Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Speaker Review

[uwotm8]

I take it neither the owner nor Amir have seen the measurements of the Linton? Yes there is still a directivity error but the response becomes significantly more linear.
Grille off:
View attachment 346243
Grille on:
View attachment 346242

Big shame about this oversight and likely an unfair assessment of this speaker

Ah, here it is - well, that is one nice response

 

[AudioJester]

Well, I hope no one got the Denton from extrapolating Erin's measurement of the Linton.

 

[smrex13]

I had these briefly years ago because I wanted "warm" sound. I found them to be uneven and fatiguing. Seeing these measurements helps me understand now why I disliked them so much.

 

[moonthink]

I have zero experience with any Wharfedale speaker, but I've seen this phrase in lots of places and want to know what the heck does "fun to listen to" mean anyway? I've heard loads of speakers in my day and have never thought this about any of them. "Sounds good", "Sounds bad", well sure. Lots of music is "fun to listen to", but speakers???? Just don't get it...

I'm sorry, I realize subjective terms like that can be triggering for some. TW: here are some more descriptors to try and explain what I meant by "fun" to listen to...

Music just sounds special on them to me. Like, I also have Polk Monitor 7's and they are pretty good speakers by most accounts, but I prefer the Dentons. The Dentons are great (to me) at lower volumes, and I never get tired or fatigued from listening to them. I just want to keep listening to them and playing more music through them. I have some other speakers that sound good with music (Vienna Acoustics Hadyn's for example) but music seems more special on the Dentons, yet not extra colored. I also used to have some KEF Q750's and I never liked listening to music on them. Years ago, I had some Infinity Sm-series, and they sounded fun and special to me, but definitely colored.

 

[moonthink]

Usually exaggeration in the treble, midrange or bass like some Grado headphones, Beats headphones, Klipsch and B&W speakers.

That's definitely not what I meant, but I probably used a poor choice of words. And I should know better...

 

[AuricGoldfinger]

What is the upside for biamping a small speaker? Does it give you additional control over equalization?

It was an audiophile marketing practice that I began seeing about 30 years ago. The internal crossover cannot be defeated. The advantage compared to typical single binding post pairs was that different wattage amplifiers having the same gain factor could be associated with the different driver groups, thus if the woofer/midwoofer’s amplifier clipped it would not subject the tweeter to full scale harmonic distortion.

 

[OfficialChill]

Well, I hope no one got the Denton from extrapolating Erin's measurement of the Linton.

As I posted before the Linton with grille off measures similar to this in the Spinorama. But Erin provided a grille on measurement; Amir hasn't.

 

[moonthink]

I take it neither the owner nor Amir have seen the measurements of the Linton? Yes there is still a directivity error but the response becomes significantly more linear.


Big shame about this oversight and likely an unfair assessment of this speaker

I did see that, but after I had the speakers already for about a year. After much placement and other tweaking I found I preferred them without grilles -- I felt like I lost some detail with them on. Also, I think that there was a miscommunication. I more suggested testing them without grilles than requested. I wasn't sure how this usually worked and if it would be tested both ways or not. That's on me though -- I should have been clearer that I was simply curious about how they'd measure without grilles. (I also didn't expect them to measure this poorly)

 

[moonthink]

As I posted before the Linton with grille off measures similar to this in the Spinorama. But Erin provided a grille on measurement; Amir hasn't.

That was my fault and miscommunication.

 

[amirm]

As I posted before the Linton with grille off measures similar to this in the Spinorama. But Erin provided a grille on measurement; Amir hasn't.

A grill is not going to fix major issues with this speaker. Since the grill only impacts higher frequencies, I ran a non-anechoic test of without and with grill (added to the review):

You now have a new dip at 3 kHz and larger peak at 4.5 kHz (now at 10 dB differential!). The rest is somewhat smoother but that would just make the speaker sound more bright.

 

[amirm]

So it is clear, time on Klippel NFS is very precious. I could be measuring another speaker for the time it takes to double the testing on this unit. If this was a popular speaker and a strong case could be made that the grill would have made things substantially better, I would test it. Otherwise, we know the story of this speaker which says it has design issues.

 

[amirm]

Danny's measurements are incomplete but are good enough to give you another look of with or without grill:

 

[dtaylo1066]

Vintage kindling.

