Wharfedale 9.0 Bookshelf Speakers - Premium Audio Quality

Product Information

The Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 speakers are totally fine for the purpose of playing songs, gaming, watching movies and videos. The sound is smoothly clean, but the speakers aren’t the best if you are looking for tons of bass. The bass port fires downwards into a small air gap between base of the cabinet and the plinth below Some very slight wrinkles in the impedance traces between 150Hz and 900Hz imply the existence of some cabinet resonances. Investigating the panels' vibrational behavior with a plastic-tape accelerometer revealed a strong resonant mode present on all surfaces, but strongest on the sidewall (fig.2). Other modes existed at 465Hz and 900Hz but were not as strong. This mode is a little high in frequency to contribute to the "warmth" BJR noted in his auditioning; though it might add some midrange congestion with some kinds of music, Bob Reina didn't hear anything untoward in this respect.

It's hard to believe that the original Wharfedale Diamond is now past its thirtieth birthday. All those decades ago, it was the Diamond speaker that proved, for the first time, that excellent quality sound could be achieved from a small, budget speaker. Since then there have been dozens of imitators, but the Diamonds remain amongst the best available. While such character might have initial showroom appeal, it can become wearing after a time and is not what hi-fi ought really to be about. You aren't getting any responses because you are asking an impossible question. When it gets down to two speakers, then only you wallet and your ears can tell you which is right. In the time domain, the Wharfedale's step response (fig.7) indicates that both drive-units are connected in positive acoustic polarity. A slight ripple can be seen in the tail of the woofer's step, which, as the speaker's waterfall plot shows (fig.8), is associated with two resonant modes: one at 2930Hz, and one that correlates with the peak between 1 and 2kHz on which I commented earlier. Otherwise, this plot is extremely clean in the treble, again supporting BJR's comments about the Diamond 9.1's excellent tweeter. The Wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers can be bi-wired, which means you can connect more audio speakers to your hi-fi system. This will assure a separation of the single paths to the high and low frequencies resulting in cleaner and more precise sound.A special alloy, cast chassis design is incorporated across all diamond models to virtually eliminate rear wave reflections from the chassis legs. This allows air to move freely through the driver and have a more even frequency response with much lower distortion. Fig.7 Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, step response on tweeter axis at 50" (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth). With a front port, these bass reflex speakers are punchier than you might expect and in no way could they ever be described as tinny. Over all, they may be small but the sound is grown-up, with excellent staging, realism and surprisingly powerful. In terms of the most fundamental types of music, videos, and movies, this is where the speakers continue to surprise us in relation to their true cost. Even better, you can connect it to an amplifier to slightly boost the treble. The Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 sound incredibly clear and clean when you’ve done that.

In John Rutter's Requiem (CD, Reference RR-57CD), the cello and flute were as natural as I've heard from any budget speaker, and the male choir was layered across the wide, deep soundstage as realistically as I've heard from any speaker at any price. The impedance plot indicates that the small woofer's reflex loading is tuned to 50Hz. However, as can be seen in fig.3, the expected notch in its response actually occurs a little lower in frequency, at 45Hz, with the twin ports covering a wide bandpass from 30Hz to 120Hz. (The outputs of the woofer and ports in this graph are scaled in the ratio of the square roots of their radiating areas.) The ports' higher-frequency rollout is free from the spikes that would indicate the presence of resonances, while the woofer crosses over to the tweeter at approximately 2kHz, with some overlap apparent. Both drivers mainly have relatively flat outputs within their respective passbands, with peaks balanced by dips. In terms of build quality, the speaker’s binding posts have a cast-metal housing. The front ports are also made of metal, which is considered as a big pro. Woofer of the Wharfedale diamond 9.1 has a metal frame as well, feeling very strong even though it’s very thin. If you hate to see a plastic material stuff on bookshelf speakers such as I do, then the Wharfedale diamond 9.1s won’t be a disappointment to you. The Wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers weigh 12lbs. Sound Quality Whether the Diamond 9.0 will serve you depends on your requirements. If you are planning to throw a Rave, then you are going to be disappointed. But if this is for casual, though somewhat loud, listening, then you will probably be satisfied. To compare the speakers you would need to accurately know the specifications and the original selling price.Everyone has a totally different taste and style when it comes to choosing speakers, which is totally understandable. There are many things you have to consider, especially about bookshelf speakers. Fig.4 Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield woofer and port responses, taking into account acoustic phase and distance from the nominal farfield point, plotted below 300Hz. As I mentioned before, I recommend the Wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers mainly for smaller rooms, if you’re not considering building a surround speaker system.