他所渴望的重新並超越的 Denton XP 揚聲器，是在1970年由 Wharfedale 高級研發工程師 Graham Bank、Peter Jackson 與產品經理 Brian Pearson 等五位組建的設計師團隊，耗費 5年的時間設計出來的產品，在上市的三年間就創下了全球3萬多的驕人業績，深得全球音響愛好者的喜愛。如今，設計師 Peter Comeau 也耗費了5年的時間，將這項無比重大的挑戰給成功克服了，所以大家可以在這對極具紀念價值的書架式揚聲器中探尋到很多值得敬佩的地方。
This is the world I grew up in: iPods, ear buds, tinny laptop speakers. Most people my age don’t think twice about their equipment, so long as it makes sound. Your average iTunes aficionado isn’t going to shell out big sums of cash on stereo equipment, especially when everything seems to have speakers built in these days. Why bother?
But there is good sound at approachable prices, fantastic sound really, the sort of sound that people obsess about. It’s not a mystical thing; it’s a visceral one; and younger people are finally starting to figure it out. Vinyl’s comeback is proof of that. The iPod generation is ready for quality; it’s just a matter of figuring out how to get it. And for me, it always starts with speakers.
There’s nothing better than opening something new, which is probably why people watch videos of strangers unboxing hardware on YouTube. The Wharfedale Diamond 225s sat wrapped in plastic covers sandwiched between tight foam inserts at the top and bottom, keeping them secure in transit. When I finally got them up and out, I stared at the gorgeous rosewood-veneer boxes, with their black-lacquer MDF baffles and the small Wharfedale logo just beneath the woofer. I leaned back in my desk chair and thought: “Wow, those are pretty.” They’re clean, unpretentious, and clearly put together very, very well.
Wharfedale Diamond 225
OK, the speaker grilles were a little weird. They’re two round foam pieces with little plastic rods that snap in over the tweeter and the woofer, leaving the rest of the baffle exposed, as opposed to something that covers the whole front. It’s not my favorite aesthetic choice, though it’s not necessarily a bad one, either. Just a matter of taste, I guess. At least they’re easy to remove, so I popped them off and forgot about them.
The 225s are fairly compact, though deep and solid. Sound is always the most important aspect of any audio component, but you still have to live with these things, and it’s easier to live with beautiful stuff. Fortunately, they’re exactly what they need to be: simple and attractive. Clearly the people at Wharfedale know what they’re doing, which makes sense, considering how long they’ve been around. Wharfedale is a relatively large British outfit founded back in the 1930s, and they’ve been a big name in British hi-fi ever since. The Diamond series debuted in 1981, and Wharfedale has been slowly improving the Diamond designs and sound without inflating cost, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for.
The 225s list at $450, which is a price an actual human with a real job could potentially afford. If you’re like me, and you’re sick of “affordable” equipment pushing easily into the $1000 range, this review is for you. Fact is, the majority of people can’t shell out the cash for the absurdly hyper-expensive audio equipment that clogs up most blogs. If we want to get the next generation to fall in love with great sound, I think it’s about time to accept that there’s some seriously good, affordable stuff worth writing about.
So with all that in mind, I put the 225s on top of my cheap stands, hooked them up to my (also British) Cambridge Audio CXA80 integrated, and turned it all on. Truth is, my listening space isn’t ideal. It’s small, oddly shaped with a sloping roof, and my speaker placement is limited. They have to be up close to a wall, though fortunately for me, these Wharfedales were designed with that in mind. The slot-loaded bass port fires downwards, instead of back, minimizing room interaction. So don’t worry about sticking them on either side of an entertainment system in the living room, for example, or squeezing them into a small office. Like I said, we have to live with these things, and space is sometimes at a premium.
Diving into the sound, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Bookshelf speakers typically aren’t known for deep, earth-shaking bass, and the 225s are no different in that regard. They aren’t going to rattle anyone’s bones and dig deep into that 40Hz bass region, which is fine—that’s what a sub’s for. Still, when I started with “Sparkle,” the first track on Tatsuro Yamashita’s City Pop masterpiece, For You, I got such a satisfyingly deep drop that I didn’t find myself missing the lowest of the low registers. Frankly, I didn’t find myself missing much of anything at all, especially when that clean, twanging guitar played its insanely catchy riff. The opening of “Sparkle” features a heavy, show-stopping reveal, and the 225s were more than up to the task of reproducing that big moment. I was surprised by how much weight I was getting from these things, more than enough for my small listening space. I can’t say how well they’d do in a much larger room, although I suspect they’d be up to the task.
The other good thing about “Sparkle” is the way Yamashita’s voice is recorded. There’s tons of reverb and space, his notes just drifting off into the background, and the 225s highlighted that nicely. For such small speakers, these things could create an impressive soundstage. Not the greatest, most spectacular presentation, but plenty to keep me engaged. Sound hung, drifting, projected nicely in both directions. At some points at higher volume, I noticed a bit of gristle in the upper registers, and sometimes the lower end felt a bit soft. I have to admit though, I was having fun just running through my favorite sides, one after the other, looking for any sonic detail that might be worth delving into. That’s the best sign that a piece of equipment is working. These little boxes just seemed to get me.
