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Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Review (Speaker)

TheBatsEar

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Regarding the market demand for budget speakers: Do you want a some Diamond 12.1s? Too bad. They seem to be sold out everywhere, including the Wharfedale website. Nothing used showing up on HiFiShark, either, the last time I checked. Pretty strong vote of confidence for the esteemed Mr. Fink!
I think it depends on where you are. In Europe they are easily available. I'm stalking a returned pair on Ebay for 180€ right now.
 

thewas

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thewas

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Just out of curiosity, is your order processed yet?

Mine isn’t and I’m starting to feel iffy.
Mine either isn't but it wasn't in stock when I ordered it plus since I paid via Paypal I am not really worried.
 

thewas

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Just out of curiosity, is your order processed yet?

Mine isn’t and I’m starting to feel iffy.
I just sent them an email and they replied immediately that the delivery of the speakers will still take some time (at least 6 weeks), as they are currently being produced and then shipped.
 
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abdo123

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I just sent them an email and they replied immediately that the delivery of the speakers will still take some time (at least 6 weeks), as they are currently being produced and then shipped.

Did the same, they said they’re waiting for KEF to ship them. I don’t think they have an actual stock in the traditional sense. But maybe that’s how they maintain their margins.
 

Vadim34

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Hi. I also wrote them a letter. They replied quickly, said they are waiting for deliveries from the factory. The deadline is 2 months
 

thewas

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I just sent them an email and they replied immediately that the delivery of the speakers will still take some time (at least 6 weeks), as they are currently being produced and then shipped.
Just got an email that my pair was shipped today.
 

thewas

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Since I got mine in the beginning of the week here is my compact review and thoughts as well as an (unfair) comparison.

Disclaimer: Below text reports my individual perception in my listening room, with my own habituation and preferences, yours can differ significantly.

For the last 3 days I was spending every day few hours listening to them, without doing any measurement or reading any other reviews (I had read the 2 important ones when they were released but didn't remember many details except that Amir quite liked them and Erin found them a bit too mellow) to hopefully not have too much bias at my listening.

First thing I noticed is that like most compact loudspeakers they don't have much deep bass (especially in my quite bass absorbing room) so I moved them quite close to the front walls, placed in 2 meter stereo triangle (on 60 cm high stands which bring my ears in a height between their woofer and tweeter), towed horizontally around 10° out compared to my ears. Placed there with some tracks they positively surprised me with their bass, especially considering their small woofers (which by the way around 1 cm smaller than the LS50 ones, although both nominally sold as 5 inch).

Listening to couple of loud sine sweeps also I didn't hear any pronounced resonances which is something not automatically granted in this price class, also the finish is impeccable. Imaging was as with most well engineered compact loudspeakers good.

Tonally I didn't find them mellow or having a typical British tuning like for example other Wharfedale models like the Lintons (which are tuned by Peter Comeau, while the Diamond 12 series was tuned by Karl Heinz Fink), but rather the opposite, especially somewhere in the upper mids / lower treble there was something that made them a bit too aggressive/shouty for my taste. To reduce the chance of just having a bad mood or acoustic fatigue I nowadays repeat the listening for at least 3 days which I did, in this case my impressions didn't really change. The upper treble which was also not shy didn't disturb me, in contrary it gave together with the impressive for the size bass a quite joyful character.

To make sure it is not just my personal habituation after these 3 days I directly swapped them (keeping the positions identical) with a pair of KEF LS50 Meta. Well, that aggressiveness was gone, in some tracks I would prefer though the slightly accentuated upper treble of the 12.1.

To find the causes I made some quick listening position measurements of both as there already exist enough great quality anechoic measurements of both. Some might rightly say that from price point of view that comparison is unfair and I will agree, I used the LS50 Meta as I know its sound well and I rather see it as an anchor point for comparison in that size class.

First I measured the multitone distortions (as I find them better correlating to audibility) at a quite high listening level on my listening position with both L and R playing, giving a total SPL of around 85 dB and spectral peaks of over 100 dB:

1711238850078.png


It is interesting (and impressive) that till approximately 300 Hz the 12.1 seems cleaner while above that the LS50 is superior. The higher distortion there could have been one reason for the aggressiveness but as it happened also at lower listening levels I think its influence is not dominating. (Must say both play quite good loudly at a 2 meter stereo triangle, for larger distances I would recommend subwoofers and highpass filtering them.)

Now lets have a look at the frequency responses in a 40x40x40 cm cube spatial average around my listening position with the moving microphone method, I use below 1/6 octave smoothing for easier visibility:

1711238909680.png


It can be seen that the 12.1 has some extra mid bass which I enjoyed in my rather bass absorbing room and its from other reviews infamous dip between approximately 1.3 and 2.3 kHz which can give it according to some a mellow character, something I also expected when seeing the measurements after. But it also shows a peak between 3 and 7 kHz which was the reason of my annoyance. When I took it down a couple of dB per PEQ it was fine, although still a little treble heavy for high SPLs, personally I would prefer the upper treble for many songs somewhere between both loudspeakers.

