Customer Reviews

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 - Left / right channel speakers - 2-way - cherry

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I owned this speaker for 3 weeks. I have evaluated the following prior to making the purchase, Mission M32i, Mission M60i and Wharfedale.

The speaker is driven by Sony STR DB790 home theater amplifier rated at 100W per channel. The sound is generally clear, it takes at least 20-30 hours to burn in and the difference is significant. Bass could however be more powerful. I have not tried bi-wiring the speaker, but from general review from other forums, the results is better sound imaging and clarity.

I am not an audiophile, I can't anticipate vocal generated from Diamond 9.1 worth speakers costing 4 figures or more as reviewed by Stereophile magazine. The sensitivity of the speaker is rated as 86db, I guess is can be hard to drive for low power rating amplifier in low volume.

Overall, this is a good speaker. If you are looking for better bass and clarity, I would recommend Mission M32i over Wharfedale.

I've owned a pair of Wharfedale 9.1's for a few weeks now, and listened to them extensively with all kinds of program material, and I can give some qualified opinions on them at this point: Firstly, they are fairly detailed and well behaved speakers. Their small size makes them ideal for a wide range of applications. I use mine for the mains on a small stereo / audio-only system.

I will talk to you about some of the caveats: The closer the speakers are to a back wall, the more they tend to sound boomy in the upper bass. Bringing them out a little largely remedied this. I would also recommend playing around with 'tuning' the front ports. You can do this by inserting various types and densities of textile material as bungs in the ports. This will make the speakers sound tighter, and improve the transient response. Of course, if you have the speakers on stands, and well away from any walls, you really don't need to do this. After some playing around, I got the speakers to sound very good.

I would describe the sound as warm but detailed. They also only start singing when turned up somewhat. Low level response is thin and veiled, but not unpleasing. Classical music comes alive at moderate listening levels. I would recommend biwiring these if you can. It improves overall definition. Note: These do have biwireable binding posts.

A note on listening fatigue: Since these speakers have a rather warm sound, you can listen to them for hours without much listener fatigue. I am a pianist, and the speakers do reproduce piano sounds accurately, which is a benchmark for any good speaker. Seperate string sounds, and small string ensembles sound very good, although large symphonic string sections tend to smear a bit. This issue can only be resolved in the most expensive speakers anyway.

Make sure your amplifier delivers at least 20 Watts (RMS) x 2 if you want to use these...

Overall, they are musical and easy to listen to, as well as being easy on your pocketbook. If you are an audiophile on a budget, I would recommend them. (m.)

I'm an audiphile with some serious equipment, Macintosh, Magnaplanars, etc. First bought Wharfdale over 30 years ago and moved on to supposedly better stuff. Recently purchased the Diamond 9.1 for an office. But sounded so good I replaced them with some $2000 speakers that I had in another location. Their strength is in the musical blend of sounds they provide at all levels. Speakers are rated by highs, lows, accuracy, etc. The most important question is how do they sound? Are they pleasant to the ears? Do your ears get tired? I was amazed at the pleasant mix of highs, midrange, and bass. A perfect balance. Sound wonderful with classical, jazz, latin, almost anything. Hard rockers will probably pass, as most of that music is over amplified to extend bass. Purists will treasure the rich pleasant tones, especially classical fans. A terrific buy for $300 and better than some speakers that cost $2000 or more. So good in fact, that I may buy two more sets for other rooms.

based on the reviews and was pleasantly surprised. These speakers are very clean and transparent (amazing amounts of detail) and are well-controlled in the frequency extremes. The soundstage is quite good.

They perform very well in my modest system: Pioneer A400X, Sony CDP 715E, decent speaker stands. Excellent for the money.

I once used a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 75th anniv. Edition with Rotel RCD02 cd player & Exposure 2010S integrated amp. Now it has been replaced by Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom.
(the Diamond anniversary enclosure is made from real wood veneer)

Comparison between Diamond 9.1 & F1 Custom:
I found the Diamond to have more extended high freq. than the F1 Custom. However, the Diamond has more colouration, the sound is nice and warm, but not in a good sense, these "nice & warm" things seem to be fabricated, as opposed to an honest and realistic sound. In other words, to me this loudspeaker really has its own colour, which are nice & warm, thus accuracy is definitely not a strong point here.
Is it because the designer aimed to create a loudspeaker that would appeal to everyone? Initially this diamond appealed to me, that's why I bought it in the first place. But after 2.5 months of quite intensive listening (6 days a week, 2 to 3 hours per day), I come to these opinion.
The Diamond's imaging is also significantly less vivid compared to the F1 Custom.
I also noticed some upper bass emphasize with the Diamond, where the upper bass sounds too thick. This improper thickness seems to have negative impact on detail and transparency, as bass and mid definition is another weak point here. The F1 Custom might seems to have weaker bass than the Diamond, but it actually can play low notes far better. This is obvious with piano repro in many recordings, where the F1 Custom still able to present some low notes with good definition and impact, but the Diamond falls short by a considerable margin. For drums repro, the F1 Custom has good transient attack and realism, from the cymbal, snare to the kick drum, while the Diamond can't help to present bloomy, unnatural bass without solid image. But for even lower notes, both speakers do not have such extension, it's normal due to their small size.
F1 Custom throws big and stable soundstage, the width may exceed physical boundaries with some recordings.

So for a speaker under USD500 (or 300 pound), I find the F1 Custom is really good, with the following characteristics:
1. Minimum colouration : honest sound, realistic reproduction from the sonic & music point of view
2. Neutral tonal balance: not warm but also not cool, sounds like the frequency response from top to bottom is quite linear (maybe anybody has measurement data to correct or confirm my hearing on this?)
3. Detail, transparent and focus, but not drawing attention to itself, the attention is on the music, enable me to deeply listen to the music.
4. Quite revealing of recording material quality/character

Before purchased the F1 Custom I auditioned several speakers: PSB Alpha B1, Paradigm Atom, Usher S512, B&W 686 & Epos ELS8. IMHO, I consider the F1 Custom to be better, overall, than the others, eventhough the comparison were not "apple to apple" as different electronics were used in each auditioned. Compared to the F1 Custom, I noticed that the PSB produces deeper soundstage, but less natural mid and high freq. The Paradigm sound is detail and has good clarity, but the midband timbre is not satisfactory to me. The Usher has more holographic imaging, but the mid sometimes has shouty character, and the high has forward character. The B&W has bigger bass, but presenting music with not enough life and soul (the problem is similar with ELS8). The Epos has more extended HF, but I'm not attracted to its rather thin midrange character. I suppose personal taste also had some contribution to my choosing the F1 Custom.
As for the Diamond, I don't belief it has a strong position against the other speakers mentioned above. It's quite strange that the Diamond receives so many good to very good reviews anywhere, including What HiFi magazine, UK, who gave it 5star (F1 Custom also got 5star review. But in a group test of 5 or 6 speakers, among which are the Diamond and the F1 Custom, What HiFi chose F1 Custom as the winner). The Diamond is more like a 3star performer to me, I would not recommend it.
Prices (US retail price): the F1 Custom is USD140, the PSB USD 280, and the others are above USD300 (the Usher is above USD400).
I belief the F1 Custom is an underrated performer, partly due to its low price, where some recommendations I read is just to use it in a mini hi-fi system. Actually it strongly competes against USD 250 - 450 (150 - 300 pound) loudspeakers with a real chance of winning. For anybody who's looking for under USD500 loudspeaker and interested in the Diamond, I seriously advise you to re-consider your interest, give both the F1 Custom and the Diamond (along with the other speakers mentioned above) a thorough audition before make any decision.