But I had to push the 225s, give them something challenging. That’s the whole point of a review, after all, to see how these things really perform. I turned to one of the strangest and most complicated albums of the year, King Krule’s The Ooz. This double-LP is as idiosyncratic as it is fascinating. On the most basic, surface level, it’s an experimental trip-hop masterpiece, but I think it’s so much more than that. It’s a sonically difficult album, with deep, rolling bass lines, up-tempo shifting beats, and Krule’s own morphing, grinding voice switching registers at will. The 225s did not disappoint me. They had a solid grip on the bass, keeping up with the hairpin-turn bumps and rumbles. The horns blaring in the background of “Dum Surfer” were rendered butter-smooth, along with that catchy guitar floating over the tight snares. I was drawn to the way the 225s made The Ooz somehow more accessible. It’s such an intricately layered album, and little details such as Krule’s English slang could easily be missed if anything muddy got in the way. I could feel the details of his voice despite the heavy synths and shimmering guitar effects. The 225s did a great job of creating a solid soundstage with minutely differentiated pieces. These songs felt so simple at first listen, but it took a piece of equipment like the 225s to do this level of complexity justice.
Finally, I wanted to hear how the Diamond 225s would deal with rich, complex upper-range vocals. These speakers could handle bass and midrange, but I was curious as to how they’d do when it came to subtlety. For that, I turned to Moses Sumney’s odd, pared-down, R&B-influenced album, Romanticism. Sumney’s music focuses so much on his intense, wonderful, lilting falsetto, which nicely showcased the 225’s ability to highlight delicate high-end and midrange detail as he moved through registers. I had a feeling the 225s would be plenty engaging with a softer sound, and I wasn’t disappointed. The bass guitar on “Man on the Moon (reprise)” barely kept pace while Sumney’s vocals played above it, yet through the 225s the layers of Sumney’s voice came through clean, uncolored, and almost liquid. I didn’t really understand this album on first listen, but as I went through it again and again on the 225s, I came to really love its low-key cleanliness. In the end, I think that’s the real strength of the 225s. They weren’t throwing the deepest bass or resolving the upper registers absolutely perfectly, but they had weight right where I needed it, along with the detail and the clarity necessary to resolve complex tracks into enjoyable musicality.
These speakers remind me that the “entry-level” isn’t a bad place to be. Inexpensive components are getting better and better as high-end design trickles down into supposedly budget hardware. The Diamond 225s take everything good about high-end audio, the power of beautifully reproduced music, and they make it accessible to a wider audience. I believe the 225s would satisfy just about anybody looking for fantastic-sounding speakers designed by a respected manufacturer at a reasonable price. They’re not perfect, but man, they’re still more than good. I highly recommend them.
The quality of finish on the 220s is much better than on the old 121s
The 220s are the replacement for the hugely talented 121s, but while they look quite similar there are some important changes. They’re neatly finished for starters. This might sound like a small point, but it was the older speaker’s big weakness.
At its heart, this shortcoming had as much to do with Wharfedale’s ambition to make the 121s sonic class-leaders as it did with the factory’s quality control. In a bid to improve performance, Wharfedale’s engineers used cabinet walls made of a layered construction that mixed chipboard and MDF.
It was felt that using MDF alone – as on most speakers – led to an undesirable level of cabinet coloration. The chipboard side was on the outside in contact with the (rather thin) vinyl covering.
The result? An uneven surface that made the speakers look poorly finished. It didn’t help that the factory seemed to have a rather lax attitude to the neat application of the vinyl wrap, particularly at the cabinet corners.
We also had issues with the front baffle which, once again, looked uneven in appearance.
Improved quality
The bass port fires downwards into a small air gap between base of the cabinet and the plinth below
We’re glad to report the Diamond 220s are much better in all respects. While still not the classiest speakers we’ve seen around this price (Q Acoustics and Monitor Audio set the standard), they’re good enough to avoid criticism.
Wharfedale has kept the layered cabinet construction, though – in this case two thin layers of MDF sandwich the chipboard section – and glue the vinyl onto the smoother MDF surfaces.The blackwood vinyl on our sample is tidy and ripple-free and we can only expect this to be the case with the walnut pearl, rosewood quilted and white finishes.
Goodbye ripples, hello better finish. Now that the finish issues are sorted, the advantages of these composite panels come to the fore. The combination of chipboard and MDF helps to damp resonances, preventing the cabinet from contributing too much to the overall sound.
Quite simply, you hear more of the drive units and less of the cabinet. But there’s more than just better finish involved in the move to the new model.
There’s a bigger magnet on the 13cm woven Kevlar mid/bass driver. This makes the speakers easier to drive and improves its responsiveness.
There’s a bigger magnet on the 13cm woven Kevlar mid/bass driver
The unusual slot-loaded port arrangement first seen on the 100 series reappears here too, and it has been tweaked to reduce distortion. Such a design is claimed to be more efficient than a conventional port.
