It was nice to see a comparison with a KEF speaker other than the LS5o. I guess Wharfedale should be flattered that everyone seems compelled to compare their $500 speaker (right, no one's paying $1000 for these!) with KEF's $1300 speaker (current Amazon price). From a price perspective, it would seem like the logical KEF speaker to compare with the Denton 80 is the Q150, at $600. When I bought the Dentons, I was looking exclusively at sub $500, so the LS50 wasn't even a consideration. Just an observation.
I agree. I went through several sets of speakers. The Denton's are keepers. I listen to mostly jazz. Some classical. I bought mine for $450 and free shipping from Reverb. Could not be happier. They have less than 50 hours on them. I'm past the analytical thinking-listening now and just enjoying the music. Brubeck right now. Wow.
Using Denton's in my larger room with Peachtree 65 (has a tube buffer). Playing vinyl "Basie Jam #2" (Pablo Records). Clark Terry on trumpet. Joe Pass guitar. Basie on keys. Lockjaw on tenor, Louie Belson drums. The amp is only 65 watts, and in this bigger room I can crank volume up past 12:00 for good listening sessions. The Denton's disappear I got just the musicians playing for me. Switching to Basie Jam #1 (Pablo) with Roy Aldridge playing trumpet. Totally different trumpet style. Roy lets it loose man he screams at very high end of scale. Wanna test of your speaker's treble - play this album at high volume. Man the Denton's are crystal clear at higher volumes no distortion at all. The recoding itself isn't as "hot" as Jam #2 it seems maybe mics had a different placement they seem farther away. Still a great album and a reference album for putting your system to the test. One observation - large space high volume far from wall the bass gets lost with Denton's. Both albums. If my old Grafyx floorstanding speakers ever bite the dust I'd look at Wharfedale's but go bigger with Linton's.
Hi, as I have no experience with comparing loudspeakers but due to this forum I think about to test these speakers as long as they are still available. I listen at the moment with Epos ES11 speakers and I like them but after 20 years I'm thinking about something new. My living room is not a rectangle (it's a "L"-form) and I'm forced to hear in a near-field position with around 4 feet triangle sweet spot. The maximum possible distance to the rear wall is about 10 inches. My musical taste is about 80% Rock/Pop related (band line-up preferred), 15% Jazz and 5% the rest. Does it make sense to buy these speakers or should I wait and save some money for example like PMC twenty 5.21, Fyne Audio F500 or F1, ME Geithain ME25, Jean-Marie Reynaud Bliss?
I used to love the Dentons, I still do, but then I upgraded to the Lintons and never once looked back, or elsewhere.
Same here - my Dentons have been resting for 15 months now.... BUT, I acquired a little EL 34 tube amp, it is behind totem hawks now in a near/midfield setup and I intend to swap speakers in this second system... so the Dentons will be be back on the stand soon
I own a pair of Denton 80ths. I really like their sound. They are a little warm sounding, which in my opinion works with rock and pop recordings that can sometimes sound too bright on more "accurate" speakers.
Thanks for the first non Linton related answer. I'm a little bit concerned about positioning because I don't have an alternative except for maybe 2-3 inches bigger distance to the rear wall and moving to another flat isn't an option for me (I can walk in 15 minutes to my work ;-)
I recently bought a set of Denton 80th for my office system. They are on my desk, approx 45" tweeter to tweeter, and 36" from my head. Distance to wall is 5" to 7" from inner to outer corner (slight toe). I don't listen to ear splitting volume at this distance but that is not needed for this application. Music is mostly chamber and small jazz. I generally do not find them boomy although I expect they might be happier with more rear distance, but then they would be way to close to me. They are still breaking in (to the extent that I believe there should be significant changes over time) but I find them very musical and do what they should, present music while I work without distracting my brain to fuss over the speakers. If anything they are a negative impact to my work as I often just lean back and...listen. I am running them full range but also have an Outlaw Audio M8 engaged at 40Hz with a small amount of gain. If I didn't already have the sub I would feel no overwhelming need for one. If you have a dealer with a good return policy you should see if you can get a pair to evaluate. You won't know until you do. Given that your Epos ES11 are rear ported I don't see why the Dentons should do significantly worse in the same location.
I ordered a pair as long as they are available because there's only one seller in germany who sell them for ~450$ the others still want the original price of ~800$ and I can return them within 30 days and not 14 days. I have the plan to break-in them with pink noise over a weekend when I'm not at home. When I don't like them maybe my neighbor try them or my Epos if I like the Wharfies more ;-) After that I start saving money for a pair of Fyne Audio F1.5, I love the design of these speakers.
I'll be interested in how your little EL 34 tube amp pairs with Denton's, since they're not very sensitive speakers.
