Wharfedale Speaker Users Had mine 31 yrs still sound great what about you?

Anyone got older Wharfedales still in regular use?

 

I only have newer ones. Diamond 225s, which I got for a stop gap. I really learned to love them and they work fantastic in my small room powered by a 20 watt tube amp.

 

My Denton Anniversary’s are awesome.

 

A very key point, velvety high end due to paper cone tweeters, but never harsh.

 

I have lots of speakers both new and vintage and the W70's in my page 1 photo are as nice sounding home speakers as any of them.

I bought the W70's from a local estate sale, being offered on eBay for $222 for the pair.

The W60's, W70's and W90's were made in America in their N.Y. factory.

Usually you will find them listed for local pick-up only, due to the fact that they are heavy, due to their quality construction and sand filled back panels, to further reduce cabinet resonance. Plus being so old, there are no original shipping cartons and without proper factory packing, speakers can easily get damaged in shipping.

Another great advantage to the vintage Wharfedales is that they are not that well known and are not on the audiophile radar screen the way Advents, KLH, JBL L100's and many other vintage speakers are.

Just keep an eye peeled on eBay and a nice pair will turn up in your area, at the right price.

Make sure they have nice cabinets, there are enough out there that do. The drivers are plentiful to replace on eBay inexpensively, due to units with poor cabinets being parted out.

 

I must have missed this post of your before. I did not realize that you had a pair of W70's.

I was running mine with a Scott 222C, an EL84 family based vintage 22-Watt integrated. The sound was so loud and full that I never even turned the amp up all the way. The sound nice with modern music too.

Have you gotten around to listening to your pair?

 

I have a pair of really clean W 60's from I'd guess the 60's. I got them from a retired gent who was into Playboy culture...Exotica,Jazz,mid-mod furniture,etc.. They have original oiled walnut universal mounting bases original price $10.50. I have all the original brochures, Wharfedale paper work, and price lists. The W 60's are oiled walnut and priced at $116.00 in a tri-fold brochure titled Wharfedale Loudspeakers Achromatic Speaker Systems. It advertises the W 50,60, and 70 and Model CS-1 Chairside Cabinet designed to hold an entire system of record player, tuner,pre amp and amp....$109.50.

Also,4 books by G.A.Briggs...
Stereo Handbook
Loudspeakers
Pianos,Pianists,and Sonics
Sound Reproduction

On back fold is a replacement parts list for speakers and crossover networks.

The frustrating thing is there are no dates at all on company literature or original bill of sale but this wreaks of early 60's. I was a kid in early 60's so I can recall things from that Madmen era.

I had been using the W 60's for a year or so and pulled them for a pair of Large Advents and then recently Klipsch KG-4's. I'm planning on rotating them back in at some point when I try a low watt tube set up. Really nice warm sound great for acoustic Jazz and took away foot fall resonances from my old pine flooring.

This is a pic from the web that looks just like my version with the rough, thick textured grill cloth.



I also have a w 70 pair in my garage that need speaker repair like this...

 

Yes I have the Wharfedale E-70 - Vanguard edition which was the last and best edition of the E-70.


They use a Japanese Bullet horn tweeter - 10 inch woofers 95dB sensitive 8 ohm (mostly sit 10 ohm) 40hz-23khz with contour controls for the tweeter and midrange drive +/-6dB control.

I bought them with my dad in 1991 and they still work to this day - but they need a bit of work -

 

I have Denton 80ths and love them. I would like at some point to get a vintage pair of W-60's to pair with my Sansui 2000X. There is a poster on AK that had this combo for a number of years and sang it's praises.

 

My father in law has some older Wharfedales from the 1960's. They are square in cross-section, and have the woofer pointing downwards - I haven't been able to identify the model. He has them in his garage, driven by a quadraphonic receiver. He mainly uses them to listen to the football. They work, but I haven't heard them with a good music source to know how good they are (and the garage is not a good listening environment either). But they are still going!

 

Darn Larry, sell some of that stuff, Larry's vintage antiques! Polish it up, take some killer pics and make the big bucks!