The proof, as ever, is in the listening. The tweeter remains unchanged. It still sits in a deeply dished waveguide, which helps efficiency (particularly through the crossover region).
A ferrite magnet, rather than the more usual neodymium, is used in the unit’s motor system: not only is ferrite cheaper – always a consideration with products at this price level – but the engineers also feel it produces a smoother sound.
Wharfedale has tweaked the crossover to improve integration too.
The tweeter remains unchanged and it still sits in a deeply dished waveguide
Wharfedale’s engineers haven’t taken the easy route with the Diamond 220s’ bass tuning. Instead of going down the usual route of a rear- or front-firing reflex port, they’ve decided to fire the port downwards into a small air gap between base of the cabinet and the plinth below.
This arrangement has been further refined from that seen on the earlier 121s. Not only does this technique help with port efficiency and the reduction of chuffing noise, it makes the speaker less fussy about placement.
Performance
Make sure you place the Wharfedales as close to a rear wall as possible for best solidity and balance
The arrangement pays off: surprisingly for their size, the Wharfedales have the low-end ability to eat up even the thickest basslines (Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused, for example). Bass is deep and agile, too.
And it’s not only bass weight that belies their dinky proportions; there’s a sense of power and scale we’d normally expect from a much larger box than the 32cm-tall Diamonds. Give them a good, solid pair of stands such as Atacama Moseco 6s (£120) and they will sparkle.
Their solidity and authority throughout the frequency range relies on placement near or against a rear wall: pull them out too far in the open and that sure-footedness is diluted slightly; bass notes are looser and vocals lose a bit of substance.
Talking of vocals, the 220s clear and candid delivery is very expressive. Run through Eminem’s Relapse album and his choppy raps are communicated effortlessly. The 220s erupt with the attack and rhythmic drive to really devour the hard, edgy nature of the songs too.
You can biwire each speaker using the twin sets of binding posts
There’s scale here with a degree of authority and substance that no rival we’ve heard can better. Stereo imaging is good too, nicely projected and layered. The good news continues where integration is concerned, with everything tying together into a seamless whole.
We like the stereo imaging too, but it’s the Diamond’s level of insight and dynamic aptitude that really lifts them above their peers. In a version of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, instruments are packed with variation and subtlety; piano sequences are fluid and telling, violins textured.
There’s an exceptional finesse to the delivery that rivals fail to match. Dynamic presence in even the quietest sections conveys the gradual swell of the piece. The 220s seem happy delivering the dramatic moments too – as orchestration gathers momentum, the speakers enjoy the ride.
While these speakers aren’t unduly fussy about partnering kit you’ll get out only what you put in. The Wharfedales will be a huge upgrade for any microsystem – the Denon D-M39DAB, say – partnering them with a punchy, dynamic amp like Rega’s Brio-R (£480) will get you two thirds of the way to a really exceptional system. For a source, we’d look at the Marantz CD6005 CD player as a good start.
How do they compare with the older 121s? The character is similar but the newer speakers are a little better in most respects.
Verdict
In any case, the talented Diamond 220s will likely be the jewel in the crown of any budget – or even mid-range – set-up. Would we go as far as saying they’re one of the best hi-fi products you can buy sub-£200?
The Wharfedale DX-2 is a 5.1 speaker package and thus something of a rare breed in 2018. Coming in at £450, it is very clearly intended to contest parts of the market that many rivals have conceded to soundbars (and more often than not, proceeded to build one themselves). Paired with an affordable AV receiver, the Wharfedale could be part of a system for £700 which is pretty impressive judged by the pricing of a lot of the competition.
On the face of it, there’s a lot to be said for this approach. Your upgrades can be staggered rather than chopping the whole thing in and the DX-2 offers the promise of real surround rather than an approximation of it. The speakers themselves (as we shall cover) are compact and this shouldn’t be too challenging in most spaces. It’s easy to see the appeal of real AV over a simpler boost to your TV speakers.
Of course, the important question is just how much surround package can £450 get you? What has Wharfedale had to cut out, omit or sacrifice to get the DX-2 out the door for the money? Is the reason why this part of the market is now dominated by one box solutions because it simply can’t be done? Time to find out.
Specifications
The Wharfedale is a sub sat based design with four upright satellites, a dedicated centre and a small active subwoofer. The satellites are very compact indeed with a height of only 19cm. What is notable therefore is that each speaker is a true two way design with a 19mm silk dome tweeter and a 75mm woven polypropylene cone. This configuration has been key to how Wharfedale has designed and built speakers for at least the last decade and the DX-2 is part of this system rather than something tacked onto the end.
The centre speaker is clearly closely related to the satellites. It is effectively a ‘cabinet and a half’ type design with a second 75mm driver added to the cabinet. The arguments over the use of dedicated centre speakers will run and run but with a speaker cabinet of this size, I think it will help matters. The amount of information normally contained in the centre channel of the soundtrack sufficient that having an ‘anchor’ that manages this information is going to be useful in a speaker package of this size.
