Wharfedale adds larger Dovedale to Heritage line

[Galliardist]

Denton 85, Linton 85, Dovedale ... all the same tweeter, but differently tuned. Denton 85 has elevated HF above 10K. I wonder how the treble of the Dovedale compares to the Linton, which has a fairly linear response. The is a serious lack of reviews and measurements.

What Hi Fi have given them four stars

Wharfedale Dovedale review

Massive retro-inspired standmounters that have plenty of charm

www.whathifi.com

Trust this about as far as you could throw a vanful of these speakers though...

 

[Jim Creek]

The Wharfedale tweeter in this series is closer to the tweeters of the 1970s. That is whole point to this series, Denton, Linton, Dovedale. They are throwbacks to the old days when the sound characteristic for Wharfedale resembled the ‘Eastcoast Sound’. That characteristic was a subdued high-end.

AR, Advent, KLH and others were examples of the Eastcoast Sound.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

What Hi Fi have given them four stars

Wharfedale Dovedale review

Massive retro-inspired standmounters that have plenty of charm

www.whathifi.com

Trust this about as far as you could throw a vanful of these speakers though...

Wharfedale Elysian 4 review

Proof that Wharfedale can design great high-end speakers too

www.whathifi.com

If you want a 5 ⭐️ speakers
You need the elysian line
Pretty solid and nice speakers for good money

But its pretty big, kind of sad

 

[AC1]

What Hi Fi have given them four stars

Wharfedale Dovedale review

Massive retro-inspired standmounters that have plenty of charm

www.whathifi.com

Trust this about as far as you could throw a vanful of these speakers though...

That's the only review available and people tell me to take What Hifi with a grain of salt.

 

[AC1]

Wharfedale Elysian 4 review

Proof that Wharfedale can design great high-end speakers too

www.whathifi.com

If you want a 5 ⭐️ speakers
You need the elysian line
Pretty solid and nice speakers for good money

But its pretty big, kind of sad

I'm sure it's the better speaker but I'm not a fan of the looks.

 

[AC1]

The Wharfedale tweeter in this series is closer to the tweeters of the 1970s. That is whole point to this series, Denton, Linton, Dovedale. They are throwbacks to the old days when the sound characteristic for Wharfedale resembled the ‘Eastcoast Sound’. That characteristic was a subdued high-end.

AR, Advent, KLH and others were examples of the Eastcoast Sound.

Depends on how they are tuned. Linton is non-fatiguing (because it measures pretty much flat). Denton 85 is fatiguing (because of raised treble). The question is what did Peter Comeau do with the Dovedale? Flat or raised?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Measurements by @John Atkinson for Stereophile :

Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Wharfedale Dovedale's quasi-anechoic frequency- and time-domain responses in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and...

www.stereophile.com

 

[thewas]

View attachment 360123
Measurements by @John Atkinson for Stereophile :
View attachment 360124

Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Wharfedale Dovedale's quasi-anechoic frequency- and time-domain responses in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and...

www.stereophile.com

Very nice, quite flat and with smooth directivity, if I would nitpick only the little 3-7 kHz bump in his in room response resulting from the wide radiation there:

Interestingly I have a similar in on my Diamonds 12.1 which funnily wasn't designed by Comeau but Fink that I don't like but that may be my taste and room.

As far as I remember you also ordered at the same time a pair with me, would be very interested in your listening experience.

 

[thewas]

I just read also the corresponding review text from JA and he seems to confirm that:

"While the Dovedale's mid-treble could sound a little too forward with some recordings"

"However, both the demanding impedance and the slight excess of presence-energy in the in-room balance will make amplifier choice critical in getting the best from this speaker."

 

[Penelinfi]

That bass bump looks slightly bigger than what's normally from their measurement technique, maybe a couple of dB?

 

[thewas]

That bass bump looks slightly bigger than what's normally from their measurement technique, maybe a couple of dB?

I think it depends also on the radiating surfaces so I don't think its clear to say.

 

[ahofer]

Directivity and decay measurements don’t look that great.

 

[cavedriver]

That bass bump looks slightly bigger than what's normally from their measurement technique, maybe a couple of dB?

Doesn't JA still eyeball the level on the near field bass measurements or did he adopt a repeatable method that could be traced back to an anechoic reference? I can't remember and I often read old reviews on Stereophile when he had less capable instrumentation. Without a good reference to match to, the bass levels in all the stereophile reviews could easily be off by several dB if not more, and when you mix in room response it gets even harder to say too much about it from their reviews. Good enough for an approximation though to weed out the crappy speakers and justify a first-hand listen.

 

[DSJR]

Stereophile's bass measurements are usually well off by at least 3db I think at 100 - 200Hz. Speakers which come out flat in the bass to mid-range in their testing are usually bass-light by a good margin I think.

These Dovedales are I suspect retro for the sake of it, but I don't know really, even after all this time. I mean, the similarly priced (in the UK) Harbeth SHL5+XD's ancestor in 1977 was also designed with a slightly wider and fractionally slightly lower look to separate it from the competing BC1/LS3/6/Studio One cosmetic but again, no idea how this would affect directivity and the current XD model is very close indeed to the original model dimensions I remember.