Wharfedale Diamond Loudspeaker Retro Review
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Fashion alert!
In this episode, Mike and David find themselves back in the nineteen eighties again, this time with the original Wharfedale Diamond - the little loudspeaker with ideas above its station!
They both agree that even by today's standards, it's a dinky delight. Mike is especially taken by how it plays his favourite Scritti Politti record - 'Boom, There She Was!' Driven by David's Myst tma3 integrated, it sounds stupidly good considering how cheap it was - and still is.
Each episode of Hi-Fi Riff features their unedited, unexpurgated views about all manner of weird and/or wonderful hi-fi designs. Mike has a huge wealth of knowledge from his hi-fi retail years, and David has written about hi-fi for thirty years. Now Editor-in-Chief of StereoNET, he's picked up a few things along the way.
So relax and enjoy some one-take hi-fi riffing - and please leave your comments below.
Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, this one goes up to eleven!
The eighties-tastic title tune is called ‘UFO/Mike’s Jumper’, and used with the express permission of our old pal and rights holder Simon Lythe.
To read David's review of this tiny treat, click on: zstereo.co.uk/....
I find your videos as instructive as they are entertaining! you can't make enough of them! big fan
Thanks Timothy - cheque's in the post!
I have Diamond 210’s and love them. Wharfedale is still a wonderful value.
I sold hundreds of pairs in the 80's and we had a dedicated wall for all the different versions . Remember the coloured grilles options which was radical at the time. Fond memories.
Scritti Politti and diamonds
Fun overdrive lol
Thanks guys.
At that time there was a big(ger) rival to the Diamonds, the KEF C20. That was a big step fwd from the Diamonds for not much more money. Later I found then the famous Royd Eden, driven by 4 times NAP135, but that is another story 🙂
Great video. I love vintage hi-fi, knowing the story behind great products, the people who made it, etc, so thanks for a great UA-cam channel:)
I wish you could review or tell us a bit about the story behind the Roksan Darius speakers, from the 90’s. I have a pair of one of the latest versions and they are very interesting and rare speaker. Cheers :)
Got a pair of these in the loft. Going to dust them off and plug them into a modern Linn DSM for the shed as a 2nd system.
Very cool! There is something charming about an inexpensive pair of great speakers being driven by a class source.
You missed out Keith Howard and Alvin Gold!. Sadly I did a search and found out that Alvin had passed away in 2017. He was a great reviewer.
I’m really enjoying your casual reviews. I had the Boston A40’s then which had that tweeter and a 6.5” ac suspension woofer. Turned them upside down and covered the front with felt to soften them a little. Loved them as well until I moved up to the 1sr generation Celestion 3’s which I still have in mint condition. Thought if I ever needed a speaker for a bookshelf these would be perfect. To me the biggest difference is how boxy retro speakers sound compared to modern but they were still great.
I like the Celestion 3's. Not heard (or seen) a pair in years!
NAD3020e with Wharfedale Diamond IIIs backbone of my teenage system, still work 36 years later. Been through only two record decks, Pioneer PL3000, last 10 years a Pro-Ject Debut.
A good friend had a pair and bought some bespoke wall stands that enclosed the speakers - with spikes top and bottom clamping them rigidly.
Interesting how many commentators are reverting to the 'speakers are the most important part of the chain' philosophy - Paul McGann of PS Audio for one. I guess the quality of 'garbage' has improved over the years...
Ive got active diamonds in my kitchen,i use it with my portable cd player, mini discs and Sony Professional Walkman,and mobile phone,sounds fabulous
just grabbed a pair of diamond 5s for 20quid for my first set up in my room, great vid
I had a pair of these, and paired them with a small NAD amp. The 1980's sounded so good on them! Later on, I added an Infinity self powered sub with an adjustable crossover, and it was passable. The Wharfedales were special.
Back in the 80s I bought a new set of the then, brand new Diamonds; I think they were around £60-£70 range, but mind had the spring-clip wire terminals, and not the binding posts as seen on those in the video.... I had a Rega Planar 3, and then a Logic DM101 turntable, and a Mission Cryus 1 amp. What a combination! Sounded great!! 👍
Still have those Diamonds somewhere; I'm going to have to dig 'em out and give them a listen again....see how they compare to my Q-Acoustics 2010i speakers
Nice video; thanks for the kick in the nostalgias.... 😆
Yess, my first speakers, bought in '84 along with Rotel RP830 turntable with Nagaoka MP11, Rotel RA820 amp. A good enough system to get me hooked as an audiophile for the long term and to introduce me to classical music.
