Why I despise Wharfedale

[pradski]

When I got in to Hi Fi vision, I was proud, which I still am. I wrote lot of non sense also. Over time I realized that I am not really an audiophile. I am just a man who listens to lot of music. I listen to whole variety. Right from Indian classical to western classical and spectrum includes pop, rock, heavy metal and world. So I could not compete with rest of the guys in the forum, the reason I am not active. I listen to music all the time in my waking hours, including in bathroom, and the department where I work. I have set up my own in the department which everybody has to listen because of me.
Anyway, with this background I can criticize about the speaker which has given me lot of heartache.
I set up my 7.1 system after I got rid of my previous 6.1 Yamaha. I went for 9 series of Wharfedale, except for sub which was polk.
The 9 CM, DFS, 9.2 and 9.6 floor standers.
From the day I got these I saw the grill clips breaking up. ( I call grill to the covering of speakers, because I do not know what they are called.) I had to use tapes to clip them on.
One day over a party, the 9.2 book shelves while being driven by norge concerto took off. The diaphragms tore. I tried everything to stick and all, finally to throw them. I accept, I may have been foolish to blast 9.2 bookshelves with norge, where the norge can peak to 100 plus while the speaker can handle only 100W.
Later one of my bipolar took off. And I dismantled the home theater and stuck to 2 channel. I was running with them. These happened before they could complete their second birthday.
Recently I got my polk sub back in and was going on. And I do not use my Hi Fi regularly, as I have a family and I use only when I am alone. I have not blasted more than what could be tolerated by our neighborhood. Few days back one of the floor standers took off. Both the midrange to woofers tore their diaphragms. And that was the day it blew me off. It is not even four years, and now I am anti Wharfi.

Sorry to disappoint many of you. But it happened to me. Somebody has to be accountable. Are we being taken for a ride?
Just to let many know about it. I bought these in bangalore from Vector.

 

[SatMumbai]

I am sorry to read your issues. It is very disheartening to have your equipment broken the way you have mentioned.

Personally, I have a very good experience with Wharfedale.

If I may, I would like to write a bit about what I know here.

1. Most often it is the Amplifier which blows the speakers. What this actually means, it is the quality of the amplifier but not the power. If you drive a 100W RMS rates speakers with a 150W RMS rated amplifier, the chances of blowing the speakers are less when compared to driving the same speaker with a 20W RMS amplifier.

2. Some of the amplifiers, especially the older design have no speaker protection

3. Are your speakers purchased brand new? The reason why I am asking this is to make sure everything is genuine and the drivers are not being replaced or some fiddling is done to the speakers.

4. Most speaker makers give 10 Years warranty and the reason is the chances of a speaker failure is very less. You might consider writing / Calling to Wharfedale to explain and request for replacement

5. Last, but not the least, I would not put any speakers on that amplifier. My gut feeling says that it is the amp.

 

[nSinghal]

That sucks. Any idea how much it costs to get the drivers replaced?

I've been considering the wharfe 10 series for my new setup. Totally new to the world of hifi so not sure if ~4 years is supposed to be above or below average for these speakers. Will be grateful if other wharfe owners could chime in here and share their experiences.

Also pradski, other than these issues, were you happy with the speakers otherwise? SQ wise?

Edit: @SatMumbai, does wharfedale speakers come with 10 year warranty?

 

[ranojoy]

5. Last, but not the least, I would not put any speakers on that amplifier. My gut feeling says that it is the amp.

I would tend to agree. I am using a setup (see signature) similar to pradski's for 3+ years with no trouble at all.

 

[malvai]

overdriving speaker will obviously blow the drivers.... it can happen to speakers from any manufacturer... not really a fault of the manufacturer....

