Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary Speaker Review

[Mikig]

I basically agree.
I've already said that I didn't care for them and definitely don't think they are worth the money if you value price to performance.
Many better options exist.
Given that if you need a decent speaker under $1k USD with an excellent real wood veneer vintage finish what else is available in the market besides this and the 85? I guess the L52 but that is fun vs classy looks and the real walnut actually looks pretty plasticity on them(but still nice imho).
I actually can't think of other options.
Just a lot of obvious vinyl and gloss finishes.
If you don't require the vintage vibe, Wharfedale EVO 4.1, AXIOM & KLH have some real wood veneer choices, I have seen Revel M105s under$1k a pair B-Stock and open box, they only come in high gloss though. Not much else affordable around with real wood veneer finish. The Quad S2 is often $999, they measured pretty well @ Stereophile.
Maybe Klipsch the Sevens or Nines if you factor in savings on the amp.

yes, or go to the second-hand shop and look for some speakers from the years gone by, such as Sonus Faber from the 90s,...etc....in any case, moving away from recent products.

I'll open a parenthesis

With all the risks that the vintage adventure entails, where now too often people with few scruples sell badly reworked components, and often assembled with non-original parts to maximize their profit...

 

[ryanosaur]

Is it just me... or is anybody else over this "vintage" craze?

 

[Mikig]

Is it just me... or is anybody else over this "vintage" craze?

I'll just tell you that right now I'm playing with a pair of “wooden” 4312s…

 

[mhardy6647]

Is it just me... or is anybody else over this "vintage" craze?

ummm... not me.
A vintage Altec 515B is still cheaper than current production from GPA.

 

[amirm]

Amir, thanks for the measurements of this speaker. Based on the excellent measurements of the Linton and my experience with the Diamond series, I expected better from Wharfedale. However. I must admit that I bought these primarily for their looks and for that, they serve their purpose very well.

For additional context, this is how they measure in-room at MLP with the grills on using REW's RTA method; it seems to closely match the predicted in-room measurements above.
View attachment 346412

And this is how they look in the bedroom (again, I primarily purchased them due to their looks and vintage style). I think they look the part in my bedroom alongside the NAD 33050LE.

View attachment 346413View attachment 346414

That NAD is gorgeous! What model is it and is it vintage or current production?

 

[amirm]

Amir, appears you confused the with and without grill measurements on your follow up post with on axis FR>

Shoot. You are right. The label is incorrect for the grill on. Orange is with the grill.

 

[amirm]

Not easy to eye-ball but isn’t the green frequency response +/- 2 dB between 300 Hz- 16 kHz?

No, it is about 8 dB if you look at the anechoic measurement:

The dip around 3 khz is around 81 dB whereas the peak 5 khz is near 89 dB.

 

[amicusterrae]

Erin did it right. The Linton looked much poorer with the grills off, and so he presented the full spinorama of the grill-on configuration. I always feel he's much more thorough in testing out the different combinations of said product before passing judgement on it (also trying out the different user selectable EQ settings to see which one is the most accurate)

Erin also listens before he measures.

 

[amirm]

Erin also listens before he measures.

You like your doctor to diagnose you without measurements as well?

 

[amicusterrae]

You like your doctor to diagnose you without measurements as well?

Great analogy!

 

[ta240]

You like your doctor to diagnose you without measurements as well?

Your doctor walks in and says "Don't tell me anything! I don't have your test results and I don't want to hear anything until I have them"? That doesn't sound like a good doctor.

 

[fcracer]

That NAD is gorgeous! What model is it and is it vintage or current production?

It’s the NAD C3050 LE launched last year to celebrate NAD’s 50th anniversary. It’s a thoroughly modern integrated amplifier in a vintage body. It has HypeX UcD (100w x 2), Dirac Live, Airplay2, and BluOS. I wrote a review when I got it that has more info.

 

[laudio]

Your doctor walks in and says "Don't tell me anything! I don't have your test results and I don't want to hear anything until I have them"? That doesn't sound like a good doctor.

As long as the doctor doesn't do a "teardown" right after taking measurements, probably OK.

 

[amirm]

Your doctor walks in and says "Don't tell me anything! I don't have your test results and I don't want to hear anything until I have them"? That doesn't sound like a good doctor.

Before you walk in, they weigh you, take your temp and blood pressure. Measurements are that important to them. If you say you have a sore throat, they run a culture to test for infection. If you say you fell and now your elbow hurts, they do an X-ray to see if anything is broken. I don't know anyone who praises a doctor because they don't do any testing and yet diagnose what is wrong with you. If anything, I much appreciate it if a diagnostic is backed at the same time with testing as opposed to a pure guess as informed as that might be.

Remember that there is zero research backing evaluation of a headphone or speaker by itself. Proper tests not only call for the test to be blind, but also being a multi-way comparison of 4 or 5 speakers. It is that contrast that tells you which speaker may be higher fidelity than another. Unpacking and listening to a speaker without such comparison basically means random data.

I use measurements to create EQ and then perform that multi-way comparison, blind if need be. It is only then that I build confidence in my subjective testing.

Just because someone is doing objective measurements doesn't mean that they are all of a sudden producing reliable subjective results when they listen to a speaker just like other joe subjective reviewer does.

 

[regan]

You like your doctor to diagnose you without measurements as well?

Bad analogy. The user you responded to stated that erin listens before he measures not that he only listens.

 

[amirm]

Bad analogy. The user you responded to stated that erin listens before he measures not that he only listens.

I know what he said. Did you understand what I said? Seems not.

 

[BobbyTimmons]

Amir is providing free reviews for y'all. Anything else is gravy.

 

[BobbyTimmons]

There's no reason to spend more than $1000 for a pair of passive two-way bookshelf speakers. It's diminishing returns above that.

 

[BobbyTimmons]

Just because someone is doing objective measurements doesn't mean that they are all of a sudden producing reliable subjective results when they listen to a speaker just like other joe subjective reviewer does.

It would be interesting to see some reviews where you do your subjective listening first and do the measurements after. You're a trained listener after reviewing so many speakers. Your subjective listening test will be corroborated by the measurements.

 

[DanTheMan]

Just playing Devil's Advocate here, but I have seen some old-school and battle-hardened docs do some really impressive diagnosing and treating without anything but a few sentences of background information, a few taps on the back and then a needle into the plural space to re-inflate a lung without any imaging. I've seen several other impressive things along those lines over the years as well. This isn't exactly a life or death situation though, and we always get X-Rays before doing it under more relatable circumstances.