Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot out!

[denom]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

Audiodoc,

I have just written my view of whatever I heard.

What is the intention of comparing my view with the 'Audiophile Guru' Steve Guttenberg?

Ultimately the end user has to form his/her opinion & feel whether the speaker in question is suited to their tastes/liking or not. Its as simple as that & more importantly THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT!!!

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

Any offers on Steve Guttenberg's ears with Wharfs? Just fooling around at 00:38.

 

[BLASTO]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

To put it mildly, I disliked the wharfedale diamonds.

I demoed the 9.5 and 10.7 (albeit in a smallish room in Vector Hyderabad). They lacked midrange and highs. Bass was overpowering. (Which is completely opposite of what the review says.) Details and soundstage was also poor. They sound unbelievably 'warm'. Musicality is not the highlight.

Moreover, when you move up the ladder, the VFM goes down the drain. While 9.5s are good buys for 24k, the 10.7 are not worth for 48k.

As always, this is IMO. I know there are huge number of fans for the wharfs in this forum.

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

Many local dealers play the Wharfs as demo (at least wherever I visited). It could well be the first "awe" moment for a full-fledged stereo / HT setup. Many love it and keep it at that. I loved the Wharfs and almost picked them up until few forum member suggested to demo Polks, Paradigms, KEF, etc. before revisiting Wharfs. There, I could clearly hear the difference. Not that Wharfs are no-gooders. They are, for certain type of music, for those with certain type of listening habits.

In fact some Wharf bookshelfs were very good with CD music (not sure what models).

 

[anuragn]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

To put it mildly, I disliked the wharfedale diamonds.

I demoed the 9.5 and 10.7 (albeit in a smallish room in Vector Hyderabad). They lacked midrange and highs. Bass was overpowering. (Which is completely opposite of what the review says.) Details and soundstage was also poor. They sound unbelievably 'warm'. Musicality is not the highlight.

Moreover, when you move up the ladder, the VFM goes down the drain. While 9.5s are good buys for 24k, the 10.7 are not worth for 48k.

As always, this is IMO. I know there are huge number of fans for the wharfs in this forum.

I had demoed the 9.5 & 10.5 as well as the BS 9.1, 10.1 & 10.2
The room walls were accoustically treated and carpetted. The speakers were placed about 2 feet from the front walls and the BS's on mounted on stands.
CDP was Cambridge Audio (do'nt recall the model no.) and amp was Yamaha AVR 867 and the test tracks were audio CD of Taal hindi movie.
Never did I feel the bass overpowering, in fact at times I felt the bass to be lacking a bit. The highs were crisp and clear with no harshness at all (which I felt was there in Polk TSI-300). The mids were warm & pleasing but never too warm.
We are reading conflicting reviews here about wharfs, either are are too good or too bad. I think actually much depends on where and how you audition the speakers. Each link in the chain counts as much and should be given the due consideration before arriving at a conclusion.

 

[BLASTO]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

Many local dealers play the Wharfs as demo (at least wherever I visited). It could well be the first "awe" moment for a full-fledged stereo / HT setup. Many love it and keep it at that. I loved the Wharfs and almost picked them up until few forum member suggested to demo Polks, Paradigms, KEF, etc. before revisiting Wharfs. There, I could clearly hear the difference. Not that Wharfs are no-gooders. They are, for certain type of music, for those with certain type of listening habits.

In fact some Wharf bookshelfs were very good with CD music (not sure what models).

Maybe thats the reason.. I went to wharfs demo almost at the last after auditioning other brands.. hyeah:

 

[jaudere]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

I had demoed the 9.5 & 10.5 as and amp was Yamaha AVR 867 and the test tracks were audio CD of Taal hindi movie.
Never did I feel the bass overpowering, in fact at times I felt the bass to be lacking a bit.

There could be 2 reasons of your findings.
1)yamaha is good in mid and hi frequencies but lacks in lower department. This is a well known fact.
Even if you are using high end AVR, It may not deliver at par with stereo amp in similar price range. I have used Yam avr. It was entry level but i think audio circuitry is not much different.

2) in particular, the CD Of Taal ,IMO , is not well mastered. This usually does not happen with Rehman but this Cd some how emphasizes more on highs. Did you try some other CD?
Using one cd for audition is not good enough to form opinion.
Off topic, again this is rare with Rehman but i feel that the 'delhi 6' emphasizes too much of lower frequencies. More so on tracks:'rehnat tu' & 'gendaa phool'.

 

[Audiodoc]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

The Audio Material & the loudspeakers are the weakest links in the audio chain.
The problem with audio material is that companies nowadays decrease the dynamic range of the audio signal during re mastering. Though this may be helpful for low end gear the same becomes apparent on revealing systems.

