Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers (Walnut Pearl)

Product Information

I haven't proven that through testing, but I think it is a reasonable assumption. They may have slightly tuned the voicing between the 9's and 10's, but given that the drivers are very similar and made for the same material, I suspect the general tonal characteristics are very similar.

This enable the relatively simple crossover to yield a phase perfect integration to the treble unit throughout the whle crossover region, creating a soundstage which is free from the speakers and allowing the drive units to work as a cohesive whole. Low Profile Chassis: The open nature of the chassis reduces reflection from rear cone movements, allowing air to move freely through the driver, which in turn results to an overall even response with a much lower distortion. Formed from a high density, injection-moulded polymer pioneered by Wharfedale, the chassis itself provides substantial damping of ring waves.I began by comparing the Diamond speakers to my reference Monitor Audio Bronze 50s. The Bronze 50s look smaller and not quite as well finished as the Diamond 12.1 speakers and, frankly, that’s how they sound too. Sure, that might mean that the Diamond 12.1s may offer a touch less dynamic reach in upper mid terms but, quite frankly, when you hear the Wharefdales you’re not thinking about that at all. You don’t hear anything missing here at all. You only hear the added bass, the well-developed nature of the musical presentation and the extra layers of detail on offer. The discerning audiophile will also note the diamond pattern moulded into the surround of the woven Kevlar cone. This is more than just cosmetic as the pattern reduces and damps standing waves in the surround yeilding a cleaner high frequency acoustic roll-off. A low-damping surround was sought too. The Klarity diaphragms are driven by a magnet system with an aluminium compensation ring to, “…minimise the effect of variations in inductance as the voice coil travels.”

Wharfedale is Britans oldest Loudspeaker manufacturer that has been around sinece the 1930's. So they have made many, many speakers over the decades; some real gems and some dogs. I've been very satisfied with how this little system handles music. Even in "Direct" and "Pure Direct" mode where the subwoofer is by-passed - these little bookshelves seem to go down quite low for most needs. I think they would be hard to beat at their price point. Both Diamond 12.1 and Diamond 12.0 features dual binding post speaker terminals for bi-amping or bi-wiring.

Often compared with

Their current range includes Reva, Denton, Diamond 11 and Diamond 200 series, D300 and vintage-look Heritage speakers as well as the newer bluetooth DS-2 speakers and Vista 200 subwoofer.