The subwoofer that partners these speakers is a compact design with a forward firing eight inch driver powered by a 70 watt amplifier. In a world of 1 kilowatt monsters, it might not sound terribly exciting but the reality of its execution is rather more positive than you might expect. You get an adjustable crossover (never a given at this price point), phase switch, stereo input and an auto on/off switch that can be bypassed (and that seems to work pretty well too). Given that this is going to be doing plenty of work in a system of this nature, this is very much a good thing.
These speakers aren’t huge and Wharfedale quotes a fairly honest sounding lower response of 110Hz being available at +/-3dB with 100Hz being available at -6dB. This means you will need to put a little thought into how you set the DX-2 up to get the best out of it. That sub will be at least partly directional so it will do its best work on axis with the front speakers – particularly for music. Helpfully, this is made easier by the cabinets being sealed and something you can wall mount without too much issue and the sub is also fairly easy to place. The subwoofer that partners these speakers is a compact design with a forward firing eight inch driver powered by a 70 watt amplifier. In a world of 1 kilowatt monsters, it might not sound terribly exciting but the reality of its execution is rather more positive than you might expect. You get an adjustable crossover (never a given at this price point), phase switch, stereo input and an auto on/off switch that can be bypassed (and that seems to work pretty well too). Given that this is going to be doing plenty of work in a system of this nature, this is very much a good thing.
These speakers aren’t huge and Wharfedale quotes a fairly honest sounding lower response of 110Hz being available at +/-3dB with 100Hz being available at -6dB. This means you will need to put a little thought into how you set the DX-2 up to get the best out of it. That sub will be at least partly directional so it will do its best work on axis with the front speakers – particularly for music. Helpfully, this is made easier by the cabinets being sealed and something you can wall mount without too much issue and the sub is also fairly easy to place.
Design
At £450, Wharfedale would be well within their rights to wrap the DX-2s various drivers in a container robust enough to stop them falling onto the floor and be done with it. That it feels (a lot) better than that is testament to the engineering and manufacturing clout that parent company IAG has.
The satellites are finished in a manner that balances two slightly disparate requirements very well. They manage to feel like they have elements of design and styling to them while remaining usefully unobtrusive. The use of a gloss front panel is smart and the chrome rings avoid everything feeling a little overly black (a white finish is due too). This is then partnered with a faux leather surround for the cabinet. I can’t pretend to love this – I don’t really like actual leather on speakers – but it helps to make the DX-2 feel like something more than a ‘rubber mat’ product. You could be slightly critical of the grills being non removable but, honestly, I’m not sure how many people are going to want to remove them.
No less importantly, it all feels well assembled too. The cabinets are roughly a kilo each (with the centre being a little more) and this is sufficient to make them feel like a meaningful assembly and points of contact like the speaker terminals are of good quality and should work with the majority of cables that the DX-2 is likely to encounter. The subwoofer manages to deal with the standard issues of small affordable subwoofers well. The cabinet avoids any unpleasant resonances and the feet are sufficiently pliant that it stays put when you crank it up.
The long and the short of it is that this is a pack that feels more than worth the asking price. Crucially, it has he measure of most rival soundbars and shouldn’t – cabling not withstanding – present a significant challenge to get in and running. It also shouldn’t be too much of a challenge to most AV receivers to drive. The satellites are quoted as having sensitivity in the mid eighties which isn’t bad for a speaker of this size assuming a largely eight ohm impedance.
“The long and the short of it is that this is a pack that feels more than worth the asking price”
How was the DX-2 tested?
The Wharfedale was placed on a combination of Soundstyle Z2 speaker stands, a Quadraspire QAVX rack and the floor (sub). It was connected to a Yamaha RX-A3040 AV receiver with a Cambridge Audio 752BD Blu Ray player and Sky HD acting as source and a Panasonic GT60 Plasma acting as the screen and supplying Netflix and Amazon as further sources. Test material has included Blu Ray, broadcast and on demand material as well as some FLAC files and Spotify via the Spotify connect function in the Yamaha.
Sound Quality
As the review sample appeared to have done plenty of running before it arrived here, I haven’t put a huge amount of running in into the DX-2 and as the behaviour of the speakers hasn’t changed in the time it has been in use suggests that it is behaving as it should. I’m pleased to report too that the behaviour in question is very, very positive.
First up, the Wharfedale does the one thing absolutely crucial thing that a sub/sat system has to do in order to work and that is that it integrates the sub and the speakers correctly. With the crossover of the sub bypassed and a 100Hz one running in the Yamaha (I did briefly try a 120Hz one but feel that a 100Hz one works better even allowing for a roll off in the output from the satellites), the performance is extremely cohesive. I re-watched Sleepy Hollow with the DX-2 in place and the way that the DX-2 renders the woods from where the horseman emerges is really rather impressive. There’s plenty of low key detail in the mix and those little satellites do a fine job of rendering it.