Secondly in most of the old audio records their is no use of the audio spectrum below 50Hz or above 15000 Hz so even if you have systems which can give you a flat response from 20 - 20000 Hz you cant listen to the same because of deficiencies in the source.

The best material to really test an equipment is a well mastered live audio recording. I myself prefer the Eagles Live in Concert Album as well as some Jagjit Singh Ghazals which have have a good dynamic range as well as most frequencies within the audible spectrum.

 

[spirovious]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

I chose Tannoy over Wharfedale just because they didnt sound open to my ears.Soundstage of Tannoy was bigger & fuller.
Wharfedale towers sounds better though to my ears.

 

[paritosh]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

For those who like to test systems with gazals by jagjit Singh, I was suggested Journey which is a 2cd audios CD album.

For further details, Chechen the thread below

http://www.hifivision.com/music/19125-ideal-hindi-testing-materials-stereo.html

 

[anuragn]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

There could be 2 reasons of your findings.
1)yamaha is good in mid and hi frequencies but lacks in lower department. This is a well known fact.
Even if you are using high end AVR, It may not deliver at par with stereo amp in similar price range. I have used Yam avr. It was entry level but i think audio circuitry is not much different.

2) in particular, the CD Of Taal ,IMO , is not well mastered. This usually does not happen with Rehman but this Cd some how emphasizes more on highs. Did you try some other CD?
Using one cd for audition is not good enough to form opinion.
Off topic, again this is rare with Rehman but i feel that the 'delhi 6' emphasizes too much of lower frequencies. More so on tracks:'rehnat tu' & 'gendaa phool'.

This further emphasizes my point that wharfdales themselves are not as extremely bad or good. Just that the first impressions of different members get colored due to other factors. Like I found them to be bit lacking in bass but at home (i.e. the 10.1s), paired with Denon 1611 (thats why I auditioned them with an AVR and not stereo amp), they sound much deeper and sometimes, even when the sub is set to off in avr, I have to confirm that it is really not playing.
Whatever little boom (some call it muddiness that 10.1s are infamous for) was there when the speakers were wall-mounted has now disappeared after I placed on Sail-Alif standmounts bought recently from group buy.

 

[Audiodoc]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

10.1s need ample power to shine preferably 100W into 6 ohms. That helps to have a authoritative influence on the kevlar woofers for a tighter bass at the same time they should preferably be placed about 30 cm away from the rear wall 1m from side wall and 2 metres apart with some toe in tweeters at ear level on well dampened stands fed through decent speaker cables.

 

[spirovious]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

Lovely sounding Quad 11L2 (with NAD C340)-
Quad 11L2 - YouTubeQuad 11L2 - YouTube

Quad L22-
Quad 22L2 - YouTubeQuad 22L2 playing Brad Mehlday: Day is gone - YouTube

 

[Shyamtanu]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

I had a ball of a time :yahoo:

Haven't I already praised the Monitor 7's in an earlier review??? Shaiju, your rig is set to provide years of entertainment to you & your friends. Enjoy it to your hearts content

Everyone has their own taste, with that note, I would add Quad sound cannot be compared with the monitor 7 I guess. It will probably shine with extreme ends of the frequencies (which is easier), but come to midrange, I found them lifeless to some extent. But they would be good for hard rock sort of music since there is not much playing in the mid range, and movies. But if one wants to hear chelo, violins, tympany and vocal/harmony oriented music, they should try Quad. Quad would expose any shortcoming of recording/compressed music mercilessly, and not all components would do justice with them e.g. NAD is a bad match for them but great match for Paradigm, just my two cents folks

 

[Shyamtanu]

Re: Maha wharfdale 9.1, 10.1, 10.4,jade 7 + quad 9l2, 11l2 & 12l2 speaker demo/shoot

While I found the sound to be pleasant, It didn't make me jump or something like that. Somehow I found that Denon and Norge 1000 were not different at least with these speakers. Now going by your review, It is likely that it was Quad 12L2. Would like to listen to 11L2. Will be visiting Mumbai at September end. Will PM you then.

I agree with you, it does not do that... WOW thing. But somehow after 2 3 tracks (recalling my first impression) I started realising it was unleashing the emotions i never knew existed in the tracks I have been listening since childhood. Then I realized how difficult it was to shut them off. 12L2 needs dynamic power, not volumes of it, but quality. I found Roksan k2 not making them sing enough, but my PM6003 makes them sing better than that. Basically, rms ratings do fool us at times. Pair them with tube to know their power. They need to be controlled for the uniform output though.