Wharfedale Emerald 97 3-Way Floor-Standing Speakers (Rosewood)

Wharfedale Emerald 97 3-Way Floor-Standing Speakers (Rosewood)
Manufacturer: Wharfdale
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Product Description
With a performance as inviting as its classical good looks, the Emerald, now in its second generation, is a truly refined speaker. Designed with a distinctly art-deco feel, the speakers from the new Emerald range are built into a real wood cabinet, producing a rich, warm sound, steeped in emotion. Although undisclosed by the appearance of the Emeralds, technology is used extensively in the manufacture. Complex computer modeling has been used in the design of the cabinets to minimize coloration, the woofer cones are constructed using the patented mineral loaded homopolymer plastic to damp unwanted resonances, whilst retaining the strength to keep bass accurate and dynamic. Finally, laser interferometry has been used to create a truly outstanding tweeter for the Emeralds.The end result is a classic amongst speakers - a dry acoustic character with a revealing and flawless transparency.
Amazon.com Review
Great speakers keep getting more affordable. It used to be that a first-rate speaker entailed getting a second mortgage on the house. The eminent British manufacturer Wharfedale, however, debuts its amazing biwireable/biampable Emerald line with an astonishingly high quality-to-price ratio.

The Emerald 97 three-way floorstanding speakers, also available in real oak, occupy minimal floor space while gracing any room with their gorgeous sound and glossy real wood finish. Their treble and midrange drivers render voices and acoustic instruments so seductively that you'd swear the performers were right in front of you.

And while Wharfedale is best known among stereo purists, two pairs of Emerald 97s (or a pair of 97s with Emerald 93s for surrounds) work beautifully with the Emerald Centre to fill a room with surround sound from DVDs or DTS-encoded 5.1-channel music CDs.

Positioning, often a chore with floorstanding speakers, is a snap with these, in part because the Emerald 97s are so light (about 35 pounds each). They sound best with space on all sides: at least 2 feet from the walls and 7 feet from each other. Setting them closer to the walls isn't disastrous, however, so if you're tight on space just be prepared for an overemphasized bottom end. We prefer toeing these speakers into the listening position as opposed to strict parallel placement, but toed or not, the Emerald 97s fill a room with pleasing, uncolored sound.

A subwoofer does help drive home the bottom octave (40 Hz and under) with greater solidity--especially with action films and rock music--but the Emerald 97s are capable of very deep bass on their own thanks to a well-designed (and unobtrusive) port in the front panel.

It's easy to rave about a speaker's extended range (high to low), especially when a speaker commands a wide frequency range, as the Emerald 97 does. But what really makes this speaker special is the quality of its silk-dome tweeters and their integration with not one but two nearly 7-inch woofers. The high frequencies sound sweet and open, to be sure, but the midrange--mostly embodying voices and any melodic instruments--sounds as warm and natural as can be.

Sometimes speakers that excel in the midrange sound their best only with certain music, like folk or acoustic jazz. Not so the Emerald 97s. From Haydn to Hendrix, Nina Simone to Nine Inch Nails, these speakers do perfect justice to the music--and, it seems, with ease.

The Emerald 97s sound better with their grilles on, which is unusual in our experience. This is unfortunate, as the grilles obscure the speakers' glorious woodwork. Like all hi-fi, however, you should season to taste--if your amplifier or receiver leans dark (with slightly diminished treble sound) or if your taste tends bright, you may prefer the grilles off.

Rock fans and movie buffs may still want a subwoofer for extra low-end slam, but a good amp with a biwired hookup (see our FAQ for more on biwiring) brings these babies close to perfection all on their very own. --Michael Mikesell

Pros:

Amazing frequency extension (highs and lows)
Gorgeous midrange
High sensitivity (easy to drive)
Beautiful wood finish
Easy to position
Sounds good from anywhere in the room
Biwire/biamp convenience
Floor spikes included

Cons:

Slightly muddy deep bass

Amazon.com Product Description
With a performance as inviting as its classical good looks, the Emerald, now in its third generation, is an exceptionally refined speaker. Designed with a distinctly art deco feel, the speakers from the new Emerald range are built into a real wood cabinet, producing a rich, warm sound.

Although undisclosed by the appearance of the Emeralds, technology was used extensively in its development. Complex computer modeling has been used in the design of the cabinets to minimize coloration, the woofer cones are constructed using Wharfedale's patented mineral-loaded homopolymer plastic to dampen unwanted resonances while retaining the strength to keep bass accurate and dynamic. Finally, laser interferometry has been used to create a truly outstanding tweeter. The end result is a classic amongst speakers--a dry acoustic character with a revealing and flawless transparency.

Unlike most speaker manufacturers, Wharfedale still designs its own unique drive units, continuing an unbroken tradition of over 65 years. During that time Wharfedale was a pioneer in almost every aspect of drive unit technology including fabric surrounds, rubber surrounds, molded cones, polypropylene cones, ceramic magnets, plastic dome, and ceramic dome tweeters. For this outstanding product line Wharfedale has introduced a new woofer which uses an exclusive mineral loaded homopolymer plastic which we first patented in 1982. Not only is this cone rigid but the finely ground mineral embedded in the cone damps out any unwanted resonances.

It is often said that the design of tweeters owes more to art that science. Certainly tiny changes in materials, construction, and dimensions can make all the difference between reproducing a clean natural treble or creating the coloration and distortion that degrades the sound reproduction. At Wharfedale, though, we have turned an art into a science. Using the advanced technology of laser interferometry and computer driven analysis we have been able to build on the experience of designing literally hundreds of tweeter units. The optimization of the component parts including the silk-fabric dome and the Ferrofluid-cooled voice coil has created an outstanding tweeter worthy of the Wharfedale tradition of finest sound quality.

In the Wharfedale Emerald series the tweeter is integrated into a circular horn flare, which controls the dispersion of high frequencies in both the vertical and horizontal planes. It is this design that contributes to the true Emerald nature of these loudspeakers with their dry acoustic character and their revealing transparency. Many hours of complex computer analysis has ensured that these cabinet designs are acoustically inert and so add minimal coloration and distortions to the musical performance.

The Emerald 97 model can be converted to biwiring following the removal of two links. Two separate pairs of cables are then run from the amplifier outputs to separately feed the bass/mid drive units and the tweeters. The result is a cleaner, more open sound that, with a good system, amply justifies the extra cost of the cables.

With a power rating of 125 watts, a sensitivity of 89 dB, and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, these speakers will work well with the more powerful home theater amplifiers on the market. The Wharfedale Emerald 97 comes in a real rosewood veneer and has a five-year parts and labor warranty.