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Wharfedale Diamond 12 Owner's Thread

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MarkWinston

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Subjectivity do you think 12s are a step better than 11s.?Is it better imaging and soundstage?
Maybe I can consider 11.3 or 11.4 as I want to try FS.Any views would be welcome.
My room is approx 20ft x 9ft (where the listening area is 10ft x9ft) Essentially is one part of the room with 20ft used as backwall.
The 12.2 sounds more balanced than the 11.2 V1, the 11.2 can get a little treble heavy with some tracks. Imaging and soundstage depth I would give it to the 12s, soundstage width goes to the 11.2 V1.
 

InsideTheWire

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My listening room is relegated currently to the partially finished basement, until the kids move out and I can take over a bedroom or finish the basement. Next purchase will either be a new amp or subwoofer. It'll probably be a new amplifier as the 12.1s sound good enough that I don't feel that I have to get a sub. A sub would be nice and help fill the sound out, but not enough of a deficit in the sound to feel I have to get one immediately.
 

thewas

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The 12.2 sounds more balanced than the 11.2 V1, the 11.2 can get a little treble heavy with some tracks. Imaging and soundstage depth I would give it to the 12s, soundstage width goes to the 11.2 V1.
What do you mean with V1, was there also a V2?
 
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MarkWinston

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What do you mean with V1, was there also a V2?
Yeah, these sneaky buggers at Wharfedale changed a few things quietly, the V1 as we call it had foam surrounds, the V2 has rubber surround and Wharfedale stated "it has no major sonic differences". The V1 also had some sort of a cup behind the tweeter, that cup isnt on the V2. God knows what else they changed.
 
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MarkWinston

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From National sales MGR Wharfedale:

There were several improvements and subtle cosmetic changes made to the Diamond 11 (and D300) Series about 18 months ago. The most notable from a performance standpoint was going to a longer-lasting butyl rubber surround. The printing changes on the faceplate are cosmetic only. No changes were made to the woofer cone itself. Wharfedale operates one of the largest speaker production facilities in the world, and they do make product improvements from time to time, even while a model is still in production.

Update:
More correspondence from Wharfedale

The rubber surround is a more durable material that would lead to a longer lifespan of the speaker – this tweak was made without any major sonic loss to the speaker itself and in most cases the switch was preferred. The national sale MGR notes are correct the cone itself didn’t change just the surrounds so overall it’s the same size.
What’s important to consider is that as other speakers are developed so are the ways they are manufactured so over time new technology that keeps good products affordable becomes accessible to the designers and they are able to improve on their designs.

What they failed to mention was that 'cup' or 'plate' thingy behind the the tweeter that was missing on the V2. Wonder what that does sonically.
 

thewas

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Also there was always a reason to use foam surrounds in the past although it was known since decades that they usually don't last as long as rubber ones, namely lower stiffness which resulted in a lower resonance frequency and thus bit more deep bass, especially at passive implementations.

Would be interesting if someone could get both versions and measure their differences.
 

mvnchies

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Finally got around to setting them up!
Sound is absolutely amazing and they work flawlessly for my setup, played with a bit of toe-in to get them just right... I actually don't mind the "BBC Dip" at all, thought it was going to bother me for music with female vocals especially, but it's not that severe to me

however, I am now having some issues with my amplifier, I assume - it's only playing static noise and I have to re-start the amplifier and my TV to fix it... maybe having it connected to the TV via USB isn't the best solution?
every couple of minutes, it just starts playing static noise and it's really quite annoying...
Loxjie A30... can't seem to find anyone else having a similar issue.
 
