Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 Floor-Standing Loudspeakers (Maple, Pair)
by Wharfdale
(Click here)
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: WharfdaleModel: Diamond8.3Maple
Color: Maple/Champagne
Product features:
- Pair of maple-finished floor-standing loudspeakers for stereo or home theater applications
- 6.5-inch Kevlar woofer and 1-inch silk dome tweeter per speaker
- 40 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response; 20 to 120 watts recommended power handling
- Dual gold-plated speaker terminals support bi-wiring and bi-amping
- Each speaker measures 8.38 by 31.5 by 10.15 inches (W x H x D); 5-year warranty
- Bose Mobile In-Ear Headset
- Belkin 12-Outlet Home/Office Surge Protector with Phone/Ethernet/Coaxial Protection and Extended Cord
- Etymotic ER-4P Portable In-Ear Earphones
- Etymotic Research ER6i Isolator In-Ear Earphones (Black)
- BoseŽ Around-Ear Headphones for Personal and Portable Listening
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 Floor-Standing Loudspeakers (Maple, Pair)
Customer Review: Great speaker, great price.
Summary: 5 Stars
For the price, I truely believe you cannot beat a set of Wharfedale speakers. I considered purchasing the 8.4 model (the only difference is a second driver on each speaker), but for the small listening area I have, one driver per speaker, coupled with a good external powered subwoofer is more then enough. So, unless you're trying to power quite a large area, you should be fine with the more economical 8.3 model. The sound from these speakers is as excellent as the marketing materials claim, and they handle a lot of power with ease. I've bought all wharedale speakers to create my surround sound environment, and I'm much happier with the result than a lot of my friends who bought much more expensive all-Sony set-ups. In fact, some of my friends with much higher priced equipment have remarked that they wished they'd heard the wharfedale setup before blowing the extra money. Definitely a great buy!
Description of Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 Floor-Standing Loudspeakers (Maple, Pair)
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.