this forum -- I wouldn't know where to begin without it.

 

[Dr. Humboldt]

Interesting day, it turned out not only did the crossover need new caps, and the attenuators cleaned, but both tweeters were dead! They are no longer dead, the service tech at our long time stereo shop re-animated them (have an email to find out how he did this, visions of Dr. Frankenstein’s dungeon come to mind). The pink/purple picture is of one of the newly animated tweeters.

Yes please find out and report how the tweeters were reanimated -- since you mentioned it, I've just given my W60D tweeters a listen, seems like mine are dead, too.:scratch2:

 

[Ishmael]

If I hear back from the service technician I will pass on what he did to re-animate the tweeters. I am sure it will be more advanced than the traditional kite in a thunder storm approach .

 

[Ishmael]

From others posts on these speakers it seems that tube amplification has been a good way to go. This would be a new experience for me, what amplification power and models of tube amplifiers/receives have others found to be a good partner to these speakers?

 

[Dr. Humboldt]

I need to have my ears checked -- I put on The Modern Jazz Quartet to let Milt Jackson's vibes flex the tweeters, and they're working fine. My boss (who has a vinyl stand at a local antique mall, yes, coolest boss ever) came in and gave them a listen, he said yes, indeed, they are working.

 

[Dr. Humboldt]

2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-25 25uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor; Part # 027-256

2 x Dayton Audio PMPC-8.2 8.2uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor; Part # 027-242

.

so I'm not going to put these in after all, but rather return them for $ for caps for the amp. The speakers sound good, they will be the last to be recapped, if at all, the old oil caps in there seem to be working great, though I don't have the equipment to check it.

 

[Ishmael]

So here is a final post. We got word back from the service technician on how he was able to re-animate our two dead tweeters in the W60D speakers:

"I was able to track down the break in the voice coil wire in both tweeters and get them working again."

Life is good.

 

[Dr. Humboldt]

Awesome, thanks for the info! Enjoy your lovely speakers!

 

[tcrafter]

Just more than a year from Ishmael's original post and here I am at the same place. A pair of W60Ds that sound great, cabinets in great shape except for a couple small paint stains but also with a tweeter issue (potentiometer or driver?) on one speaker. I'm still assessing these and learning but like what I hear. This thread is very helpful.

I also liked that your speakers were tagged with an Oregon drivers license since I'm in Portland.

Mine came a while later than yours, D18712 and D18729.