I'm about to set up my Dentons, also with ~9.5" to the front (not "back") wall from the rear of the speaker. My concern is that the left speaker is necessarily going to be only a couple of inches from the side wall. I have remedied a bass resonance problem with my elac Debut 2.0 B5.2's by placing dense speaker foam between the bottom of the speakers and the steel cabinet they're sitting on, and another piece of foam between the side wall and the left speaker. Anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!
My experience is, I did have some imaging problems with the Dentons (which I loved for every other aspect) when they’re really close to a side wall (particularly when only one speaker is close to a side wall) and nothing I ever did could really fix this - except distancing from the damned wall. That's one of the reasons I upgraded to the Lintons.
I have this exact situation - I have the Linton 80ths and the right speaker is about 2 feet from the side wall, while the left speaker is in the open part of the room, so it’s much farther from any side wall. You say the Lintons maintain everything nice about the Dentons, but manage to improve on the imagine under these placement conditions?
Well, that’s my experience, yes. A reason might be that the Linton - being a more authorative, powerful (not sure that's the right word), anyway *bigger* speaker than the Denton - the overall sound might be less influenced by whatever secondary reflection and more influenced by the direct sound from the speakers... But I'm no technician so I can’t vouch that's the actual reason. As for the quality of sound, again yes, they both have that typical Wharfedale sound so if that's your cup of tea, you'll like them both, no doubt about it.
i Finally installed the Dentons on the little tube amp, which is the Sound Artist SA34A, also known as the Reisong A12 (the one with 12ax7) tubes. To play music at constant conversation level (60-70db), and peaking at traffic-level (70-80 db) measured 5-6 feet away, the volume control is set at noon, just like with the Totem Hawks. I am using the 4ohm binding posts. The sources are dvd player (coax), apple tv (optical), and windows pc (usb) into my schiit modi. It plays substantially louder with my pc streaming Tidal. I find that the audio quality of tubes (holographic rendition of recordings) and the good dynamic range comes through the Dentons, but I hear also a thin sounding amp in the midrange. I wonder if I should start tube rolling...
Hi. I think this question has been asked before, but, is there life after the Dentons? I have compared them to my other speakers (ATC SCM7 V3 / B&W 706 S2 / LINTON HERITAGE 85TH) and with none of them I get the sound the Dentons provide. What I love about the Dentons is that they provide an outstanding holographic imaging/sound stage reproduction of the music and basically every song sounds great. I can spend hours listening to them. I have good quality components (PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP amplifier / NAD M22 V2 / Chord Qutest) and my mind is playing tricks on me knowing how much I paid for the Dentons. Somehow I think that if for that amount of money I got such great sounding speakers, by spending more I could get better sound. I thought the Lintons were going to be the answers but I haven't got the same good results as with the Dentons. If you were to upgrade your Dentons, which bookshelf speaker do you think could sound like the Dentons but only better, e.g. improvement in every area? Maybe other Wharfedale speakers from the Evo or the Elysian series? Or some Harbeths? Everytime I listen to my Dentons I'm amazed about how such small, inoffensive looking speakers could provide such a great sound! They are indeed special but sometimes the upgrade bug bites me...
Man, I just ordered Lintons and sold my Dentons 80th... Had two lengthy listening sessions in the store and thought they sounded very similar to Dentons, albeit quite lazy as they were not breaked-in yet. My Dentons needed about a year to sound great, before that they were very dark and muffled. Didn't liked them all that much at first, but I got them cheap, so... Maybe you need to give Lintons some more time. Regarding other replacements, I couldn't find any from demoing in this price range. Evo series are sterile and unnatural when compared to Heritage series. I've read some reviews about Canton Reference 9.2 DC. A high class speakers that have detail, neutrality and still retain that middle range musicality that we seem to love in Dentons. Discounted, they are similary priced as Lintons.
Same here... except I didn't sell the Dentons, because I was really fond of them. But just like insoc123, I couldn't help thinking there might be more... until I realized that, having a large-ish room, I simply needed a larger sound. And if you like the Wharfedale sound, the Lintons are the answer. To me, it was as simple as that. I don't think Dentons and Lintons are interchangeable. The Lintons need a "proper" room, and proper stands. But given those things, they sound "bigger", and better, than the Dentons or any of the mentioned speakers in the same price range, in my opinion.
Same here. I wound up moving my Denton's upstairs to the dining room for jazz radio duty. I kept the Denton's in my primary space for about a year, and loved them, until I started hearing their inability to really fill my listening space. Even with meticulous subwoofer tuning they could only provide a very narrow sweet-spot when sitting 11' away from them. Especially when I wanted to turn it up, they were over-tasked. Replaced them with some JBL L82's. I'd have to come down on hard times before I'd be tempted to sell my 80th's, they're truly lovely speakers.
