Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s (Yes/No)

Tommy B · 27 Feb 2007 at 19:41

Does anybody here have these speakers? I'm sure I saw someone who had them hooked up to a NAD 32BEE Amp, which would be the same setup as me if I were to buy them.

Are they any good for general listening. I plan to have these by my PC for music listening, but I've also got 2 floorstanders for when I want it loud.

Cheers,

Tom

Hesky82 · 28 Feb 2007 at 00:03

I recommend the diamond 9 range and the amp especially. I demoed the diamond 9 range a while back when i was upgrading my ht setup. the 9.1s where used for the rears. the 9.1 have great transparency but there a little lackluster bottom end wise. The 9.2s seemed slightly more dynamic and full boded with more mid base punch. basically the 9.1s are pretty much every thing the 9.2s are up top but when it comes to mid/base they fall short. if you can, go for the 9.2s.

Only thing i can say about the NAD C320BEE is GET ONE if you haven already, the tweaked BEE'S are so musical for budget solid state amps, real rich and lively. Ive compared it to a rotel ra01 amp (same price range) and its on another level, really surprised me.

Tommy B · 28 Feb 2007 at 09:34

I'm trying to get one off eBay, but if it fails I'll definitely pay the full price for a brand new one. Had to sacrifice my X1900XT though. Music > Games

As for the Wharfedales, I was asking because I saw a pair going cheap on eBay, but I think it's better to do one thing at a time with Hi-Fi. First I'll get the amp, then a cd player, then I'll upgrade my speakers.

Hesky82 · 28 Feb 2007 at 20:36

Yeah i know what you mean, I tend to spend a bit on my pc gear, but way to much on my hifi and ht setups.
Your on the right track though. tbh if you can score the 9.1's at a great price your laughing, I'd grab them.
If your not to bothered about extension these speakers and that NAD amp will make for a real revealing setup, with sweet sweet sound.
and regard to a cd player the matching NAD C521BEE cdp is unbeatable at it price, sub 200quid is silly good value. my buddy bought the pair for a deal price and i was nothing but impressed by the musical presentation from the two units!

Big Kev · 28 Feb 2007 at 22:31

I have them and think they're great for the price.

Tommy B · 28 Feb 2007 at 22:48

A decent setup doesn't appear to be cheap though. I'm looking at about £130 for the AMP. I then hope to get the matching CD player, but even then I doubt I'll notice anything on my current speakers. They're Eltax Symphony 6s my dad gave me. He claims they were £200 so they can't be awful but I can't find any information on them. I might invest my money on a damn good pair of bookshelf speakers instead, as I'm not happy spending anything less than £400 to replace the Eltax speakers.

Anyway, it is crucial that the heart of the system (Amp + CD Player) are in place before I think about speaker upgrades.

Thanks for the advice

jbloggs · 28 Feb 2007 at 23:07

Tommy B:

I have a Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 (Soundcard)->Nad C320BEE amplifier, hooked up to the Wharfdale Diamond 9.1 speakers, the sound is very good indeed, FLACs (especially) sound well.

fish99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 01:16

Unless the 9.1s you're looking at are well below the RRP (and the ebay price) I would look for something else TBH. I had the 9.1s and never got on with them, even with a fairly neutral/warm sounding Marantz amp. The mids were a bit weird and coloured, the bass was lacking and the top end was nothing special. Plus they're pretty ugly and the binding posts kept unscrewing themselves.

The MA B2s I replaced them with, while still not exactly refined and far from handsome, are less coloured and a bit more honest, while I felt the wharfedales were trying too hard (and failing) to sound expensive. The MAs have a sweeter top end too.

Not saying get the B2s though, there may well be something better for that kind of money.

Hesky82 · 1 Mar 2007 at 01:22

ive never really rated eltax speakers tbh, but I checked out a pair of Symphony book shelves with the black front and black drivers, built to a cost for sure, but not to bad sounding. the wharfs would easily outshine them for transparency though. mainly down to the components used in the crossover, Wharfdale spend there money there.
if you have 400 to spend on speakers, check out the Epos, Dynaudio and PMC, fantastic speakers. the Epos M12.2 were my fav bookshelf’s for a while. probably snap a pair up for 350 now.
id really decide what you want to spend on each bit 1st though

Tommy B · 1 Mar 2007 at 17:06

Thanks for the info everyone.

Firstly, can anyone recommend a really well recorded album that I can buy and use to compare? I've got a ton of Porcupine Tree albums.

Most of the eBay auctions for the NAD end in about 3 days. It looks like they'll be going for over the hundred pound mark, possibly more though. If I don't end up winning it, I'll grab one from Superfi. As soon as I've got it up and running I'll post back here with my thoughts.

I take it the NAD will still work wonders with expensive speakers, should I decide to spend about £400 in the future?

Thanks everyone,

Tommy B · 1 Mar 2007 at 17:10

jbloggs said:
Tommy B:

I have a Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 (Soundcard)->Nad C320BEE amplifier, hooked up to the Wharfdale Diamond 9.1 speakers, the sound is very good indeed, FLACs (especially) sound well.

That is another upgrade I've been contemplating. The X-Fi seems like it's designed to somehow enhance sound for bog standard PC speakers. Ideally I want something that outputs the purest signal possible. But you can highly recommend it then?

