Wharfedale - Reva/Diamond

To reiterate...

If there are almost no reviews for a speaker, and the little amount said about them is rather negative, does that mean its Sh!t?  Especially if they LOOK fantastic.

Glad to hear some positive feedback.  I might give them a shot, hopefully they are a step UP from my Diamond 10.7s and not sideways.  They look like a top notch speaker, so I hope they behave like them.  I am very bad at pulling the trigger, maybe I’ll get a few glasses of whiskey in me over the weekend and fire away through Music Direct.

Reva 4s are on their way.  I will report back when I get them set up!

Bm7b5,

Yes I did!  Letting them go now actually and in the market for either KEF R500 or Tannoy XT6F.  Possibly even ELAC.

The Wharfedale Reva 4s are a great sounding speaker.  They were an excellent step up from the Wharfedale Diamond 10.7s and they produced that warm gentle Wharfedale sound just as I expected in every area except one.  The low end.  The plinth port design just did not deliver for me.  The low end was lacking rather significantly and I found myself constantly trying to make up for in with EQ.  I blame it on two things.  The port design and the phase plugs on the woofers.

The phase plugs I personally feel to be a design flaw on these speakers.  There may be circumstances where a woofer will benefit from a phase plug, but when there’s a dedicated mid range and the woofer is only handling the lower frequencies It seems to be worthless.  The air blows by the seam between the cone and the plug, thus losing air that would have been pushed out into the room and chuffing occurs at low frequencies when cone movement is at it’s highest (though not audible in most recordings).  In short, they are a little light down below for me.  

Up top they shine quite nicely.  They reach much higher than the Diamond 10.7s and do so accurately and with a beautiful and gentle approach with their soft dome tweeter.   They image quite well and have a great soundstage.  They have a beautiful warm mid range (their woven fiber cones work wonderfully here) and are overall very flat.  I really hate to see them go, but I must move on to bigger and better pastures.  

@leemazeI 

I sold the Reva 4s and bought a pair of Dali Oberon 5s with a matching center in light oak.  Beautiful speakers.  My wife loves how they complement the room.  Their sound is very forward up top and as many reviewers have stated they have a “surprising” amount of bass from a tiny Floorstander.  The low end seemed quite effortless from the first tune I played on them.  The bass just has a really nice presence.  I wouldn’t call it shocking.  More like pleasantly surprising.  

Most of their focus though is on the top end, which is again rather forward.  I bought them because I really liked the tweeter in Dali Specktor 2s that I bought for my desktop a few months earlier.  Vocals sounded really transparent with the Specktors so I wanted to try the Oberons.  The tweeter is apparently both a little larger than average (not to the naked eye) and the material they used for the soft dome in both the Oberon and Specktor is reportedly thinner than the average soft dome.  Turns out the Oberons do inherit the same qualities as the Specktors, albeit with slightly more control and higher reach (to my ear).  They have a great amount of detail, good imaging and tendency to bite with some aggressive material such as cymbals and horns.  Not nearly the bite from a metal dome tweeter, but it’s there.  I don’t mind this at all.  I think they are great speakers especially for the money.  I have been enjoying them very much so far, but after 6 months I am already looking for something else that has a little more authority and warming midrange like my old Diamond 10.7s.  Those 10.7s really are a damn good speaker.  They are really satisfying because they have that big warm bass that my fathers old 70s-80s speakers had, but with a great midrange and a halfway decent top end.  I always wished they imaged better and extended a little higher, which is why I went with the Reva 4s that ended up lacking that warm punchy low end the 10.7s had. 

So anyway...  I’m still looking for the right balance or warm and punchy low-mid and detailed top end.

@leemaze.  


Unfortunately I sold the 10.7s.  I was originally driving them with a Marantz receiver, but yes, when I switched to an Adcom 5300 there was a significant improvement in control and reach.  Then I switched to an Emotiva A-500 and they sounded even better.  I wish I had held onto them.  I had the matching center too.  Best center channel I have owned.  Voices sounded so warm and present.  Never found myself saying “What did he say???”


Thanks for the Rega recommendation.  I haven’t listened to a rega yet.  I will do some research.

Leemaze - 

I have had my eye on the Wharfedale Evo’s!  They look amazing and have received race reviews.

But, it appears they have the exact same woofers as the Reva 4’s which I wasn’t satisfied with.  I really don’t understand why Wharfedale keeps using phase plugs on their dedicated woofers.  Phase plugs, as far as I understand, are for helping direct mid to high frequencies and serve no purpose on a dedicated woofer.  The space between the phase plug and cone causes air to move in and out of the cabinet causing chuffing at higher excursions and without a center dust cap the cone moves substantially less air. 
I just don’t understand their thinking on this, especially with such a reportedly well integrated top end.