They also show excellent tonal balance. The driver materials in use in the DX-2 are hardly the stuff of science fiction but they serve as a welcome reminder that the classics work well. Early on in the film, there’s a short (but effective) cameo from Sir Christopher Lee. With the DX-2, even with your eyes closed, the output of the centre speaker is very much Christopher Lee. The presentation is refined, detailed and continuously engaging.
There are limits of course. Even on the end of the capable and unflappable Yamaha 3040, the Wharfedale has a very clear comfort zone in volume terms and pushing too hard will result in it starting to harden up and become somewhat brittle. Watching the catacombs sequence in John Wick 2 at a loud level comes across as a bit breathless and constrained. This being said, in a normal lounge, listening at more day to day levels, the results are still very entertaining.
Interestingly, the sub has more poke in it than the satellites do. For a fairly small and sanely powered box, it has no trouble giving you some decent bass extension and staying cohesive and together even with fairly complex material. The good folks of SVS are unlikely to stop making their instruments of destruction when confronted with it but after a week in situ, it is very clear that plenty of effort has been expanded on it.
Where this effort really shows for me is when you switch over to general TV viewing – conducted at rather lower levels and with less sophisticated soundtracks than on movie night. The Wharfedale is a truly excellent partner for this day-to-day material. It sounds spacious, refined and convincing across pretty much anything you might choose from the visual insanity of Britannia to the eyegasm of The Grand Tour. The latter gave the DX-2 the chance to show off the tonal realism it has by doing a fine job of capturing the effort that had gone into recording the Jaguar XKSS and Aston Martin DB4 Lightweight. The sheer array of mechanical noise from the Aston in particular is superbly rendered and very immersive. The single biggest accolade I can give the DX-2 is that I don’t feel compelled to re-watch anything once it had been re-boxed.
Used in 2.1, the DX-2 is capable if not as capable as using a straight pair of stereo speakers. Listening to The Thread That Keeps Us by Calexico, which is well produced and tonally accurate, that slight dip in output where the sub finishes and the sats really come into their own is noticeable (but again, for me at least, preferable to the 120Hz crossover setting). There is a very good stereo image though and the sub is light enough on its feet to deal with complex basslines without getting slow or wallowy. I suspect that the critical aspect of judging the DX-2 is that no AV solution (soundbar, HTIB etc.) that I’ve listened to recently sounds better.
“The single biggest accolade I can give the DX-2 is that I don’t feel compelled to re-watch anything once it has been re-boxed”
Conclusion
Wharfedale DX-2 Home Cinema Speaker Package Review
My time with the DX-2 has been illuminating. In so many ways, this is not a radical system – it is very similar in concept and execution to the old Mordaunt Short Premiere systems which I used to provide technical support for over fifteen years ago. There’s nothing here that is in any way revolutionary… but… it doesn’t stop the DX-2 being seriously good.
Partnered with a decent affordable AV receiver, this is a package that doesn’t do a convincing facsimile of surround, it instead offers honest to goodness home cinema thrills at a more than sensible price. It does this while taking up very little space and being perfectly up to the job of working in most decors. If you can handle a moderately more complex cabling arrangement than would be required of a soundbar, then the Whafedale DX-2 shows that there is a whole world of fun you can get in on and for that reason this bargain box of brilliant is an indisputable Best Buy.
This is the world I grew up in: iPods, ear buds, tinny laptop speakers. Most people my age don’t think twice about their equipment, so long as it makes sound. Your average iTunes a cionado isn’t going to shell out big sums of cash on stereo equipment, especial- ly when everything seems to have speakers built in these days. Why bother?
But there is good sound at approachable prices, fantastic sound really, the sort of sound that people obsess about. It’s not a mystical thing; it’s a visceral one; and younger people are nally starting to gure it out. Vinyl’s comeback is proof of that. The iPod generation is ready for quality; it’s just a matter of guring out how to get it. And for me, it always starts with speakers.
There’s nothing better than opening something new, which is probably why people watch videos of strangers unboxing hard- ware on YouTube. The Wharfedale Diamond 225s sat wrapped in plastic covers sandwiched between tight foam inserts at the top and bottom, keeping them secure in transit. When I nally got them up and out, I stared at the gorgeous rosewood-ve- neer boxes, with their black-lacquer MDF baf es and the small Wharfedale logo just beneath the woofer. I leaned back in my desk chair and thought: “Wow, those are pretty.” They’re clean, unpretentious, and clearly put together very, very well.
OK, the speaker grilles were a little weird. They’re two round foam pieces with little plastic rods that snap in over the tweet- er and the woofer, leaving the rest of the baf e exposed, as opposed to something that covers the whole front. It’s not my favorite aesthetic choice, though it’s not necessarily a bad one, either. Just a matter of taste, I guess. At least they’re easy to remove, so I popped them off and forgot about them.
