Wharfedale E70

[istari_knight]

Just picked up a pair :fingers:

So far quite impressed... Certainly do dynamics & scale better than my Mission 751's & Mordaunt Short MS25i's :lol:


..... Now all I need is an amp that glows.... Need more money first :doh:

[DSJR]

Hope you can listen for more than twenty minutes before getting a headache..... needs a bit more than an amp change to sort that one out :lol:

[istari_knight]

Hope you can listen for more than twenty minutes before getting a headache..... needs a bit more than an amp change to sort that one out :lol:

Hehe, I have read opinions of others that would agree with you but these are nothing like you describe... Have you heard any in recent years ? Possibly the xover capacitors have aged changing in value thus making them sound different ? I dunno... To me they sound full of vim and vigor with plenty of "grin factor" The lower registers are far better controlled than my previous jpw ap3's which is suprising for 10" drivers in ported cabs :scratch: + No screeching treble at all.

I think its all down to personal taste as the wharfes are at the opposite end of the speaker scale to the bbc sound... Flawed but oh so fun (if you like that sort of thing!) :eyebrows:

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I know of a glowy amp that's for sale :)

[DSJR]

The vim-n-vigor is actually a rapidly falling bass output and a way peaked up midrange. Altering the gain controls doesn't do anything to refine it either since the responses of each driver are anything but "flat" - you just end up putting steps in the response which sounds even worse.

These things were never intended to be HiFi to the original timbres of acoustic instruments, so just enjoy them on a modern and more subtle system as a bit of a disco diva speaker. Fun? HUGE, but not "high fidedlity" unless excess and exaggeration are your thang :D

Oh yeah, and Hamish's lovely amp will happily drive them and anything else you eventually upgrade to too :lol:

[Roy S]

Always fancied a pair of these, or the bigger E90s

[istari_knight]

The vim-n-vigor is actually a rapidly falling bass output and a way peaked up midrange. Altering the gain controls doesn't do anything to refine it either since the responses of each driver are anything but "flat" - you just end up putting steps in the response which sounds even worse.

These things were never intended to be HiFi to the original timbres of acoustic instruments, so just enjoy them on a modern and more subtle system as a bit of a disco diva speaker. Fun? HUGE, but not "high fidedlity" unless excess and exaggeration are your thang :D

Oh yeah, and Hamish's lovely amp will happily drive them and anything else you eventually upgrade to too :lol:

Yep, happy to agree here. No pretensions of "hi-fi" they just sound nice & fun.... What more can one ask for £70 ? Could well be the last speakers a non audiophile / non classical listener would ever buy.

[istari_knight]

I know of a glowy amp that's for sale :)

Would love it but dont have those kind of fund at the moment :(

Twas thinking more "music angle" territory... gotta love those Chinese brand names :lol:

Back on topic: http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Wharfedale.htm

Mail #2 is quite interesting reading regarding the E70's

[Macca]

Would love it but dont have those kind of fund at the moment :(

Twas thinking more "music angle" territory... gotta love those Chinese brand names :lol:

Back on topic: http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Wharfedale.htm

Mail #2 is quite interesting reading regarding the E70's

Interesting comments re the Delta 30 too which IMO is the worst loudspeaker Wharfedale ever made (that I have heard at any rate).

[wiicrackpot]

Hate to piss on your parade IK, these speakers are only good for a quick blast of Donna Summer or Bronski Beat and it's ilk,
nothing more and thats speaking from a wharfedale user (W3 and recently lost out on a pair of Airedale's sold locally) so i am a fan of vintage.

There has been a lot stuff being elevated to a great height cause it's 30+ yrs old and weren't great in it's day, it seems to be spreading in both here and elsewhere.:scratch:

wii.

[istari_knight]

Hate to piss on your parade IK, these speakers are only good for a quick blast of Donna Summer or Bronski Beat and it's ilk,
nothing more and thats speaking from a wharfedale user (W3 and recently lost out on a pair of Airedale's sold locally) so i am a fan of vintage.

There has been a lot stuff being elevated to a great height cause it's 30+ yrs old and weren't great in it's day, it seems to be spreading in both here and elsewhere.:scratch:

wii.

No worries mate, everyone is entitled to their opinion :)

Cant say thats my experience though... I have now tried them on 2 very different amps each producing very different results.

With a Kenwood KA-701 dating from around '79 they sound glassy & shut in - Bass is non existent. However, when the Kenwood is subbed for a Musical Fidelity A1 they sound sublime... Cant really fault them at all.

Surely this would make them "transparent" ? The way people have described them does fit but only when used with old amps that have that sonic signature (70's transistor based designs!) And for the record the Kenwood sounds very nice on my Missions/Mordaunt-Shorts.

