I just got my speakers delivered and have connected them up. I purchased a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.5 series tower speakers for my stereo listening room. The speakers are in brown colour which is to my liking since all the other furnitures are also the same colour.
I had auditioned earlier Onkyo, Elac, Klipsch and Wharfedale for over a month before saying yes to the 9.5 series.
So let me get straight to the matter:
I do not have equipment to test the figures what the manual says but anyway these were the inputs which I worried about.
1. Power 30-150W
2. Nominal Impedance: 6ohm
3. Sensitivity: 88dB
4. Crossover: 140Hz, 2.2kHz
The actual power is really good though I mainly listen to Karnatic classical and regional film music with some 80s English. The other genres I listen are Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, Cliff Richards, and Jon Denver etc. The actual playing of these songs I get a really good feeling that I have put my money in something which is nice.
Cost: Cost wise, these speakers are in the mid-range since the 2 speakers have cost me Rs.32K (Speakers+Cables) while the Klipsch Rf62 costs around Rs.62K, Elac costs Rs.46K and Onkyo costs Rs.16K. The Onkyo one is a very basic one and was auditioned just to see what is offered in a basic model. The Elac sounded good till I heard Klipsch.
Klipsch (from now on it refers to Klipsch refers to Klipsch Rf62) had a fantastic performance but I got a feeling that there was more synthesized output than the Wharfedale speakers. I tried a couple of vocals (Hariharans Ghazal, Yesudas Iyyappa Song, Elvis and finally Mozarts eine kleine nachtmusik) with all the speakers. The wharfedale did actually deliver the same vocals without much electronic construction though the output power is a bit lower than klipsch. I mean to get the same volume from both the speakers; the AMP volume had to be set a little higher (say about 6dB) for the wharfedale speakers.
I did not find any difference in the sensitivity expect that when there were some high frequency involved, Klipsch recreated the sound much better but the metallic nature was present. The actual throw of the Klipsch has a wider range owing to its higher power.
Next I move on to the cabinet quality, I found this oval design of the diamond series speaker a bit more aesthetic than the normal rectangular cabinets of the rest. Not much of joints are seen, there are a few on the edges but are not noticeable unless you go really close to the unit.
I am still working on the placement and angles, but I find that if I leave around 1.5 feet gap between the wall and the speaker you get a good reception that too for a small room. The speakers come with floor spikes so it helps in removing a lot of vibrations sent to the floor without them. Currently the delivery of the vocals which I have played gives me a concert feeling, I have put a small carpet and some thick curtains in the room.
What made me choose Wharfedale:
1. The actual reproduction of the Vocal voice
2. The comfort or soothing sound at low input levels
3. Cost
4. My preference to non-ear hitting music like Jazz (Sorry this is not to offend anybody).
For those who require higher power and more bass in your music, well this set of speakers would not satisfy your needs. I would recommend Klipsch Rf52/62
I hope this review is helpful to you guys in some way and feel free to get back to me on any specific clarifications.
Thanks
-Vasu
I had auditioned earlier Onkyo, Elac, Klipsch and Wharfedale for over a month before saying yes to the 9.5 series.
So let me get straight to the matter:
I do not have equipment to test the figures what the manual says but anyway these were the inputs which I worried about.
1. Power 30-150W
2. Nominal Impedance: 6ohm
3. Sensitivity: 88dB
4. Crossover: 140Hz, 2.2kHz
The actual power is really good though I mainly listen to Karnatic classical and regional film music with some 80s English. The other genres I listen are Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, Cliff Richards, and Jon Denver etc. The actual playing of these songs I get a really good feeling that I have put my money in something which is nice.
Cost: Cost wise, these speakers are in the mid-range since the 2 speakers have cost me Rs.32K (Speakers+Cables) while the Klipsch Rf62 costs around Rs.62K, Elac costs Rs.46K and Onkyo costs Rs.16K. The Onkyo one is a very basic one and was auditioned just to see what is offered in a basic model. The Elac sounded good till I heard Klipsch.
Klipsch (from now on it refers to Klipsch refers to Klipsch Rf62) had a fantastic performance but I got a feeling that there was more synthesized output than the Wharfedale speakers. I tried a couple of vocals (Hariharans Ghazal, Yesudas Iyyappa Song, Elvis and finally Mozarts eine kleine nachtmusik) with all the speakers. The wharfedale did actually deliver the same vocals without much electronic construction though the output power is a bit lower than klipsch. I mean to get the same volume from both the speakers; the AMP volume had to be set a little higher (say about 6dB) for the wharfedale speakers.
I did not find any difference in the sensitivity expect that when there were some high frequency involved, Klipsch recreated the sound much better but the metallic nature was present. The actual throw of the Klipsch has a wider range owing to its higher power.
Next I move on to the cabinet quality, I found this oval design of the diamond series speaker a bit more aesthetic than the normal rectangular cabinets of the rest. Not much of joints are seen, there are a few on the edges but are not noticeable unless you go really close to the unit.
I am still working on the placement and angles, but I find that if I leave around 1.5 feet gap between the wall and the speaker you get a good reception that too for a small room. The speakers come with floor spikes so it helps in removing a lot of vibrations sent to the floor without them. Currently the delivery of the vocals which I have played gives me a concert feeling, I have put a small carpet and some thick curtains in the room.
What made me choose Wharfedale:
1. The actual reproduction of the Vocal voice
2. The comfort or soothing sound at low input levels
3. Cost
4. My preference to non-ear hitting music like Jazz (Sorry this is not to offend anybody).
For those who require higher power and more bass in your music, well this set of speakers would not satisfy your needs. I would recommend Klipsch Rf52/62
I hope this review is helpful to you guys in some way and feel free to get back to me on any specific clarifications.
Thanks
-Vasu