This very real trait goes a long way towards explaining why so much Brit popular music from the 80s was mastered with virtually no bass..
Haha. But then the good Lord made up for it by blessing us in the 1990s with drum and bass!
Reinforced Records, Goldie, Manix, 4hero, DJ Nookie, etc., suddenly supplied a reason for fitting 12" bass units once again!
Somewhat bigger I've got a pair of early 2000s Pacific Evo 30s. Never ever been overly impressed with them until I was forced to get a new amp. Now I love them and I daren't change them in case I'm not as happy with the replacement.
I have a pair of delta 30s.apart from the crappy spring clips on the back I've always come back to them and still using them now on a pc system with a fosi audio amp.
I picked up a pair of Diamond 4 s latest week here in Western Australia at a similar price. So far I’d say that I’ll change the caps because the treble seems pretty weak. Same for me US made 70s Dynaco A25s which somehow have followed me across the world. I had one those NADs too and just bought a NAD 757 7.1 AVR to light them up in various ways. I see the NAD 757 as a decent and affordable audio amp with great connectivity and I don’t have a tv😉
While the company was still based in West Yorkshire, the 1991 Diamond IV was the apex of their original small speaker era . The original biwireable Cyrus/Mission 760/780 series just beat them at their price range (for overall clarity; they didn't have the same bass extension). I still own and use pairs of all three!
Gems indeed! As a teenager in the late 80s I remember these being staples of the Richer Sounds and Lasky's catalogues. I reckon Wharfedale must have sold these by the tonne! £65 in 1982 is still probably only about £200 in today's money so these were a veritable bargain by anyone's standards!
On your other comments about Ivor's belief (which I suppose was no surprise given he was in the the business of selling 'tables) it is funny how things seem to have shifted from the 'flat earth' philosophy in days of yore to the general belief of today i.e. spending most of your money on speakers. Personally I couldn't envisage spending a bomb on a 'table then putting it through dirt cheap speakers, nor would I want to drop a bundle on speakers only to use them with cheapie sources and amplification. I'm a bit like the old Spitting Image gag about Paddy Ashdown: somewhere in the middle.
Yes indeedy - in truth you want a well balanced system and "the source is everything" mantra of the late seventies and early eighties was a bit over the top in my view.
Mind you, Ivor et al. were fighting a rearguard action against the all-pervasive idea of the early seventies that speakers were everything and an amplifier was just - to quote Quad's Peter Walker - "a piece of wire with gain". So you can see why they really pushed it. They were right, but they overstated their case.
@@MrVinylista Things have changed mainly because digital has offered a solution for baseline very decent sources even in the lower price tiers something which was far from true with regards to analogue sources which could sound positively horrible.
@@razisn Agree - digital does bass reliably well, whereas analogue can be more variable. Some poor vinyl sources can be dire, in this regard.
That said, any decent turntable if properly set-up will delver good bass, and high end direct drives in particular, can be spectacular - and put digital to shame.
Funny you should say that, because the idea of spending more on the source was actually considered revolutionary in the mid seventies, and the idea of spending more on speakers was considered very old fashioned and flat earth to the generation of subjectivists that sprang up in that period and who were into Linn/Naim/Rega etc. And btw, Ivor also made expensive speakers, but stood by his philosophy of getting the source right first.
1988 Lp12, s/h ittok , k9, creek 4040 and Goodmans Maxims ...yup it turned into lingo ittok 111mk1 k18 s/h Nait 1 and mk 1 kans . I then got saved by a leak stereo 20 ...
If you like early Diamonds, Grab yourself a pair of Monitor Audio 50 3G....can be had for under £70 as they have just been discontinued.
The Wharfedale Diamond Pro looks exactly the same, is it the same?
@MrVinylista
Qed 79 strand was dreadful.
please, mute your guitars on the wall hahahh