C405 Vs WH 9.5

M

mpw

Guest
Hi,

Has anyone auditioned the following :-

The Jamo C 405 Vs the Wharfedale 9.5.. both priced at 30K in Mumbai
The Jamo C 407 Vs Wharfedale 9.6.. both proced about 38K in Mumbai

My budget for a pair of floor standers is about 30K - 35K

The AVR is harman kardon AVR 255

PS : I think the JBL's are overpriced and therefore looking to other options for my fronts.

thanks,
 
Go for Wharfedale 9.5 or 9.6 they are way better than JAMO entry level C405 or 407

ashish
have you heard the Jamo's
they are entry level in the C seires but certainly not Jamo's entry level floorstanders.
Jamo entry level floorstanders are the S series
the C series is a whole series above the S class

to the OP
ive heard all the speakers listed.
i find the Jamos better in most aspects. NOt only that, i find them easier to drive too.
however the warfedales are not bad either.
the Jamos are a bit forward and i like my speakers that way.
 
try the Mordaunt Short Avant 908i. available for 37k in Mumbai. I loved them and so did 3-4 other folks who happened to be scouting around in the shop at the same time
 
regarding the MS 908i, the woofer is placed at the bottom perpendicular to the mids and the tweeter. not comfortable with that. My current sub is a JBL CSS10 and it is quite good. Therefore, i would be looking at good midrange / vocals, reasonable bass and good treble

mpw
 
ashish
have you heard the Jamo's
they are entry level in the C seires but certainly not Jamo's entry level floorstanders.
Jamo entry level floorstanders are the S series
the C series is a whole series above the S class

to the OP
ive heard all the speakers listed.
i find the Jamos better in most aspects. NOt only that, i find them easier to drive too.
however the warfedales are not bad either.
the Jamos are a bit forward and i like my speakers that way.

With Jamo I have noticed colouration in the sound which is not found at this level with Wharfedale.
 
well i have heard the WH9.5 ,9.6 and MS 906i,908i and jamo c405/c407.

to me the jamo concert C405/407 where the best of the lot followed by MS906 i didn't like the 908i but may be due to the positioning of the speaker since it has a side firing 10inch driver.
the wharfedale didn't impress me at all,certainly a lot better then jamo studio models like S606,S708.
if u ask me the c405 is a steal at 30k price in bangalore the best quote i got was 32.5k after quite a lot bargaining,tbut jamo prices remains the same ever since it was launched in india,the WH 9.5 used to be available for 25k and MS906i for 22k but now the prices have gone up.
 
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a twist in the tale..

i already have my front satellite speakers of 8 ohm and center speakers also 8 ohm.

Jamo and Wharfedale are 6 ohm speakers. So if i switch only the front speakers to 6 ohm keeping the center and the surrounds and sub at 8 ohm, would there be a problem in timbre matching ?

what is timbre matching BTW ?

mpw
 
a twist in the tale..

i already have my front satellite speakers of 8 ohm and center speakers also 8 ohm.

Jamo and Wharfedale are 6 ohm speakers. So if i switch only the front speakers to 6 ohm keeping the center and the surrounds and sub at 8 ohm, would there be a problem in timbre matching ?

what is timbre matching BTW ?

mpw

Timbre matching is a means to ensure that the drivers (woofers and tweeters) of the L/C/R speakers are the same or from the same family so that there is no accent on a particular speaker causing audible distortion during listening.
 
are you going to hear the special cds with 5.1 channel recordings?

if its just plain stereo it doesnt matter.

as for timbre matching while watching movies..umm not that important.
dont bother too much about it.
stereo is anyway going to be 2.0 na? ( i dont think you would need a sub with those towers)
 
The Diamond series are nowhere near the Concert series of Jamo. I have had extensive auditions with both speakers and the Concert series floorstanders has measures of nuances at both spectrums of frequencies that the Diamond series speakers struggle to approach.

The C405 has excellent control and grip over bass and is exceptionally good with human voice. At 30K it is a 'close your eyes and buy it' deal.

The Diamond 9.5, while still being a good quality speaker, simply does not win in this matchup.
 
Firstly.. Excuise me for reopening an old thread.. I do this because I require information on old speakers... The C405s :D

I happen to come accross these speakers coupled with a marantz today and was completely surprised at the imaging and sound stage these speakers were able to produce. I remember auditioning them 2 years earlier but my parameters of measurements were different that time concentrating on seperation and clarity. These speakers have all that. :eek:hyeah: Completely broken in speakers I suppose as they are discontinued now according to the store. (So they should have been lying there for a while). That helped too. I felt the sound stage and pin point imaging are better than the C607 which are much costlier.