The 225s are fairly compact, though deep and solid. Sound is always the most important aspect of any audio component, but you still have to live with these things, and it’s easier to live with beautiful stuff. Fortunately, they’re exactly what they need to be: simple and attractive. Clearly the people at Wharfedale know what they’re doing, which makes sense, considering how long they’ve been around. Wharfedale is a relatively large British out t founded back in the 1930s, and they’ve been a big name in British hi-fi ever since. The Diamond series debuted in 1981, and Wharfedale has been slowly improving the Diamond designs and sound without inflating cost, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for.
The 225s list at $450, which is a price an actual human with a real job could potentially afford. If you’re like me, and you’re sick of “affordable” equipment pushing easily into the $1000 range, this review is for you. Fact is, the majority of people can’t shell out the cash for the absurdly hyper-expensive audio equipment that clogs up most blogs. If we want to get the next generation to fall in love with great sound, I think it’s about time to accept that there’s some seriously good, affordable stuff worth writing about.
So with all that in mind, I put the 225s on top of my cheap stands, hooked them up to my (also British) Cambridge Audio CXA80 integrated, and turned it all on. Truth is, my listening space isn’t ideal. It’s small, oddly shaped with a sloping roof, and my speaker placement is limited. They have to be up close to a wall, though fortunately for me, these Wharfedales were designed with that in mind. The slot-loaded bass port res downwards, instead of back, minimizing room inter- action. So don’t worry about sticking them on either side of an entertainment system in the living room, for example, or squeezing them into a small of ce. Like I said, we have to live with these things, and space is sometimes at a premium.
Diving into the sound, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Bookshelf speakers typically aren’t known for deep, earth-shaking bass, and the 225s are no different in that regard. They aren’t going to rattle anyone’s bones and dig deep into that 40Hz bass region, which is fine—that’s what a sub’s for. Still, when I started with “Sparkle,” the rst track on Tatsuro Yamashita’s City Pop masterpiece, For You, I got such a satisfyingly deep drop that I didn’t find myself missing the lowest of the low registers. Frankly, I didn’t find myself missing much of anything at all, especially when that clean, twanging guitar played its insanely catchy riff. The opening of “Sparkle” features a heavy, show-stopping reveal, and the 225s were more than up to the task of reproducing that big moment. I was surprised by how but I think it’s so much more than enough for my small listening space. I can’t say how well they’d do in a much larger room, although I suspect they’d be up to the task.
The other good thing about “Sparkle” is the way Yamashita’s voice is recorded. There’s tons of reverb and space, his notes just drifting off into the background, and the 225s highlighted that nicely. For such small speakers, these things could create an impressive soundstage. Not the greatest, most spectacular presentation, but plenty to keep me engaged. Sound hung, drifting, projected nicely in both directions. At some points at higher volume, I noticed a bit of gristle in the upper registers, and sometimes the lower end felt a bit soft. I have to admit though, I was having fun just running through my favorite sides, one after the other, looking for any sonic detail that might be worth delving into. That’s the best sign that a piece of equipment is working. These little boxes just seemed to get me.
But I had to push the 225s, give them something challenging. That’s the whole point of a review, after all, to see how these things really perform. I turned to one of the strangest and most complicated albums of the year, King Krule’s The Ooz. This double-LP is as idiosyncratic as it is fascinating. On the most basic, surface level, it’s an experimental trip-hop masterpiece, but I think it’s so much more than that. It’s a sonically dif – cult album, with deep, rolling bass lines, up-tempo shifting beats, and Krule’s own morphing, grinding voice switching registers at will. The 225s did not disappoint me. They had a solid grip on the bass, keeping up with the hairpin-turn bumps and rumbles. The horns blaring in the background of “Dum Surfer” were rendered but- ter-smooth, along with that catchy guitar floating over the tight snares. I was drawn to the way the 225s made THE Ooz, somehow more accessible. It’s such an intricately layered album and little details such as Krule’s English slang could easily be missed if anything muddy got in the way. I could feel the de- tails of his voice despite the heavy synths and shimmer- ing guitar effects. The 225s did a great job of creating a solid soundstage with minutely differentiated pieces. These songs felt so simple at first listen, but it took a piece of equipment like the 225s to do this level of complexity justice.
Finally, I wanted to hear how the Diamond 225s would deal with rich, complex upper-range vocals. These speakers could handle bass and midrange, but I was curious as to how they’d do when it came to subtlety. For that, I turned to Moses Sumney’s odd, pared-down, R&B-influenced album, Romanticism. Sumney’s music focuses so much on his intense, wonderful, lilting falsetto, which nicely showcased the 225’s ability to highlight delicate high-end and midrange detail as he moved through registers. I had a feeling the 225s would be plenty engaging with a softer sound, and I wasn’t disappointed. The bass guitar on “Man on the Moon (reprise)” barely kept pace while Sumney’s vocals played above it, yet through the 225s the layers ofSumney’s voice came through clean, uncolored, and almost liquid. I didn’t really understand this album on first listen, but as I went through it again and again on the 225s, I came to really love its low-key cleanliness. In the end, I think that’s the real strength of the 225s. They weren’t throwing the deepest bass or resolving the upper registers absolutely perfectly, but they had weight right where I needed it, a;ong with the details and the clarity necessary to resolve complex tracks into enjoyable musicality.