I have taken one apart to have a look at the construction and can report that the cabinets are very thick chipboard with lots of bracing & bitumen damping panels on every wall. All drivers have cast chassis frames, decent rubber surrounds & rather large magnets for the driver sizes. The crossovers are nicely laid out to avoid any interference between inductors of which the bass/mid inductors are heavy gauge ferrite cores (industry standard) but the tweeter coils are air core & the tweeter caps are polyester - This was not industry standard practice at the time.

Add all this up & you have a very capable design which compares very favorably with my old IMF TLS50's... To be honest I prefer the Wharfes! If that makes me deaf.... so be it :ner:

[Reffc]

I'm with you James. Having had first hand experience of a pair of E70's and not speaking from 2nd hand knowledge of internet myths, they can sound fabulous with the right amplification. I challenged someone last year who said the bass was none existant and it turned out he'd never even listened to a pair. Let others say what they want, your ears tell you different and you have first hand experience of them. Fine loudspeakers for the money!

[wiicrackpot]

No worries mate, everyone is entitled to their opinion :)
Thats the spirit, as long as your happy, what everyone said is just an opinion, :cool:

Had mines driven by a Aiwa music center and it was my hormones driven days,
so was probably clipping like f*ck playing my Donna S stuff,shiny multi drivers was what sold them for me. :D

wii.

[DSJR]

I have to say on reflection, that many smaller "small/desktop monitors" are balanced in a similar way, with a lean low bass, a rising midrange peaking to a greater or lesser extent at 1kHz and then a subtle drop into the tweeter. Think Linn Kans on a larger scale. Being active makes it more tolerable, but not better in tonality. The rising mid gives a magnified sense of "detail" and "speed" and if used close to a wall, or on shelves in the case of the smallest ones, the tone can be quite acceptable.

[Reid Malenfant]

I think the Wharfedale E series of speakers were some kind of attempt to create something along the lines of Cerwin Vega speakers, but with a smaller enclosure :)

They couldn't really be classed as hifi, but they sure as hell were fun :D I have a pair of E30 here, they make a whole lot of volume from that little 30L enclosure :eyebrows:

The E series was imho a bit of an oddball, while Wharfedale made more accurate speakers before & after them, they were certainly less efficient.

I remember my Dovedale SP & TSR110, so I'm not in lala land :D

[istari_knight]

I think the Wharfedale E series of speakers were some kind of attempt to create something along the lines of Cerwin Vega speakers, but with a smaller enclosure :)

They couldn't really be classed as hifi, but they sure as hell were fun :D I have a pair of E30 here, they make a whole lot of volume from that little 30L enclosure :eyebrows:

The E series was imho a bit of an oddball, while Wharfedale made more accurate speakers before & after them, they were certainly less efficient.

I remember my Dovedale SP & TSR110, so I'm not in lala land :D


I would say dont tar them all with the same brush.

Apart from looking loud & being of reasonable efficiency the E70's are nothing like CV's. I've owned a pair of CV's & they are just plain horrible with thinwall chipboard cabinets/pressed steel drivers/plastic tweeters & nasty crossovers that cost 20p to manufacture.

If Wharfedale were trying to copy CV they could have done it for a lot less.

It would appear not every model in the E series are of equal quality... All they share is the "loud" appearance.

All IMHO of course :)

[DSJR]

The CV's we had used decent polyprop caps in the hard wired crossovers, the cabs were totally undamped but very solid, the wiring was more than adequate and the drivers well made, if lacking damping and large magnets. Adding wadding inside the boxes to sort the bass and padding the tweeters down a tad actually made for a very passably good impression of musicians playing music. Very artful design for the intended market I thought.

The E's would probably be transformed with modern gear (or properly set up older gear) driving them. I would just avoid vintage jap amps with hideous feedback levels sapping distortion and sadly the music too, and also any oldie with crossover distortion, which I'm sure the E series would magnify...

[istari_knight]

Aye :)

I think we'll call them "marmite" speakers....

I wonder how they would compare to N@im speakers ? :lol: :mental: They certainly divide opinions the same !

[synsei]

It all comes down to whatever floats yer boat now, don't it? I remember being blown away by the sound of a pair of Linton XP3's when I was but a nipper ;)

[DSJR]

Naim would have been proud to make speakers as good as the E70's were at getting the funk into music :lol:

I'm still getting a kick out of me Denton W20's. They'd probably fall flat on their faces in a direct comparison with a good modern box, but I don't care. Quad valve driven, they bring back many happy memories when I'm playing the vintage music I first heard through a pair of these and - THEY DON'T QUACK OR SQUAWK like so many supposed superior little boxes do today :)

[wiicrackpot]

It's amazing what these old 'L'll boxes' can do, currently listening to a pair of old Goodmans that i got from PFM a while ago for £25.00 delivered,
dead ringer for the LS3/5a size wise but with unremovable grill and metal baffle,
previous owner didn't have a clue and tried to get into them from the front cause one of the tweeters had blown,
tore a wee bit of the grill,:doh: i took them on a whim then sourced the exact tweeters from Ebay for £30.00, sat close to rear wall (infinite baffle),
close your eyes and i swear i am listening to a pair of ubiquitous BBC's or Kans but better, :D all for £55.00, there are some good vintage stuff kicking about.

wii.