The store manager told that he can't source it for me since it is discontinued but that I can take the demo piece at a discount. He just said its mrp is 38k and that he will give the 'best price'. Thats all about it. Did not pursue more as I was not confident on how these will pair with the NADs.

Few questions:
1) Iam not sure how it pairs with the NAD amps. Any views? Iam taking my amp tomo to this place. What should I look for?
2) How much should I negotiate these for if they paired well with my NAD C320?

With my current shortlist of MS Aviano 6 and Paradigm Monitor 7, I dont know where to place it in the order of liking.
Bass extension - Aviano > Monitor 7 == C405
Bass tightness - Same.
Midrange clarity - Monitor 7 > Aviano == C405
Midrange details - same.
Hi-end Sparkle - Monitor 7 > Avinano > c405 (I don't know if I like the monitors, but other 2 are fine. It is smooth though. Will need more auditioning.)
Sound stage/Imaging - C405 > Aviano > Monitor 7 (To my ears C405 by a good margin)

For movies - Aviano > Monitor 7 > C405 (Did not audition C405 for movies but the characters seem to make them more suitable for music more.)

If anything above is a miss, please let me know so that I will audition seperately for those.

I also saw a D450 speaker which I did not audition but looks like a ancestor for the C405. How good are they? Should I audition them?


P.S: Auditioned Kplich RF-52 today along with these. MAN THEY SUCK!!
 
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Blasto,

This thread is a blast-o from the past for me too.

:))

Have heard the C405's and the Paradigm Monitor 7's. I have heard the C405 with Marantz and the Monitor 7's with NAD 355 and Denon AVR at Shaiju's place.

Frankly both combinations were very good.. but i liked the NAD / Paradigm combo better.

I think you will find the bass extension for the C405 very slightly better due to a larger driver 6 1/2 inch. In fact the Marantz and C405 were exceptionally good for ghazals, vocal music etc..

Both are good combos Blasto.. at that time i did not have money for either and even now i am not sure if i have the money.

But since you have a NAD .. i would take a close look at the Monitor 7.

baaki is best left to your ears, your wallet and your wisdom.

all the best

Regards,
mpw
 
I took my NAD C320 amp with me for auditioning the Jamo C405 after hearing someone in the forum state that they can drive floor-standers.

Well they don't!

These speakers are marked at 89db and max input power of 150w into 6 Ohm. The NAD simply failed to deliver against these speakers.

Below is the sound I heard. Far from the NAD signature.
The Bass was good, Midrange was flat, hi-frequencies were only Ok. Soundstage was completely absent. Very very narrow. Frequencies were all present but mixed up in lots of places. The speakers went to very high volumes however.

In short, There was no excitement at all!!

For a minute I thought whether these were my amps at all. :eek:hyeah: Asked them to replace them with the 100w Marantz and the full body of the music was back again. I asked them how much the amps cost, any the reply was a wopping 80k!!

I asked them whether they made the port connections correct with my amp, and it was correct apparently. I almost decided that the amp does all the magic by now. But they claimed it is because of the lower power of the amp rather than the superiority of the marantz.

I asked them if they had lower priced marantz amps which I can try out. They dint have any. But the sales guy asked me to demo the sherwood 100w amp (5505) which costed 14k just to prove his point that the difference is due to the wattage more than anything else.

Having read not so good comments with the sherwood, I carried out the audition without much (any) expectations.

Now, Oh boy they sounded great. I mean GREAT. The NAD was left behind in the dust. Almost same signature to the marantz. The sales guy had "I told you" kind of look on his face instantaneously.

In short, The combo was great. Almost >95% as perfect as the earlier combo wrt imaging and soundstage. So these beasts need 100w atleast to drive them to the fullest inspite of 89db sensitivity mentioned. Again, Numbers don't mean anything.

Other possibility is, these speakers DO NOT pair well at all with the NADs. Unfortunately I would know only if I had access to higher watt NADs which they don't have.

So, whoever thinks watt has nothing to with frequency response or overall sound reproduction, there is a chance that you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, there is frequency responce, thump, loudness and everything BUT the music did not have soul. Imaging, soudstage and seperation went in for a complete toss. The was sound but no music. Or there is a possibility that the NAD and Jamos are enemies. :eek:hyeah:

P.S: He also had a 100w * 5.1ch sherwood amp which was quoted 19.5k that he provided for demo. 1 word - Horrible.

Seriously, are the 5.1ch amps in this range any good at all for stereo? It was complete chalk and cheese comparison when compared with a sterio amp from the same company costing 5k less. (or to put in perspective 25% less)
 
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