Customer Reviews

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 Bookshelf Speakers (black)

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

 

 

I prefer bookshelf speakers over floor standing speakers for the following reasons:

1) Easier to drive with any AMP / AVR.
2) Flexible placement options. It can be mounted on a stand, wall, ceiling or bookshelf.
3) In smaller apartments great results can be achieved when wall mounted with a good wall mount such as B-Tech BT77. It saves floor space too.
4) Bigger is not always better. I have seen cheaper bookshelf speakers sounding more involving than their more expensive & larger floor standing cousins from the same brand / family.

Background:

In 2008, I wanted a pair of bookshelf speakers to use with an Onkyo TX-SR604 A/V Receiver (AVR) in Zone 2 (bedroom). I only had a budget of USD300. After months of search, research & demos it was very evident that North American (N. America here means Canada & USA only) speakers have very good highs (treble) & lows (bass) but the mid-range (vocals) almost always took a backseat. British speakers on the other hand are generally warmer sounding because of a more fleshed out & forward mid-range. The N. American speakers are more suited for classical and rock music. The British speakers are better at dialogue delivery & any music that had lots of vocals. If cost was no object, then I'd luv to have 2 pairs of speakers in my stereo setup, consisting of a pair of N. American & a pair of British speakers, only to make the best of both worlds.

Performance:

After listening to bookshelf speakers from Klipsch, Mirage, Paradigm, B&W, Wharfedale, Mordaunt Short etc to name a few, I rounded up on the following:

1) Mordaunt Short Avant 902i. It has a 5.25 inches mid-woofer with a rear bass port.
2) Wharfedale Diamond 9.1. It has a 5.0 inches mid-woofer with front bass ports.

Both the above speakers belonged to the same price point - USD250/pair. The Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 & the Mordaunt Short Avant 902i have very good midrange that budget British speakers are famous for. The differences were more to do with the treble & bass delivery of each speaker. The Wharfedale has a very disciplined (sweet) treble at the cost of a lil' boomy bass. MS on the other hand has a very disciplined bass at the cost of a lil' undisciplined (bright) treble. The MS mid-range is a lil' more transparent & controlled than the Wharfedale.

The Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 has a more forgiving & warm sound which has a tendency to sound a lil' soft & uninvolving at low volumes, whereas the MS has a more involving, intimate & lively sound no matter what music I threw at it. The MS Avant 902i can be very bright sounding with most budget & improperly matched systems. They are really hard to tame / settle in most budget systems.

Truth be told, if I had not heard the MS Avant 902i I w'd have happily lived with the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelf speakers. They are very forgiving & easy to listen to with any kind of system & music. I also like the fact that they come with optional wall mounting brackets & easy to wall mount.

In Nov 2005, Robert Reina of Stereophile stated that the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1's midrange and high-frequency resolution behaved more like a speaker with a four-figure price tag. I totally agree with that statement & I still prefer the front ported Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s to the newer rear ported Diamond 10.1s.