These speakers remind me that the “entry-level” isn’t a bad place to be. Inexpensive components are getting better and better as high-end design trickles down into supposedly budget hardware. The diamond 225s take everything good about high-end audio, the power of beautifully reproduced music, and they make it accessible to a wider audience. I believe the 225s would satisfy just about anybody for fantastic-sounding speakers design by a respected manufacturer at a reasonable price. They’re not perfect, but man, they’re still more than good. I highly recommended them.
Wharfedale’s commitment to affordable – surround sound cheers Ed SeHey
It wasn’t too long ago that an entry-Level AVR partnered with a sub/sat speaker package was the default starting position for home cinema thrills. As such, any self-respecting speaker brand had one in its inventory. Yet times change — soundbars have left the compact home cinema option looking a bit Less compact.
Not everybody has abandoned the old ways, though. Wharfedale made us very happy with its DX-1SE array [HCC #267 — and our 2016/2017 Best Compact Speaker System award winner], which was very much in the classic sub/sat system mould, and it has now clearly felt that the design had more to offer. so has released the DX-2.
On the face of it, it doesn’t Look like too much has changed. You still get five tittle speakers and a subwoofer. But Wharfedale says that a lot of what you see is different — including cabinet designs, drivers that have been ‘fine-tuned’, and boosted subwoofer power.
So, at £450, is this is a tempting proposition?
Compact convention
In terms of speaker design, the DX-2 doesn’t push any boundaries. It features two pairs of compact satellites that function as left and right channels, front and rear. Each is a two-way design, with a 0.75in soft dome tweeter and 3in woven polypropylene midbass driver, and looks like a shrunken bookshelf speaker. These satellites are joined by a dedicated centre, which adds a second 3in midbass driver to the spec rather than simply placing a satellite on its side.
The system is completed by the WH-D8 active subwoofer. In a world of multi-driver monsters with output power in the kilowatts, a sub with a single 8in driver and 70W (150W peak) amplifier might not stir the blood, but this is still rather more subwoofer than some soundbar rivals possess. Most importantly, it feels like a properly engineered device. The seated cabinet is mounted an feet that are pliant enough to isolate it from the outside world, and ensure it doesn’t make a bid for freedom if you crank the levels up. You also get a crossover control, a phase switch and the ability to bypass the auto on/off function — although, it has to be said, this works pretty well.
The WH-D8 is going to be pretty busy in a system of this nature because the output of the satellites doesn’t drop especially Low. Wharfedale quotes a lower response of 120Hz (+/- 3cI8) and 100Hz at a more severe roll-off (+/- 6dB). As this means the sub’s output is likely to be at least partially directional, I found it does its best work on axis with the front speakers.
Crucially, the DX-2 package doesn’t feel cheap. The finish of the satellites is fair, with a gloss-black front panel brightened up with chrome trim rings. I’m Less sold on the leatherette wrap on the cabinets, but it’s largely unobtrusive and the speakers themselves seem solid and well made.
At the moment, the DX-2 is available in black, as pictured, but a white finish is due to surface too. The speakers can be wall-mounted via keyhole fixings, and they benefit from decently rugged speaker terminals. There are no spring-clip holes here.
Overall, I’d argue the Wharfedale system is built to a standard that is entirely competitive with soundbars in the £600-£700 range. This is important because the benefits of separate receivers and speakers are worth repeating. Not only can they offer authentic surround sound, they’re likely to offer better connectivity, improved stereo performance and the ability to be upgraded independently of one another. Wharfedale has an eye on this already, and has announced that an extra pair of DX-2 satellites will be available for £100 to enable expansion to 7.1.
Against this, you do have the greater complexity and cabling to consider, but installing a setup of this ilk is not exactly arduous.
Turning up the Wick
No less importantly, the DX-2 doesn’t sound cheap either. With the bruising core TrueHD mix of John Wick: Chapter 2 (Btu-ray), the Wharfedales cover all the basics correctly. With the woofer at the front of the room, I preferred using a 100Hz crossover to a 120Hz setting. I didn’t perceive there to be any `hole’ in the system’s bass response; the DX-2 instead sounded cohesive and controlled.
The movie’s opening chase through the streets of New York is handled well. The engine sounds of the slower cars that Wick’s Chevelle overtakes were smoothly passed from speaker to speaker.
The enclosures are, in home cinema terms, fairly small, yet the soundstage delivered never sounds small and creates a convincingly room-filling experience. Sure, there are limits. The sequence where Wick falls back through the catacombs can reach the maximum level of what the satellites are capable of handling, meaning they sound more congested, but the volume level that this occurs at is fairly substantial.
It is also worth noting that this limit is much more on the part of the satellites than the subwoofer. The WH-D8 bass bin does a superb job all the way from its handover to the satellites, down to the point where energy is felt rather than heard. It sounds larger and more potent than you would expect, and balances this with a likeable sense of agility and speed.
