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Wharfedale W90 score! Solid state amp/receiver needed

MadcapLaughs

MadcapLaughs

Active Member
Hey everybody,

St. Louis Craigslist has turned into an audiophile treasure trove lately, I just picked up a near mint set of 1st gen Wharfedale w90s yesterday with the super 3s and ceramic woofs. Between these and my Altec 14s I can close my speaker search for a while. I have a Scott 299d which I know is the perfect tube amp to run the wharfs, but it’s gettiing some Mundorf caps installed right now and selenium rectifier replaced. In the meantime I’m wondering what you all like to run with your Wharfedales, especially early 60s models? Looking for a mid to lower powered solid state receiver or amp to run intermittently with the Scott. I’m thinking Marantz 2240 or 2270, but I’m worried about 70wpc running through them as I like to crank the volume up a decent amount of the time.

Edit: the Kenwood Supreme 600 pictured in the photo FYI is NOT a good match with these lol, I have not played these too loud so far.... I’m selling the 600 as I have no need for that power on the wharfs or 14s.
 

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MadcapLaughs said:
Hey everybody,

St. Louis Craigslist has turned into an audiophile treasure trove lately, I just picked up a near mint set of 1st gen Wharfedale w90s yesterday with the super 3s and ceramic woofs. Between these and my Altec 14s I can close my speaker search for a while. I have a Scott 299d which I know is the perfect tube amp to run the wharfs, but it’s gettiing some Mundorf caps installed right now and selenium rectifier replaced. In the meantime I’m wondering what you all like to run with your Wharfedales, especially early 60s models? Looking for a mid to lower powered solid state receiver or amp to run intermittently with the Scott. I’m thinking Marantz 2240 or 2270, but I’m worried about 70wpc running through them as I like to crank the volume up a decent amount of the time.

Edit: the Kenwood Supreme 600 pictured in the photo FYI is NOT a good match with these lol, I have not played these too loud so far.... I’m selling the 600 as I have no need for that power on the wharfs or 14s.
Click to expand...
I owned a set of W-90’s and powered them with an Emotiva amp rated at 100W per channel. Just be careful with the volume. IMHO
 
Why isn't the 600 a good match? I would think it would sound outstanding with those speakers. You can never have too much power.
 
Hey thanks for the replies, Roadrash, I really like the 600 overall and yes it has a nice clean sound with the Wharfedales, but I reall feel like it doesn’t have the punchy upfront sound that a cheaper Sansui or Sherwood receiver might have resulting in better synergy. It’s almost like the supreme is too luxurious sounding and just gives a massive output that seems overwhelming once the volume knob goes up. The supreme worked much better with speakers designed to handle more watts just IMO. I’m looking for suggestions on a punchy sounding vintage receiver. I also have KBG paper in oil caps for the exact crossover values needed that I bought a while ago with plans for getting the w90s, so a recap is in order soon. I understand that a lower power amp can result in more speaker damage with clipping than a higher watt can, but I really don’t think that applies much to these early w90s, I want to be able to crank the volume without worrying about frying voicecoils or anything, with Kenny I am somewhat worried about turning the tunes up.
 
I think you’re actually better off with more power here, a low powered amp cranked is more likely to blow drivers than a higher powered amp - although the w90’s aren’t really crank the volume and blow you away type speakers anyway. I would say use the 2270 but don’t be silly with the volume - the drivers are old!
 
Dammit where’s gang twanger when you need him, he would encourage me to turn the volume up and dance around the room not sit there with your ear to speaker like you’re tuning in Charles DeGaul In occupied France!

Lol in all seriousness I appreciate the advice crestwood I think you maybe had guided me towards the right oil caps several months ago, thanks for the help, I’ll let you know how the recap works out!

In all honesty where the hell is GT and his chest beating wall of sound! ???
 
Hey so I’m thinking about getting these new oil caps installed into the crossovers today. I currently have 8 total 8uf value KBG Russian oil caps, 4 per speaker as I’m wiring together 3 of the 8uf values to equal the 24uf cap I’ll be replacing, and the remaining 8uf cap will simply go where the old 8uf goes. I recall from earlier postings that I’m order to achieve the 24uf value with the 3 caps, one must wire them “in series” or something like that. In other words, what’s the trick for wiring these together?
 

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The reading material is good. Do you have a meter to read capacitance? That’s a good tool to tell where you are in capacitance when they’re wired up together.
I was also going to suggest a low wattage Sansui, like the 2000a.
Enjoy the W90’s!
 
Ok I finally got the oil caps installed in my W90s with the help of a local speaker repair guy. I felt that I understood the process of how to get the recap done but I’m simply too nervous to buy a soldering iron and do it myself (maybe I’ll give a recap a shot on my Klh 6s sometime as I’m not as afraid to goof on those). I saw the 3 8uf capacitors we’re wired in parallel and the whole bundle is hot glued to the top shelf behind the tweeters, almost a replica of Crestwood23’s w90 KGB thread. Anyhow I’ve spent a day or so playing them off and on and all I can say is nothing has gotten worse with the kgb oil caps that’s for sure. I do think I’ve noticed some improvement but something tells me the original caps I had in them may have already been an oil capacitor of some kind, and maybe they weren’t out of spec too bad. Anyway I really love the w90s and have them hooked up to my Scott 299d. As far as finding a backup solid state amp is concerned, I scratched that idea as soon as I saw a clean fisher 400 receiver available for cheap and snagged it...it’s getting tubes and caps checked now and I’m in no big hurry, the Scott sounds fantastic. I currently have the 90s only a few inches off the floor and they may be sitting a tad low, so I’m going to see about building some custom 6 inch wood stands for these. So far I’ve been spinning Donald Byrd’s steppin into tomorrow, Brian Enos Before and After Science, and some mono Buffalo Springfield...all with excellent results!!
 
Also, I will say that a quick summary of the 90s IMO is that they will completely take over your system. To some that may not be a great thing, but in other words I’ve lost interest in upgrading tubes, cartridges, phono stages etc, because the sound of the W90s is so complete and provides a wall of warm sound that really dwarfs the effects of some upstream components... So it’s important to get them hooked up to the right amp initially (tube or early ss) and get a nice turntable, etc. But honestly once you have that hooked up to W90s you can pretty much wash your hands and call it a wrap on the upgrade itch.
 
MadcapLaughs said:
Also, I will say that a quick summary of the 90s IMO is that they will completely take over your system. To some that may not be a great thing, but in other words I’ve lost interest in upgrading tubes, cartridges, phono stages etc, because the sound of the W90s is so complete and provides a wall of warm sound that really dwarfs the effects of some upstream components... So it’s important to get them hooked up to the right amp initially (tube or early ss) and get a nice turntable, etc. But honestly once you have that hooked up to W90s you can pretty much wash your hands and call it a wrap on the upgrade itch.
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Ya, once I recapped my 90's, got them placed right, pots adjusted, I'm done. No more chasing speakers. And like you I'm really happy with the rest of my setup. Congrats!
 
Thanks Lavane, what’s the rest of your setup with the W90s consist of? I have an AR XA moded turntable and Nagaoka mp 150 cartridge along with the Scott currently.
 
I am almost positive GangTwanger would suggest a nice The Fisher Tube receiver like the 400 or similar. He always did anyway.
If you like the 299d, how about one of the early SS Scott's?
 
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