That's for me also a good lesson that the predicted in room response is not always sufficient to see such issues

newplot.png


but it is good to check also for other measurements like the sound power, especially at increasing listening distances where it is correlating more to the listening position measurements and impressions:

newplot (1).png

(source of the two last plots https://www.spinorama.org/ )

As a conclusion of this quick and short review I can wrap up that the 12.1 impressed me, even more considering its price here (I got a new pair for under 200€) but on the other hand it is a loudspeaker which in my current listening situation I wouldn't enjoy listening without equalisation even above the modal region (same for the old KEF LS50 non-Meta so this is nothing to be ashamed of), so despite all the love I have for the objective side of audio I have to speak out also a warning of buying loudspeakers by just viewing few measurements and scores or listening to even experienced reviewers (which have possibly a quite different listening situation), especially if someone doesn't want to or cannot use equalisation.
 

Penelinfi

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I was starting to consider getting some for fun, bit upon reading more reviews (and of course after seeing measurements) I decided that enough people were talking about this upper mid lower treble or "thin" sound. Also I have enough speakers already :)

Got to hear some Elysian recently too which sounded nice. Have what I think is Wharfedale character sound of slight broad midrange bias. More via dispersion of anything. Measurements seem to show this on Aura. It would take more listening in a known room to make better judgement.
 

MAB

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But it also shows a peak between 3 and 7 kHz which was the reason of my annoyance. When I took it down a couple of dB per PEQ it was fine, although still a little treble heavy for high SPLs, personally I would prefer the upper treble for many songs somewhere between both loudspeakers.

That's for me also a good lesson that the predicted in room response is not always sufficient to see such issues
Very good point. I've noticed this before, the on-axis response showing artifacts that are somewhat muted or even reduced in the estimated response.
Is this a property of the room they are in vs. the estimations used to build the integrated response?
 

thewas

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Very good point. I've noticed this before, the on-axis response showing artifacts that are somewhat muted or even reduced in the estimated response.
Is this a property of the room they are in vs. the estimations used to build the integrated response?
It is combination of the radiation of the loudspeaker (as it can be seen also from its sound power curve) as well as the room acoustics and listening distance, the more reflective the room and/or the higher the listening distance are the higher is the influence of the sound power in the listening position tonality.
 
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moonthink

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is there any review about

Wharfedale Diamond 12.0 ?​

(not 12.1)​


cause i need smaller one.o_O
While not an "official" review with measurements and data, I do have both the 12.1's and the 12.0's (of which I literally just finished setting up in my guest bedroom).
The 12.1's are a pretty standard sized bookshelf speaker with a 5.25" woofer. The 12.0's are definitely smaller. I originally used them as surround speakers, so I hadn't given them a fair listen by themselves until today. They sound very similar to the 12.1's and despite their smaller cabinet and woofer, they have a surprising amount of bass. Now they don't go super deep, but it also doesn't sound/feel like they are missing anything when just listening to music. Before today I didn't think they were worth keeping, but for a smaller room like a bedroom, these really impressed me. While we don't have measurements, I suspect it would be very similar to the 12.1, but with more rolloff in the bass region. I can recommend them for the right space/situation, and I imagine they would pair well with a modest sub.
 

Yorkshire Mouth

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Since I got mine in the beginning of the week here is my compact review and thoughts as well as an (unfair) comparison.

Disclaimer: Below text reports my individual perception in my listening room, with my own habituation and preferences, yours can differ significantly.

For the last 3 days I was spending every day few hours listening to them, without doing any measurement or reading any other reviews (I had read the 2 important ones when they were released but didn't remember many details except that Amir quite liked them and Erin found them a bit too mellow) to hopefully not have too much bias at my listening.

First thing I noticed is that like most compact loudspeakers they don't have much deep bass (especially in my quite bass absorbing room) so I moved them quite close to the front walls, placed in 2 meter stereo triangle (on 60 cm high stands which bring my ears in a height between their woofer and tweeter), towed horizontally around 10° out compared to my ears. Placed there with some tracks they positively surprised me with their bass, especially considering their small woofers (which by the way around 1 cm smaller than the LS50 ones, although both nominally sold as 5 inch).

Listening to couple of loud sine sweeps also I didn't hear any pronounced resonances which is something not automatically granted in this price class, also the finish is impeccable. Imaging was as with most well engineered compact loudspeakers good.