 

[thewas]

A grill is not going to fix major issues with this speaker. Since the grill only impacts higher frequencies,

If you look at Erin's measurements of the Linton the grille (mainly its own baffle) also improves the diirectivity between 1.5 and 6 kHz so ideally a full spin would be needed.

So it is clear, time on Klippel NFS is very precious. I could be measuring another speaker for the time it takes to double the testing on this unit. If this was a popular speaker and a strong case could be made that the grill would have made things substantially better, I would test it. Otherwise, we know the story of this speaker which says it has design issues.

On the other hand why test such a loudspeaker which is long discontinued and was sold only relatively shortly at all (even worse the Japan market mini JBL 4312MII) then instead of measuring it incompletely or not optimally? Am sure there are much more interesting and market relevant loudspeakers in the queue. Also because I appreciate your high review efforts I would wish for a bit more research before doing the measurements about the particularities of the products, like here for the grille or the orientation of the Sonos 5 (which changes the driver configuration and radiation) and of the products chosen to use your and the NFS precious time and effort in a most expedient way.

 

[MAB]

If you look at Erin's measurements of the Linton the grille also improves the diirectivity between 1.5 and 6 kHz so ideally a full spin would be needed.

Agreed. I really prefer these tested in correct config. Even if the grill degrades the sound, most of my listening of production speakers is with grills on. And it does seem these Wharfdale have grills to match the chamfered edges, at least we should see how effective the grills are at alleviating the supposed edge diffraction issues.

Only my DIY have no grills, because of my inability to make good looking grills!

On the other hand why test such a loudspeaker which is long discontinued and was sold only relatively shortly at all (even worse the Japan market mini JBL 4312MII) then instead of measuring it incompletely or not optimally? Am sure there are much more interesting loudspeakers in the queue. Also because I appreciate your high review efforts I would wish for a bit more research before doing the measurements about the iidiocracies of the products, like here for the grille or the orientation of the Sonos 5 (which changes the driver configuration and radiation) and of the products chosen to use your and the NFS precious time and effort in a more expedient way.

Yes, it seems the Sonos 5 really needed the test with the grills properly in place. The results without don't seem to be relevant to normal use.

 

[amirm]

On the other hand why test such a loudspeaker which is long discontinued and was sold only relatively shortly at all (even worse the Japan market mini JBL 4312MII) then instead of measuring it incompletely or not optimally?

Speaker is being sold still. There are two in stock being sold by Music Direct on Amazon.

Measurements were not incomplete or non optimal. If company doesn't want the grill removed, then they should make it so. Since it is easily removed, it reasons that it is also an option for listeners.

If you look at Erin's measurements of the Linton the grille (mainly its frame) also improves the diirectivity between 1.5 and 6 kHz so ideally a full spin would be needed.

Linton is a 3-way so doesn't have the underlying directivity error that this 2-way speaker does with no waveguide or midrange driver.

 

[thewas]

Yes, it seems the Sonos 5 really needed the test with the grills properly in place. The results without don't seem to be relevant to normal use.

Not only that but when turned vertically they become mono and disable the extra side tweeters as this is the recommended orientation for using them as a classic stereo pair.

 

[amirm]

Also because I appreciate your high review efforts I would wish for a bit more research before doing the measurements about the particularities of the products, like here for the grille or the orientation of the Sonos 5 (which changes the driver configuration and radiation) and of the products chosen to use your and the NFS precious time and effort in a most expedient way.

My standard method of testing speakers is without the grill. I don't know why you would expect me to all of a sudden test this speaker with the grill. There is nothing in the manual or the specifications for this speaker saying it must be used with the grill. And the measurements I showed now indicates that the grill creates as many problems as it solves (if it solves any).

 

[MAB]

Not only that but when turned vertically they become mono and disable the extra side tweeters as this is the recommended orientation for using them as a classic stereo pair.

My mistake, yes the Sonos is orientation. I got mixed up!
I was thinking of the JBL Studio 590 with the grill and panel.

 

[amirm]

Not only that but when turned vertically they become mono and disable the extra side tweeters as this is the recommended orientation for using them as a classic stereo pair.

Hardly anyone uses SONOS speakers as stereo. So don't go telling me I should double the test time to measure it that way.