 

[anuragn]

I am using 10.1's for last 2 years. No issues at all.
So many of the speakers blowing off. There has to be something else like a faulty amp or may be power surges in the mains supply coupled with an amp with no speaker protection.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[prepress]

According to me, it should not the speaker's fault. The amplifier should have the speaker protection or overloading protection. Even I was using Pioneer SA-508 (1970's model) few years back and it has protection circuit too. I don't believe if Norge is not using it yet, but there is possibility for that because ultimately it is an Indian brand :sad: (Sorry... doesn't mean all Indian brands are bad but recently we have seen few quality control issues with Sonodyne speakers too on this forum)

 

[prepress]

overdriving speaker will obviously blow the drivers.... it can happen to speakers from any manufacturer... not really a fault of the manufacturer....

I agree, that's why we use matching speakers with handling power.

 

[gobble]

According to me, it should not the speaker's fault. The amplifier should have the speaker protection or overloading protection. Even I was using Pioneer SA-508 (1970's model) few years back and it has protection circuit too. I don't believe if Norge is not using it yet, but there is possibility for that because ultimately it is an Indian brand :sad: (Sorry... doesn't mean all Indian brands are bad but recently we have seen few quality control issues with Sonodyne speakers too on this forum)

Its possible. Why dont the OP ask Norge about it?
Generally it is recoomended to have an amp that is atleast 1.5 times the speakers rating. So using a 150watt amp with 100w speaker is good.

I am sorry for the OP though. So much money spent and such poor returns. Its a shame.

--G0bble

 

[Shivam]

Higher power amp is recommended but the harm that usually occurs with low power amps is in the high frequency drivers or tweeters.
Though, I have heard a similar thing happening to Mordaunt Short Carnival series speakers being driven by a Denon AVR. The AVR was slightly underpowered than what the speakers could handle. The owner played the music/movie at almost the volume turned up to the full and the next thing he knew, the woofer's foam came loose in one of the front speakers and a tweeter was blown up in the other front speaker.

( I use Wharfedale 10.7 speakers and am very happy with them.)

 

[reubensm]

Sorry to hear what happened to your speakers, ideally whatever be the listed wattage, speakers ment for domestic listening are not suited for high volume listening. At higher volumes, the margin for error becomes all the more thin and you're amp's relationship with the speakers becomes even more critical. Also distortion can damage your speakers. Having an amplifier with a lot of tollerance on the power front, is a must for high volume play. Also you should have a fair idea on where to stop while turning up the volume. If your staple is made up of high volume listening and especially if you're listening to bass intensive music, you'll need a public address speaker set (the type DJs use). About 2 weeks ago, I was at a friend's place. He's a hardcore metal head and plays music at high volumes. I did notice that the abuse, his speakers were taking were so violent that the dust caps of one of the woofers was on the verge of falling off. Treat your speakers with respect and they will give you many many years of listening pleasure.

When I got in to Hi Fi vision, I was proud, which I still am. I wrote lot of non sense also. Over time I realized that I am not really an audiophile. I am just a man who listens to lot of music. I listen to whole variety. Right from Indian classical to western classical and spectrum includes pop, rock, heavy metal and world. So I could not compete with rest of the guys in the forum, the reason I am not active. I listen to music all the time in my waking hours, including in bathroom, and the department where I work. I have set up my own in the department which everybody has to listen because of me.
Anyway, with this background I can criticize about the speaker which has given me lot of heartache.
I set up my 7.1 system after I got rid of my previous 6.1 Yamaha. I went for 9 series of Wharfedale, except for sub which was polk.
The 9 CM, DFS, 9.2 and 9.6 floor standers.
From the day I got these I saw the grill clips breaking up. ( I call grill to the covering of speakers, because I do not know what they are called.) I had to use tapes to clip them on.
One day over a party, the 9.2 book shelves while being driven by norge concerto took off. The diaphragms tore. I tried everything to stick and all, finally to throw them. I accept, I may have been foolish to blast 9.2 bookshelves with norge, where the norge can peak to 100 plus while the speaker can handle only 100W.
Later one of my bipolar took off. And I dismantled the home theater and stuck to 2 channel. I was running with them. These happened before they could complete their second birthday.
Recently I got my polk sub back in and was going on. And I do not use my Hi Fi regularly, as I have a family and I use only when I am alone. I have not blasted more than what could be tolerated by our neighborhood. Few days back one of the floor standers took off. Both the midrange to woofers tore their diaphragms. And that was the day it blew me off. It is not even four years, and now I am anti Wharfi.