 

Mine look like these...



I still own them and have listened to them connected to the KingKo tube amp with el-84 tubes... They fit the size of my current listening room well (16' x 20') and I find them to be very musical and enjoyable for a wide variety of music. I especially like them with rhythm and blues or soul, artists like Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Ray Charles or a group that has horn instruments like Tower of Power.
I think vintage Wharfedales are a good choice for someone getting into tube amplification, they are common and priced well for what they deliver and many owners feel no need to search any further.

I recently noticed a pair of very well regarded Wharfedale Airedale SP speakers for sale in my region and considered buying them, it did not take very long for them to be sold... They looked like this.







I can only dream about owning a pair of the current Heritage Airedales...

 

I have a pair of Wharfedale E20 speakers which I bought second-hand in the 90s but I think they were made in the 70s or 80s.
I have them in my secondary system and they are in use almost every day since I bought them.

They are nowhere near the more expensive Wharfedales but are still going strong.

(They'll probably fail today after posting this. )

 

I too find the W60's to be very nice for jazz. The make wonderful speakers for background music in a living room or nice speakers for a bedroom or den.

Well get to it!

 

Can't beat them for price vs. sound quality. So many modern speakers do not really pair that well with tube amps, but these Wharfedales most certainly do.

I don't recall ever seeing, hearing or even knowing about Airedale speakers.

Those vintage cabinets look gorgeous. They look like something that Tannoy would make.

Where and when were they manufactured? I'm gathering that they are vintage, made in England speakers?

I had no idea that Wharfedale ever made speakers like these.

No wonder you dream about them! I would also.

Of course, I also dream on owning a pair of Tannoy Westminster SE's. But at least I can dream...

How much did they retail for new and what would be an average price of a vintage pair, like these, in good condition?

 

Some great replies to my thread which I thought was dead in the water till the other
day.
Love the early vintage speakers from
1960's and 70's, just wonderful keep it coming, Floyd.

 

I have a hard time parting with any of it. Vintage or modern I love them all.

Most of my purchases are well thought out and I sometimes have sets so that I can have a 5.x channel surround system with all tower speakers and their matching center channel.

Of course, I would never part with my vintage Altec Lansing A7's!

 

Larry, I have that same affection for my Aerial 10Ts, so I know where you are coming from!

 

I think that's gonna be a 2020 project.

 

Rescued a pair of Wharfdale E30’s from the bin at work a few years ago, (the boss no longer wanted them)!!
Not super heavy in the bass/low end department, but very nice sounding. According to my research they’re designed for valve amps and are “bright” when used with a solid state amps - hence the attenuator on the front panel.

 

For those of you with the E Series - they are a little bit sought after these days and there is a site that restores them and builds them from the ground up. I have only heard the E-70 (Vanguard) from the line and it will still hold up today - like all speakers they have their strengths and weaknesses but with low powered tubes back in a big way it makes easy to drive speakers more of an interest.

Here is the website to restore you E series Wharfedales. Home - wharfedale-e-series-speakers-specialists

 

There appears to be three/four variations of Wharfedale Airedale from what little I have noticed while doing some research and I believe it is considered their TOTL speaker...


This is from Pinterest listed as 1947, they are Wharfedales, I am not sure they are Airedales. I believe they were sold as mono speakers.


This pair on ebay comes later.
Very Rare Vintage Wharfedale Airedale stereo speakers, Made in England!! | eBay


I think the Airedale SP may have been 1970's era and later.



I have a hard time finding info and US pricing for the Airedale Heritage, this link to Wharfedale Australia provides some info... Australian $49,999.99 equals $34292.49 US dollars.
Airedale Heritage Classic Loudspeaker

Perhaps one of the forum's United Kingdom's members could provide more detail about the history of Airedales.

 

I heard the new Airdale in Hong Kong but briefly - but that is a very high price. I'll have to give them a more serious audition next time I am out that way. Love the look of them.

 

Diamond 10.7 towers here - fantastic speakers for the money, love them.