Tonally I didn't find them mellow or having a typical British tuning like for example other Wharfedale models like the Lintons (which are tuned by Peter Comeau, while the Diamond 12 series was tuned by Karl Heinz Fink), but rather the opposite, especially somewhere in the upper mids / lower treble there was something that made them a bit too aggressive/shouty for my taste. To reduce the chance of just having a bad mood or acoustic fatigue I nowadays repeat the listening for at least 3 days which I did, in this case my impressions didn't really change. The upper treble which was also not shy didn't disturb me, in contrary it gave together with the impressive for the size bass a quite joyful character.

To make sure it is not just my personal habituation after these 3 days I directly swapped them (keeping the positions identical) with a pair of KEF LS50 Meta. Well, that aggressiveness was gone, in some tracks I would prefer though the slightly accentuated upper treble of the 12.1.

To find the causes I made some quick listening position measurements of both as there already exist enough great quality anechoic measurements of both. Some might rightly say that from price point of view that comparison is unfair and I will agree, I used the LS50 Meta as I know its sound well and I rather see it as an anchor point for comparison in that size class.

First I measured the multitone distortions (as I find them better correlating to audibility) at a quite high listening level on my listening position with both L and R playing, giving a total SPL of around 85 dB and spectral peaks of over 100 dB:

View attachment 358794

It is interesting (and impressive) that till approximately 300 Hz the 12.1 seems cleaner while above that the LS50 is superior. The higher distortion there could have been one reason for the aggressiveness but as it happened also at lower listening levels I think its influence is not dominating. (Must say both play quite good loudly at a 2 meter stereo triangle, for larger distances I would recommend subwoofers and highpass filtering them.)

Now lets have a look at the frequency responses in a 40x40x40 cm cube spatial average around my listening position with the moving microphone method, I use below 1/6 octave smoothing for easier visibility:

View attachment 358795

It can be seen that the 12.1 has some extra mid bass which I enjoyed in my rather bass absorbing room and its from other reviews infamous dip between approximately 1.3 and 2.3 kHz which can give it according to some a mellow character, something I also expected when seeing the measurements after. But it also shows a peak between 3 and 7 kHz which was the reason of my annoyance. When I took it down a couple of dB per PEQ it was fine, although still a little treble heavy for high SPLs, personally I would prefer the upper treble for many songs somewhere between both loudspeakers.

That's for me also a good lesson that the predicted in room response is not always sufficient to see such issues

View attachment 358799

but it is good to check also for other measurements like the sound power, especially at increasing listening distances where it is correlating more to the listening position measurements and impressions:

View attachment 358800
(source of the two last plots https://www.spinorama.org/ )

As a conclusion of this quick and short review I can wrap up that the 12.1 impressed me, even more considering its price here (I got a new pair for under 200€) but on the other hand it is a loudspeaker which in my current listening situation I wouldn't enjoy listening without equalisation even above the modal region (same for the old KEF LS50 non-Meta so this is nothing to be ashamed of), so despite all the love I have for the objective side of audio I have to speak out also a warning of buying loudspeakers by just viewing few measurements and scores or listening to even experienced reviewers (which have possibly a quite different listening situation), especially if someone doesn't want to or cannot use equalisation.

Thanks for taking the time to do so much research and post your measurement and listening notes. We need more like this.

Your own objective measurements suggests a higher rise in treble after the 1k-2k dip (you note 3k-7k) than we see in either Erin's or Amir's objective results. At the same time, neither Erin nor Amir picked up any subjective harshness there, whilst subjectively you clearly did.

In this small area I'll disagree with you (though only very slightly) when you say it's important to not just look at the measurements, as Arim's, Erin's and your subjective experiences reflect your respective measurements almost exactly.

I suspect what you mean is that, when discussing 'estimated in room' data, that all rooms are different, and each one of us may have a different in-room response. That's true of any speaker, but it's clear that these are a little more room-dependent than some others.

Both Amir and Erin show quite a rise in floor bounce 4k and 7k, and I'm wondering if you have a particularly reflective floor? That's just a guess.

Price is a very interesting factor here, with both Amir and Erin reviewing these in the $400-$450 category; we can usually (and unfortunately) equate $1 to $1 with hi-fi at the moment. In the UK/EU they can be had for £200-£250 (and euros) - given that Erin estimates the better build quality and finish add maybe $100 to the price, we're almost looking at a £100-£150 speaker with better build. Both Amir's comments about comparisons to the Revel M16s, and yours to the KEY LS50 Metas suggest this is an absolute bargain, the likes of which I've not seen from any other speaker reviewed in these forums (and by Erin).

Perhaps just as importantly, if not more so, these three reviews (Amir's, Erin's and yours) suggest effective and simple ways to EQ out the few issues we find.

Thank you again.
 

thewas

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You are welcome, maybe I should clarify my conclusion a bit better, I didn't mean not to look at measurements but not just look at few measurements like the PIR as its not sufficient in many cases.

For people that can use EQ and the prices here in Europe they are definitely are kind of bargain, although I know also loudspeakers in that price range that worked fine for me even without EQ.
 
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