Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 first listen

Lowell_M

I have just a few hours of listening on a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 bookshelf speakers and wanted to see if anybody has noticed what I hear...

I have a very large greatroom/kitchen area in my house. These sit on a bookshelf, powered by an ADCOM GFA-7000 (I use the rear channels on the 7000 for some outdoor speakers), and taking on the bass duties is an SVS SB13-Ultra (which I freaking love)

The Diamonds sound really smooth and warm at low to mid volume, great imaging also. I'm rather impressed at this price. As you move toward higher volumes things seem to go a little south though. Loud'ish volumes aren't bad, but if I want to go into 85db and above into ROCK OUT territory they seem to really fall apart. All of the clarity and separation go away. I never... ever experienced this with my LSi's... or really even my RTi's.

Am I running out of power (I might connect the GFA-555 and see what happens)? Is this a function of break in? Or is this just, unfortunately a trait of pushing this little speaker so hard?

F1nut

Might have to with twin rear ports firing into the back of your bookshelf.

Lowell_M

.....hmmm.... didn't think of that. Should have gone with a sealed enclosure eh? The space that they are in is really quite open, but.....

F1nut

Sealed or front firing port.

Lowell_M

I can still return them.... any thoughts in the same $300 price range, or should I just live with it since they do sound very good at lower volumes?

Lsi7's would have the same issue, correct?

cnh

The 7s have a front port and a rear power port which would not be as bad as twin rear ports. They still need to breathe some but are worth a try.

F1nut

should I just live with it since they do sound very good at lower volumes?

85dB isn't very loud.

Try the speakers in a different location to see if the rear port situation is the cause of the sound issue.

steveinaz

Agree with Jesse, but you may also be hearing dynamic compression. Those smaller cabinets and drivers can only do so much. The WORST place for any speaker to be, is on a bookshelf.

Lowell_M

Ok. Thanks all. I"ll play around this weekend and report back. Steve... Unfortunately I don't have anywhere to put these other than the bookshelf. I'm moving from a pure 2-channel LSi15 setup to this, which is a bit of a bummer... but I'm try to do the best I can.

Lowell_M

Anybody have thoughts on NHT Absolute Zero speakers?

Erik Tracy

I'd move them to your 2-channel rig - hook 'em up to the 'good stuff' and see how it sounds.

Could be you are sphinctering their potential with...ah..you know...home theater stuff.

OldSchoolPolk

Can you wait for the new Alac bookies that Andrew Jones designed? The B5s will be $229 while the B6s will $279. Should be coming soon.

txcoastal1

OldSchoolPolk wrote: »

Can you wait for the new ELAC bookies that Andrew Jones designed? The B5s will be $229 while the B6s will $279. Should be coming soon.

Though I am sure they will be a nice bang for the buck, still a rear ported speaker.
I liked the Wharf 10's, nice value speaker, would go demo new records and CD's at local record shop. The 10's were powered by the Fat Man integrated tube.

Lowell_M

Just bought s pair of NHT Absolute Zero's of audiogon, so we will see how it goes in a week of so.

Lowell_M

So...in troubleshooting getting speakers going on my back patio today I discovered that the tweeter of the left wharfedale intermittently works....and when you turn up the volume it doesn't work at all......

Nightfall

Did you just buy them? Can you do an exchange?

Lowell_M

Yep. They are brand new. I'm going to send them back. I've got a pair of NHT's coming my way anyway.

deronb1

Interested to hear you impressions on the NHTs

Lowell_M

At first listen in my odd application.... The NHT's are a bit less warm, which was expected, but sound very good. I need to tweak the sub level a little since these seem to need a bit more power than the Wharfedales but they fill my room nicely. Do they sound like LSi15 towers?...um no. But I'm quite satisfied so far for what I expected. I'll get more time with them tomorrow but was excited to post a positive first impression.

Lowell_M

Morning update.... I am officially very impressed with the NHT Absolute Zero's. They are smaller than the Wharfedale 10.1's, which is nice for my application. They are missing just a little bit of fullness in the midrange. Maybe cabinet size, maybe I'm just not used to NHT's. But they can take the power and remain rock solid way above my normal listening volume. I can't comment to imagining really because my setup isn't ideal right now. They do a great job of filling my giant space for such a small speaker. These are about $100 (new) more expensive than the Wharefedale's, but I think worth it. I might be jaded by the fact that I discovered the Wharfedale has a bad tweeter, but I still think they would have fallen apart at the higher volumes. This has been a fun new audio adventure. I managed to create a bookshelf/sub combo with a crappy speaker position that got me 90% of the way to how much I enjoyed my LSi15's. The bonus is the tremendous bottom end of the SVS.

Lowell_M

Don't be too discouraged. When the one tweeter seemed to work (or maybe I just didn't notice that it didn't work) they sounded pretty good. Nice neutral and smooth sound. My application is a little tough for them though. I was trying to fill a 50' long room with them. The NHT's Do a better job in that respect.