b&w or wharfedale?Any suggestions?

[bjornb17]

What's so good about Wharfedale? I saw some at compusa, i guess the lower end models, but they are pure trash. pretty much a 3 foot tall tower speaker made completely from plastic.

[RGA]

Wharfedale has changed hands three times since 1991. Some speakers were atrocious some were quite accomplished - the Vanguard which I still own, was their top of the line floorstander and a big rocker - hand built in Yorkshire using real wood. It appears to have a Fostex Ring horn tweeter and use big heavy ceramic magnets --- which possibly accounts for the fact that despite being sensitive in impedence at 95db @8ohm they require a ballsy amp to get the msot from them --- which does not mean high watts just a good amp.

The Harewood was a pretty darn good standmount in its day...but the company brought out some pretty lousy mid level stuff in the Modus line and the company soon went belly up -- A Chinese company bought the name but kept bringing out rubbish and sold out to the people who run Quad. Wharfedale is now starting to get back on track --- it's still a budget speaker line but they have actually begun to incorporate some better parts --- the standmount Diamonds are better than the floorstanders --- no shock there. Even B&W made a floorstander out of the DM302 called the 305 which was worse. More bass but worse sounding than the 302.

Wharfedale has even gone back to making a horn speaker line in the Valdus series --- they look cool and can probably play real loud --- the Vanguards were expensive in the late 80s at around $2k($2200.00) and that is a tough sell today where people seem to want puny sounding no bass no dynamic standmounts for their $2kUS. Needless to say I'm not selling my Wharfedales if I have to pay $2k for a gutless wonder. And I'm not convinced a lot of those 2k speaker have a better tweeter...and most don;t have the balls the bass or the enjoyment factor.

Of course the Wharfedales are not so great off axis and they're big heavy and dated looking,