Not sure if there is any more info right now. It's a surprise announcement on Wharfedale's social media channels. Coming soon! Login • Instagram
Material wise, everything looks very identical to the Lintons, except it looks like a larger cabinet and the positioning of the drivers is more extreme. It would surprise me if the sounds much different than the Lintons. There's one thing I know for certain, I don't think I would love to say "My Dovedales". Linton is a much cooler name.
DOVEDALE – WHARFEDALE Besides the larger cabinet and drivers, what really sticks out to me is... Manufactured by highly trained. vastly experienced Loudspeaker experts at the headquarters of Wharfedale, in Huntingdon. Cambridgeshire – Dovedale is built in the home of British Hi-Fi. So this will not be another Chinese manufactured speaker? I wonder what they will cost. Will we see Harbeth or Tannoy level pricing?
Call me cynical, but after years of occupying the value end of the market with the Wharfedale brand, IAG have probably decided the time has come to extract more value from the name and the move back to UK manufacturing - for the moment let's assume for the Heritage line only? - probably reflects a realization that they could charge a lot more per unit because of it. Sure it might add to their costs somewhat but I'm certain they'll more than make up for that with asking prices a-la Mission 770? I doubt Harbeth or Tannoy level pricing, but certainly upmarket of the Linton's. In fairness though I personally think the Linton 85th was probably under-priced for what it is. Taken at face value, the mid driver and tweeter look identical to the Linton's? Let's hope for a more upmarket crossover design to go with the (assumed) higher asking price and these may yet prove quite interesting.
You mean the Denton 80th's? I was referring to Linton 85th's? If you mean the former, then "no", I haven't.
10" woofer too... so larger than the Linton's 8". And the stands don't look at corny and dated as the Linton's either... a few design cues taken from the all black Mission 770 stands I think? Looks like a nicer grille fabric too. Totally agree
What a transformation for Wharfedale in the last decade of so. Wharfedale were sold off in the 90's to a large group of companies.And it looked like the name was going to be stripped quickly for short profit and then disolved .Cheap chinese TV's in supermarkets and bargain homeware shops were suddenly all made by 'wharfedale'..Cheap throwaway plastic CD players and dvd players were now having the Wharfdale logo being stuck on the front of them in large numbers.The future didn't look bright as the name was being tarnished for short term profit. The group of companies in question later purchase the likes of Quad and Leak and i think decided to also bring Wharfedale back into the real UK Hi-fi Market.And the rest as they say is history.
'Made in the UK' might make these just as expensive as the Mission 770. It seems that the affordable China days are over. Due to the price and quality, the Lintons are a worldwide hit. I can't see that happening with the Dovedales at twice the price, or more.
I think you might be confusing the Chinese business model for that of our very own Western venture capital firms That was sort of the point I was trying to make earlier… having (in a sense) salvaged defunct, discarded or struggling UK brands - and I’ll agree things did look pretty bleak for a while - I think they now sense their moment to reposition the (Wharfedale) brand upmarket on the back of this trend towards wide baffle, retro speakers by reviving these legacy models and (possibly) making some serious coin on that original investment. Just about the polar opposite of the western venture capital model of buy an otherwise solvent company, load it up with debt, bet on it's demise and then drive it into the ground… job’s a good’un…
I know the China plant is proud to claim that they manufacture everything in-house all the way down to the tiniest of screws. I wonder if the same goes for the UK plant ... or will they only do the assembly of the Dovedales with parts coming from China?
I'm hoping for a "Coverdale", which doesn't sound particularly good but keeps playing decades after the original drivers have failed.
Giving a quick look at the upcoming Dovedales versus the Lintons, the former is definitely bigger in size with a bigger bass drive. The Dovedale stands do not appear to accommodate any 12" records, unfortunately for some who liked it such as myself. I'll wait and see how the new model performs as it's too early to tell.
Wharfedale Dovedale: € 6.039,- £ 5.185,- $ 6.351,- (I got this from facebook from de admin of the Wharfedale Denton 85th Anniversary group)