[synsei]

They wouldn't be Maxims (http://www.eastmarinedrive.com/audio/2003/maxim.html) by any chance?

http://www.eastmarinedrive.com/audio/maxim/4way.jpg

[wiicrackpot]

No Dave, they are bigger than the Maxims (scored a pair for £80.00 recently but one bass unit been fried (voice coil rub)so biding my time on finding a bass unit and older than the one's in your pic).

They are exactly like LS3/5A's, i pulled them out to play due to this thread, charging my digi camera just now but will post a pic to see if anybody could shed some light on it, did Goodmans make any speakers for BBC?, these look to be older than the Rodgers and the like.

wii.

[DSJR]

The original Maxim is worth a bob or two now and the Beeb looked at them for general small speaker monitoring use once. Apparently, consistency and power handling? got the better of them, but a good pair was quite liked at the time...

There is a later Maxim, which is ok I believe.. although the pair I refer to were replaced by AVI's best ever passive speaker, the Neutron 4, which doesn't squeak like an endangered mouse like the Neutron 5 does without its sub-system :lol:

[wiicrackpot]

Yes, they fetch upwards of £250-£300's easy, a single Maxim went for more than i paid for mine, to be honest the one's i am listening now and my Beovox 2200 does it for me so will probably let them go after i sourced a bass unit, it's more difficult because it's the earliest model with the single letter 'G' instead of Goodmans badge of later Maxim's.

wii.

[DSJR]

Shush on SOME vintage Beovoxes.. The P series can be largely forgotten except for one or two of the smaller two-ways once re-foamed and re-capped, but as for the early 70's ones........ ;)

[wiicrackpot]

Shush on SOME vintage Beovoxes.. The P series can be largely forgotten except for one or two of the smaller two-ways once re-foamed and re-capped, but as for the early 70's ones........ ;)
:whistle: didn't actively seek out my pair but a freebie with some stuff i bought locally and like i've said, pleasantly surprised at how good they are at the end of of my wee 15w amp, the quality of the Brazilian Rosewood is a bonus. :cool:

Hope IK is not annoyed at the threadjack,here's pics.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/788/008ul.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/140/008ul.jpg/)
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/6683/006xn.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/854/006xn.jpg/)
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9669/005flc.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/005flc.jpg/)
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/811/004bku.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/004bku.jpg/)
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1134/003wuh.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/003wuh.jpg/)



wii.

[DSJR]

:) Cone tweeters can work very well if carefully done and yep, the rosewood veneers were exquisite.

[wiicrackpot]

Yes Dave, i used to think if the tweeter is not domed or shiny it's not up to it's job. :rolleyes:
the veneer on those babies puts a lot of higher price speakers to shame.

wii.

[istari_knight]

:) Cone tweeters can work very well if carefully done and yep, the rosewood veneers were exquisite.

Indeed, Always been impressed by Acoustics Research cone tweeters.

Thread hijack's cool by the way... always interested in learning about undervalued vintage gear :eyebrows:

[DSJR]

Shhhhh, they'll all want some, and *some* of them are truly awful, despite the wonderful carcasses :lol:

[wiicrackpot]

Indeed, Always been impressed by Acoustics Research cone tweeters.

Thread hijack's cool by the way... always interested in learning about undervalued vintage gear :eyebrows:
Restored a pair of AR6 and sounded mighty fine they were.

James, as for learning about undervalued vintage gear, i am afraid i'm no expert, just responded to your thread due to fond memories thrashing the arse off it,
my dappling into old kit was forced after i hit hard times and sold my kit, :( must say i am into smart sound nowadays,
kit i wouldn't have batted an eyelid on years ago when the going was good are now enjoyed with minimal outlay. :)

wii.

[DSJR]

A good little vintage system - Dual 1216 with M75-ED, Yamaha CR600 receiver and AR6's in fine fettle. Shouldn't cost the earth and did sound lovely I remember, especially if the loudness control was used with a little care :)

[istari_knight]

Well the 70's are off to the new owner on Thursday. I like them (alot) but couldn't live with the sheer size of the things !

Currently taking a break from "hi-fi" - Sold the lot & bought the system in my sig.... Castles aren't here yet but the Denon sounds better than expected with an old pair of MS25i's. Time to start enjoying music again, Its an amazing sense of relief to hear music without criticizing it & thinking what can be improved... Something I haven't done since 2004 :lol: