Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 Floor-Standing Loudspeakers (Maple, Pair)

Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 Floor-Standing Loudspeakers (Maple, Pair)
Manufacturer: Wharfdale
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Product Description
The Diamond 8 series is the result of over three years intensive research and development into virtually every aspect of acoustic design. Firstly, the tweeter in all models is a 25mm textile dome, ferrofluid cooled unit powered with an ultra-strong neodymium magnet for the fastest, most accurate response International Audio Group has ever achieved. Next, the woofer cone is made from a bi-directional KEVLAR weave - self-damping in nature, reducing resonant frequencies to virtually negligible levels. The impetus for rapid movement here, is a dual layer, vented voice coil which transmits the signal information with the highest levels of accuracy. The cone is mounted on a nitrile rubber 'Flexaural surround rim'. A profiled phase plug improves the off-axis performance to project an excellent stereo image across a wide listening area. All the stereo models are front ported to enable positioning close to a back wall. Gold-plated bi-wire terminals are used for connection and you should take advantage of the increase in openness this offers, even if using an amplifier with single connections. The final test though, of any loudspeaker is not how much technology is used in the constituent parts, but how these react together to form a coherent package. It's more about the kind of music synergy that can be created between the various elements to ensure the overall result is much more than the sum of the parts. It is this elusive element, the 'musicality' that separates the Diamond 8 from all the competition and you will not believe the results.
Amazon.com Hands-On Review
Wharfedale's Diamond 7 series was a marvel of quality and affordability. With the Diamond 8s, however, the UK speaker manufacturer took both characteristics to the next level, enhancing sound quality and improving on the speakers' looks while keeping the prices remarkably affordable. The floorstanding Diamond 8.3 (also available in black ash) is a typically solid entry, taking the punchy and dynamic 8.2 bookshelf design and giving it greater mass and accordingly deeper bass. The speakers derive extra low-end heft from their ability to push air from their tuned, front-panel ports.

Our listening revealed taut, punchy sound with dramatically smooth midrange frequencies and detailed but never excessive or harsh-sounding treble. So you'll hear all the nuance of sticks on cymbals, but the crashing won't rip your ears off. Fittingly, voices and acoustic instruments sounded especially lush and realistic owing to the 8.3s' beautiful midrange, while the bass ran surprisingly deep for speakers using only a single 6.5-inch woofer each (the rated frequency response is 40 to 20,000 Hz).

The speakers owe a lot of their clarity and openness to their textile tweeters and woven Kevlar woofers. The tweeters are 1-inch silk-dome, ferrofluid-cooled drivers powered by a strong, neodymium magnet for speed and accuracy. Kevlar is said to be self-damping, a fact that would grant the woofers high rigidity and easy movement--a terrific recipe for dynamic sound from even wimpy amplifiers. And, indeed, it doesn't take much to make these speakers sing. Anything from 20 watts-per-channel integrated amplifiers to 85 wpc surround receivers will make a good fit, though be warned that the speakers are rated for use only to 120 wpc.

An especially choice feature of the 8.3s is their dual, gold-plated speaker terminals, which let you power each driver independently if desired, a process known as biwiring. (The speakers come with jumpers to allow standard wiring; remove the jumpers to biwire.) Whether you use separate mono-block amps for each speaker or merely use your receiver's A and B speaker outputs to power the tweeters and woofers, respectively--with set A for the tweeters, set B for the woofers--extra cable required!--you'll hear a little extra clarity, openness, and even frequency extension since the amplifier is focused only on a given driver's needs at any given moment. (Think: division of labor.)

The speakers' low end was not as rich, powerful, or as even as you'd find in a more expensive speaker with additional drivers or more sophisticated engineering (Wharfedale's wonderful Emerald 97, for instance)--but for at this price, the performance is exceptional. We recommend placement at least one foot from any room boundary, and the closer you can get to putting three feet between the 8.3s and your walls, the better, in our experience--though the port's front-panel positioning allows closer wall placement than would a rear port.

Each of the speakers in the Diamond 8 line uses the same tweeter and cone material for perfect timbral matching, so you can use the 8.3s for either stereo or surround-sound applications, enlisting Diamond 8.1s or 8.2s as surround speakers and the Diamond Center for a center-channel speaker.

--Michael Mikesell

Pros:

High value
Genuinely good, balanced sound overall
Attractive design
Excellent midrange reproduction (voices, etc.)
High sensitivity/easily driven
Biwirable for cleaner sound

Cons:

Slightly tubby bass

What's in the Box
Two speakers, speaker grilles, speaker-terminal jumpers (for non-biwired applications), wood-plate "feet," a user's manual, and warranty information.