Just out of curiosity, is your order processed yet?
Mine isn’t and I’m starting to feel iffy.
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Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Review (Speaker)
- Thread starter amirm
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Mine isn’t and I’m starting to feel iffy.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Just got an email that my pair was shipped today.
and how long was the wait?
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Couple of weeks so I cannot complain.
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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:
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:
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
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:
(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.
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:
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:
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
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:
(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
Addicted to Fun and Learning
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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.
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
Major Contributor
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?
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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.
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).is there any review about
Wharfedale Diamond 12.0 ?
(not 12.1)
cause i need smaller one.
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
Major Contributor
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.
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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.
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.
beagleman
Major Contributor
Couple quick questions, since I bought the 12.1s in December and have been talking them up quite a bit since getting them....
1. Did you listen with or without grills in place?
2. What type of covering does your floor have?
3. Was the treble "annoyance" dependent on certain music, or heard on ALL stuff you used?
4. Did you listen to Pink Noise at all to hear the overall spectrum?
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As some might remember in my recent review of them I liked them a lot but also criticised mainly their elevated treble for my room and taste which I could easily correct with EQ though.
Looking at them and my measurements I thought this might be a rare case were the usually audiophoolian biwiring terminals might be helpful which was confirmed by my listening and future measurements.
So I added on each side a 2.2 Ohm 10 Watt MOX resistor before the tweeter terminal instead of the "golden bridge" as such a value usually drops the tweeter level around 2 dB on typical tweeters, such MOX resistors are typically used in good quality crossovers:
Before doing any measurement I listened to many songs from different eras and genres and noticed that now the tonality seemed fine for me, my room and taste for a much larger percentage of recording than before. Now the 12.1 sounded more like a typical good British tuning and older Dynaudios, a tuning where you just listen to records and forget thinking about tech. To verify the change I also switched from one original to one "modified" loudspeaker listening to pink noise.
Additionally I did some quick measurements, first a kind of listening window spatial average with the moving microphone method and no gating at approximately one meter distance from the front baffle:
As it can be seen the original has a bit elevated treble while with the mod its more a "british" with a tad subdued treble and presence region.
I also did an MMM comparison with both L+R loudspeakers original and modified at my listening position compared to the Harman experienced listeners curve which works quite well in my room:
Concluding this so simple and cheap mod works surprisingly well in my room and makes me enjoy the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 even without any EQ which is rather the exception. It might be interesting to give it a try also for other owners if they also prefer a more British voicing and if someone like a tad more treble they can try also 1 or 1.5 Ohm instead.
Looking at them and my measurements I thought this might be a rare case were the usually audiophoolian biwiring terminals might be helpful which was confirmed by my listening and future measurements.
So I added on each side a 2.2 Ohm 10 Watt MOX resistor before the tweeter terminal instead of the "golden bridge"
as such a value usually drops the tweeter level around 2 dB on typical tweeters, such MOX resistors are typically used in good quality crossovers:Before doing any measurement I listened to many songs from different eras and genres and noticed that now the tonality seemed fine for me, my room and taste for a much larger percentage of recording than before. Now the 12.1 sounded more like a typical good British tuning and older Dynaudios, a tuning where you just listen to records and forget thinking about tech. To verify the change I also switched from one original to one "modified" loudspeaker listening to pink noise.
Additionally I did some quick measurements, first a kind of listening window spatial average with the moving microphone method and no gating at approximately one meter distance from the front baffle:
As it can be seen the original has a bit elevated treble while with the mod its more a "british" with a tad subdued treble and presence region.
I also did an MMM comparison with both L+R loudspeakers original and modified at my listening position compared to the Harman experienced listeners curve which works quite well in my room:
Concluding this so simple and cheap mod works surprisingly well in my room and makes me enjoy the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 even without any EQ which is rather the exception. It might be interesting to give it a try also for other owners if they also prefer a more British voicing and if someone like a tad more treble they can try also 1 or 1.5 Ohm instead.
Clean, simple and effective. Love itI added on each side a 2.2 Ohm 10 Watt MOX resistor before the tweeter terminal instead of the "golden bridge"
View attachment 363026
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