This all means that the DX-2 is well equipped to tackle fast-paced but deft movie moments. The sequence where Joy and Sadness are ejected from the headquarters in Pixar’s Inside Out (Blu-ray) convinces, with the speakers nailing the movement of the memory balls and general sense of disarray while keeping the score and dialogue distinct from the wider effects.
The use of a dedicated centre speaker really pays dividends in situations like this. Sharing drivers across the front soundstage keeps it uniform tonally, resulting in a robust, believable sound with smooth transitions, and dialogue that’s never lost in the mix even when things get hectic.
The system maintains its clear and cohesive presentation with things like Sky’s deranged (but weirdly watchable) Britannia; is a satisfying listen late at night with the volume dropped low; and turns in a decent presentation with music too. That well-judged handover between satellites and woofer ensures an impressively fulsome delivery of Kraftwerk’s Aero Dyriamik (FLAC, 3-0 The Catalogue), with its bassline rolling along nicely with no sense of overhang or delay, nor any obvious feeling of there being three speakers rather than two. With the more considered and relaxed Losing to You by Stars, the DX-2 delivers the vocal centre of the song with surprising scale and genuine realism, given the dinky nature of the satellites. As with film use, you can push the speakers to run out of headroom, but the sub remains as unburstable as ever.
This 2.1 performance naturally isn’t as refined or largescale as that of a pair of floorstanding speakers, but it is achieved while taking up an awful lot less space in the room. And it’s more than good enough to balance some stereo listening along with multichannel.
A slice of home cinema
Again, Wharfedale has got the balance between price and performance bang an. The sonic chops of this sub-E.500 package are considerable, while styling is good and setup fuss-free. There are speaker wires to run and an AVR to budget for, but the DX-2 is not so much bigger or more cumbersome than a high-end saundbar, while offering much more flexibility. This gives buyers a real slice of home cinema joy at a very sensible price point. Like its predecessor, it’s a bit of a bargain.
Conclusion
My time with the DX-2 has been illuminating. In so many ways, this is not a radical system – it is very similar in concept and execution to the old Mordaunt Short Premiere systems which I used to provide technical support for over fifteen years ago. There’s nothing here that is in any way revolutionary… but… it doesn’t stop the DX-2 being seriously good.
These speakers remind me that the “entry-level” isn’t a bad place to be. Inexpensive components are getting better and better as high-end design trickles down into supposedly budget hardware. The diamond 225s take everything good about high-end audio, the power of beautifully reproduced music, and they make it accessible to a wider audience. I believe the 225s would satisfy just about anybody for fantastic-sounding speakers design by a respected manufacturer at a reasonable price. They’re not perfect, but man, they’re still more than good. I highly recommended them.
Gilbert Briggs（吉貝爾恃布裡格斯）是英國 Wharfedale 喇叭的創始人兼任音像協會主持人。 他獻身於音響事業是出自於對音樂的熱愛，為了尋找一台聲音滿意的鋼琴，不惜花去多年的儲蓄足足換了40 台，才找到了至愛的 Steinway Grand 鋼琴。 他把自己對音樂的摯轟和執著化成了畢生的事業。他早期制造聲音重播系統的經瞼和理論相當成功從此開始創辦了一家舉世矚目的經典音響制適企業並享譽世界超越80 多年的尖端品牌廠商。
1932 年 Gilbert Brggs 把家中地窖改裝成一個精簡的音響開發操作間。在這個地下室裡 Gilbert Brggs 成功地開發了世界上第一隻電磁圈推動的單體揚聲器。而位於 Wharfe 河邊的小鎮也因此成了 Wharfedale 音響制造業的發源地。 時至今天 GIbert-Briggs 的開創先驅性成就仍受到Hi-Fl界的無比贊宮與尊崇致敬。
1933 年 Gilbert 在 Bradford 附板開辦了一家小工廠進行推動揚聲器單元的手工生產 。此消息很快傳遍整個英國地區而當時的揚聲器單元的訂貨頓時大增。 起初他們隻是家庭式生產作業，Gilbert 的太太也在主管生產部門工作，一切單元的音圈繞制焊接也都要親力親為，不眠不休的進行，這樣才可以勉強 應付當時市場對揚聲器單元的激烈需求。
Gllbert-Briggs 在 1948 年創作的經典著作 LOUDSPEAKERS 是世界一第 一本講解揚聲器的設計和制作的業界天書。 Gilbert-Briggs 畢生為英國音響行業培養出許多音響設計技術專才，在英國有不少 Hi-Fi 音響廠家的設計師曾經在 Gllbert-Briggs 門下 得以揚聲器制作技術真傳。Gllbert-Briggs 著作的 Loudspeakers – The Why & How of Good Reproduction 揚聲器制作天書是眾多的國際 Hi-Fi 揚聲器廠家（包括美國、德、法、日）設計揚聲器的基礎上首要學習的必讀 參考書籍。 如今 Gilbert-Briggs 所著作的書籍已經成為世界上具中之一的珍貴科研學術遺產。