The trouble is I'll probably sell my PC when I go to UNI and buy a laptop instead. Trouble is most laptops have awful sound cards

jellybeard999 · 1 Mar 2007 at 17:39

Im looking at the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 which seems highly regarded (if you're after surround). The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is a well received stereo card, if you only need the 2 channels

Tommy B · 1 Mar 2007 at 20:51

Looks very nice indeed but I can't find any UK stores selling it

jbloggs · 2 Mar 2007 at 00:16

Tommy B:

I picked up my Terratec soundcard on that well known auction site where you have been looking at Nad amps, apart from having a breakout box, with analogue RCA out (which connects straight into my Mad amp), it also gives 5:1 analogue/digital as well, which lets me have a set of Logitech Z680s hooked up to it.

Another 2 good soundacrds if you are looking to fed the Nad amp with is the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (as mentioned by jellybeard999) and the EMU 0404, these are only 2 channel (stereo) output (analogue and digital) though, but nevertheless give a very good sound quality (into an amp).

Hesky82 · 2 Mar 2007 at 01:09

E-MU 0404 uses burr brown opamps just like ya decent 300quid cd player

thats my choice budget audiophile sound card.

Yup the xfi range is for gaming only, for music purists it just doesn’t cut it imo. people seem to think there the bees knees when it comes to high fidelity audio soundcards, they just have that over enhanced sound like you say, Just end up messin up the recording.

if you do end up gettin rid of your pc there are loads of studio grade laptop digital audio systems out there, both on pc cards and usb.

-Ad- · 2 Mar 2007 at 12:02

Hesky82 said:
E-MU 0404 uses burr brown opamps just like ya decent 300quid cd player
thats my choice budget audiophile sound card.

Yup the xfi range is for gaming only, for music purists it just doesn’t cut it imo. people seem to think there the bees knees when it comes to high fidelity audio soundcards, they just have that over enhanced sound like you say, Just end up messin up the recording.

if you do end up gettin rid of your pc there are loads of studio grade laptop digital audio systems out there, both on pc cards and usb.

Yep, totally agree, ideal starting point. Much better sounding than fancy 7.1 cards with fancy equalisers. It is quite bright sounding but that's not a bad thing. PLus if your handy with a fine tipped soldering iron, you can unlock sooooo much more form the card. I spent about £30 on new parts for mine, including an uprated op-amp and it sounds far superior now, less bright, more bass, and a wider soundstage.

Thumbs up from me

Tommy B · 2 Mar 2007 at 17:19

The thing is I watch a lot of films, and use my PC as a DVD player which then passes the signal via DVI to my Samsung TV. I really like surround sound and have a pair of crappy PC speakers hidden under my desk connected to the rear channel of the sound card. Obviously I don't use them for listening to music but they do make watching films (horror in particular) are more jumpy experience.

Ideally I'd want a really good sound card that also does 5.1 or even 4.1. The Terratec sounds good, in fact they all sound good. Looks like I better get reading some reviews.

Tommy B · 2 Mar 2007 at 17:26

Hold on a sec. Surely in my case an external sound card is the way to go? If I'm upgrading to a laptop I don't mind upping my budget for an external card, providing it doesn't destroy the sound quality. I don't mind gambling £70 on a decent PC sound card if it'll do a good job before I get my laptop though.

Terratec Aureon 7.1 FireWire looks interesting. If I can get any sort of audio solution that will get lossless music/sound off a PC to an amp almost as good as a dedicated CD player then I'll go into the £200 region happily.

The E-Mu 1616M looks awesome too, but that is designed solely for laptops. Hmm

Jet · 2 Mar 2007 at 20:07

Tommy B said:
Thanks for the info everyone.

Firstly, can anyone recommend a really well recorded album that I can buy and use to compare? I've got a ton of Porcupine Tree albums.

Obviously it depends on what music you like but when I tested my system in the shop they played Keane - Somewhere only we know (the song). Even after playing loads of CD's on it, it's one of the best sounding songs i've heard and I keep digging the album out just to hear it.

Hesky82 · 3 Mar 2007 at 01:18

Tommy B said:
Hold on a sec. Surely in my case an external sound card is the way to go? If I'm upgrading to a laptop I don't mind upping my budget for an external card, providing it doesn't destroy the sound quality. I don't mind gambling £70 on a decent PC sound card if it'll do a good job before I get my laptop though.

Terratec Aureon 7.1 FireWire looks interesting. If I can get any sort of audio solution that will get lossless music/sound off a PC to an amp almost as good as a dedicated CD player then I'll go into the £200 region happily.

The E-Mu 1616M looks awesome too, but that is designed solely for laptops. Hmm

you could go as far as to say externally mounting the soundcard away from you pc would further improve sq, more controllable power regulation, a less component noisy environment, tbh these factors tend not to be an issue, but by no means is an external soundcard a compromise in sound, there price is really the only down side.
m-audio do some decent firewire and usb solutions, the Audiophile USB is worth checkin out, great sounding external card that also has the ability to pass AC3 and DTS surround sound signals via the digital output to a av receiver
so you could use this with your pc for a while and then plug it inro your lappy later on