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MarkWinston

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A BBC Dip with a very gradual decline doesnt take away from anything but rather adds to the smoothness. As Amir mentioned in his review, some tracks sounded overly bright when he bumped up that dip. I mind all dips and peaks in a graph except a well implemented bbc dip which compensates for our hearing sensitivity in those regions. A studio monitor its is not, but a darn good sounding speaker it is.
 

mvnchies

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A BBC Dip with a very gradual decline doesnt take away from anything but rather adds to the smoothness. As Amir mentioned in his review, some tracks sounded overly bright when he bumped up that dip. I mind all dips and peaks in a graph except a well implemented bbc dip which compensates for our hearing sensitivity in those regions. A studio monitor its is not, but a darn good sounding speaker it is.
I agree so far!

it sounds a little more bassy than I am used to, but I think that is more due to the fact that I have Sennheiser HD800 for headphones... they have almost no bass.
the way I have them positioned is very sub-optimal, but they still sound great.
they are right next to my TV and only about 8" from the wall, on a flat surface (TV bench) so I assume they could sound a lot better. but, speaker audio is all about compromises for me, I live pretty compact!

by the way, fixed the amp issue, it seems the USB DAC wants to be in the USB 3 port of my TV...

Cheers!!
 

nn_in

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The 12.2 sounds more balanced than the 11.2 V1, the 11.2 can get a little treble heavy with some tracks. Imaging and soundstage depth I would give it to the 12s, soundstage width goes to the 11.2 V1.
Typo error from my end.Considering 12.3 or 12.4 FS assuming backport is not that sensitive to near wall placement
 
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MarkWinston

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Typo error from my end.Considering 12.3 or 12.4 FS assuming backport is not that sensitive to near wall placement
Have not heard the 12.3 but Ive listened to the 12.4. Think 12.2 but sounds way larger with more impact. Stuffing the port would help.
 

mvnchies

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I'm currently experimenting with socks on the rear ports... the bass does get a little boomy without them at the current distance of about 7.5 inches or 19cm, to rear wall. I am starting to wish I could EQ it just a touch... but the EQ on my TV starts at 125Hz with a slider that goes 1-10, and it just sounds awful if I adjust that one.
my amplifier only seems to have a few presets and neither of them sounds any good to me.

is there anyone here who has tried anything similar with their wharfedale 12.1? :)
 
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MarkWinston

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I'm currently experimenting with socks on the rear ports... the bass does get a little boomy without them at the current distance of about 7.5 inches or 19cm, to rear wall. I am starting to wish I could EQ it just a touch... but the EQ on my TV starts at 125Hz with a slider that goes 1-10, and it just sounds awful if I adjust that one.
my amplifier only seems to have a few presets and neither of them sounds any good to me.

is there anyone here who has tried anything similar with their wharfedale 12.1? :)


I have tried plugging the ports on the 12.2, but since now I have them quite far away from the front wall (1.2m as of now), it seems like they work better without. When I had it plugged under 60cm away it seemed to help but even so, the lower frequencies do not seem intrude the mids when it was near the front wall and unplugged. This is the least sensitive back ported speaker I have come across.
 

mvnchies

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I have tried plugging the ports on the 12.2, but since now I have them quite far away from the front wall (1.2m as of now), it seems like they work better without. When I had it plugged under 60cm away it seemed to help but even so, the lower frequencies do not seem intrude the mids when it was near the front wall and unplugged. This is the least sensitive back ported speaker I have come across.

I ordered some "desktop monitor" stands to try... port plugging did do some good, but mostly bad, I am currently trying out some "paper tubes" to lengthen the port, and it's really doing wonders so far to the bass boom. I find it kind of amusing that folded printer paper makes such a huge difference. :D

edit: ok the tubes are completely unnecessary, sounds really good without them after experimenting with distance from wall and placing them on top of some foam blocks... I think I'll try some desktop monitor stands to get them up a few inches.
 
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Biblob

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I'm currently experimenting with socks on the rear ports... the bass does get a little boomy without them at the current distance of about 7.5 inches or 19cm, to rear wall. I am starting to wish I could EQ it just a touch... but the EQ on my TV starts at 125Hz with a slider that goes 1-10, and it just sounds awful if I adjust that one.
my amplifier only seems to have a few presets and neither of them sounds any good to me.

is there anyone here who has tried anything similar with their wharfedale 12.1? :)
 

mvnchies

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@Arnandsway - not sure if you were trying to write something, but nothing seems to have come up on my end... just my original message that you quoted.
 
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