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Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Review (Speaker)

Nathan Raymond

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Feb 5, 2018
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My first set of hi-fi speakers were from RDL Acoustics that I bought from Roy Allison's factory showroom in Bellingham, MA back when I was in college. (RDL stood for Room Designed Loudspeakers, and they offered a program you could download from the website where you could put in your room dimensions and it would recommend the best performing speakers in their lineup for that room, which I thought was a neat idea.) Sadly RDL went out of business before I had the money to buy a full 5.1 setup, so I went in search of another brand I could build my 5.1 (later 7.1) setup with, settled on the Wharfedale Diamond series. I've been extremely happy with them over the years, and it doesn't surprise me that these tested so well.
 

laudio

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@MZKM must be sleeping or double checking his spreadsheet. Looking forward to the score.

Yes - Diamonds have always been a decent buy for HT. So many iterations of the same concept, perhaps these are mucho better
 

laudio

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If I didn't already have a speaker in the q, I'd really love to see the Polk R100/200 tested next. Seems like this Wharfedale line and the Polk R line are the affordale (in hifi world) breakthroughs of the last 12 months. Both have received nothing but glowing reviews from all types of reviewers.

Your tagline (part 1) sums it up.
 

pierre

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Score 5.4.

The score would improve marginally with an EQ up to 5.8.

Code:
        SPK auEQ
 -----------------
NBD  ON 0.39 0.37
NBD  LW 0.30 0.27
NBD PIR 0.28 0.24
SM  PIR 0.80 0.94
SM   SP 0.86 0.94
LFX       51   53
LFQ     0.43 0.43
-----------------
Score    5.4  5.8
-----------------

filters0.png


filters1.png


Zooming in
filters2.png

filters3.png
filters4.png

Code:
EQ for Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 computed from ASR data
Preference Score 5.4 with EQ 5.8
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.11
Dated: 2021-09-22-05:52:02

Preamp: -2.4 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc  1685 Hz Gain +2.52 dB Q 4.87
Filter  2: ON PK Fc  2346 Hz Gain +1.25 dB Q 6.00
Filter  3: ON PK Fc   465 Hz Gain -0.60 dB Q 0.05
Filter  4: ON PK Fc  2773 Hz Gain +1.41 dB Q 6.00
Filter  5: ON PK Fc  1207 Hz Gain +0.93 dB Q 6.00
Filter  6: ON PK Fc   542 Hz Gain -0.65 dB Q 2.08
Filter  7: ON PK Fc  1965 Hz Gain +0.73 dB Q 6.00
Filter  8: ON PK Fc 15538 Hz Gain +0.84 dB Q 6.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc  4016 Hz Gain -0.85 dB Q 2.33
 
Last edited:

MarkWinston

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Nice review. Confirms everything I heard. Thanks to that intentional BBC Dip a few british manufacturers adapt, all songs wont sound shrill and overly bright as Amir heard when he bumped up that dip. Maybe bump it less than what Amir did, it should be rather balanced. Rarely do we see a speaker at this price point measure and perform like that, and then there is the 12.2.....
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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@amirm It would be wonderful if you could upload the impedance and phase data of this speaker if it’s available.
Oops. Just added to the review:

index.php
 

GXAlan

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The M106 was definitely a step up with much better resolution when it came to delicate details.

What do you think are the best objective measurements that capture resolution/delicate details? Is it distortion at a given SPL? How smooth the FR is?
 

Yasuo

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Thank you for the review @amirm!

Can I please ask what is considered a high ceiling? This is a generic question, I do have carpet on my floor, but I'm wondering what I can do regarding the ceiling (other than false ceiling).
 

laudio

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5.4 score (when vetted) makes it a winner. nice for the price., should be on sale soon :). Just because Wharfedale usually does.

The 12.2? I agree that the 6+ woof *should* be better. IME that's the sweet spot size for any bookshelf. But that's not what was measured, might end up totally different.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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@amirm you cheated with the distortion of the 86 dB distortion plot. It's about 15 dB too high! I thought it was exceptionally good until I noticed this ;)
Oh, don't know how that happened. :)
 

Vict0r

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Thanks for the review! Wharfedale rules! My first pair of speakers were the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1's. I enjoyed them for years. No idea how they compare to these "new" 12.1, but they did look a bit more unique than these newer incarnations, in my opinion. I bought them for $100 the pair back then.

Wharfedale-Diamond-9.0.jpg


Although I really like my Q Acoustics surround setup, this Diamond 12 surround set looks to be a killer value, if they all measure as well as your sample!

20210617134522_Review_Wharfedale_Diamond_12_serie_ext_jpeg.jpeg
 

wwenze

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Wharfedale tends to have good value. Here it is selling for SGD460 / USD340.

But I tend not to predict new model performance using experiences with earlier models because Wharfedale goes like a whack rollercoaster with their design trend. Look at their track record:

Diamond 5: Rear-ported
Diamond 6: Front-ported
Diamond 7: Rear-ported
Diamond 8: Front-ported
Diamond 9: Dual front-ported. Also started curved sides.
Diamond 10: Dual rear-ported
Diamond 11: Bottom ported
Diamond 12: Rear-ported. Also back to flat sides.

What. The. ____.
 

JJB70

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As long as I have been interested in audio Wharfedale have made good, relatively inexpensive speakers which have been an easy default recommendation for people just looking for a good pair of speakers without spending too much. Nice to see that continues.
 

MrOtto

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These are an evolution of the Diamond 220(?) and looks more consistent, but still has a dip at 2kHz.

index.php

index.php
 

wwenze

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Looks to me like the 100/200/300 split into their own lineage after splitting from roughly the Diamond 10 to 11 era. These "hundred" series are all bottom-ported.
 
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