Sorry to disappoint many of you. But it happened to me. Somebody has to be accountable. Are we being taken for a ride?
Just to let many know about it. I bought these in bangalore from Vector.

 

[prepress]

Treat your speakers with respect and they will give you many many years of listening pleasure.

Yes, It is similar like we humans, Treat your dear ones with respect and they will be with us for lifetime.

 

[gobble]

Yes, It is similar like we humans, Treat your dear ones with respect and they will be with us for lifetime.

Yeah .. otherwise the foam lining or rubber surround will come off ...

--G

 

[prepress]

Yeah .. otherwise the foam lining or rubber surround will come off ...

--G

:clapping: well said hyeah:

 

[pradski]

Thanks everybody,

I agree that norge may have blown my 9.2s. Though I did not, there were millions handling on that day.

But 9.6 towers were never blasted to such an extent. They are in living room. Hardly I use them. I stick to smaller systems around. I know I have not blasted more than it can tolerate. It was driven with Denon 2309, all the time.
Hence the problem.
anyway next time I will read more about this and buy.

 

[kapvin]

Thanks everybody,

I agree that norge may have blown my 9.2s. Though I did not, there were millions handling on that day.

But 9.6 towers were never blasted to such an extent. They are in living room. Hardly I use them. I stick to smaller systems around. I know I have not blasted more than it can tolerate. It was driven with Denon 2309, all the time.
Hence the problem.
anyway next time I will read more about this and buy.

just to add my 2 cents.


you say that the woofers tore. that seems to be likely in mostly 2 scenarios, 1. you have fake speakers
2. your speakers have over excursioned.

I surmised from your mail that the voice coils have not burnt out, and your tweeters are working - i.e unlikely you drove your amp to clipping, or the square waves would have fried your tweeters.

assuming your speakers are all genuine, it looks likely over excursion caused the problem i.e when you drove the woofers past Xsus. for speakers at that price point Xmax and Xsus are usually very close to each other. that's likely to happen if you feed a lot of deep bass to the speakers, especially if it is below the box tuning frequency. (where the woofer gets unloaded) it does not need to be overwhelmingly loud. even 40-50w at lower frequencies will drive the woofers to over excursion.

Not wharfedales fault beyond their needing to issue a caveat. the fault could lie with your amp, or with the source, or with the content you play. suggest you get your amp checked, and your source. of course if you overdrive the deepbass, it can spoil the speakers in any case. An appropriate high pass filter would have saved you.

this is based on a quick read of your OP during lunch break. apologies if I missed something.

 

[ketansethi1987]

The best thing one can do when using amp and speakers of different companies or with different power ratings is to turn down the volume as and when one hears distortion.

I do not think Wharfedale will cover this under warranty. But do ask them and let us know.

Anyone who can guide us how to add speaker protection to an amplifier??? Will adding a resistance work?

 

[sandeepmohan]

I had put up my entire Hi Fi rig for sale. One of the rigs was a Technics speaker amplifier equalizer combination. The equipment is old, over 12 years easily. The speaker had a twelve inch low frequency driver. The client who was interested in this system visited my place, turned the bass all the way up on both the amplifier and equalizer and turned up the volume to the eleven o clock position after which I had to warn him not to consider buying the system if he intends playing it like this as it will cook the amplifier and eventually fry the speaker system. He still bought the rig. If this client now comes back to me saying he blew the amp or fried the speakers, I am not going to offer a refund cause I already warned him that he was dealing with vintage equipment and that he should be careful. This is careless use of equipment. You need to know the limits of your equipment and thats quite easy to know as you crank up the volume and find that it no longer sounds right and the amplifier is operating at a much higher temperature than normal.

 

[ketansethi1987]

A friend of mine has sony hifi system.
Every time I visited him I would tell him "Speakers phatt rahe hain bhai" and he would reply "nahi phat rahe tu chup reh"

Finally wo phat gaye

 

[ketansethi1987]

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