I hope you all enjoy the video and please remember the whole video is created by yours truly (just one person), but huge thanks to Peter and the Wharfedale team for making it happen.
Really interesting interview and it completely changed my view on these speakers. When I first saw them I though Urgh they look like the fugly speakers my dad had in the 80s, as it turns out, the design is much older than that, well before I was born but once the grills were removed and btw, I actually prefer the brown grill over the grey and hearing the interview and everything that has gone into designing the speakers and reasons for those choices, I now have a much greater appreciation of them, though I think I would still prefer grill off and hopefully without any negative effects on the sound. I am in the market now for new speakers and will look into their pricing in Australia and whether we can actually get them as I've found a few speaker brands difficult to get. I do mainly love listening to music and the music soundtracks in movies that have the greatest impact on me but I would like to know if they are suitable for watching movies and whether a separate subwoofer would be needed for enough feel of bombings in war films or the vibration from a nearby dinosaur.
105,000 other viewers seem to disagree with you, and with over 21 million video views for my channel your low opinion of me wont keep me up at night :). Maybe try getting out of bed the other side tomorrow
Very intelligent discussion that most reviewers never talk about. VERY well-done discussion with Mr. Comeau as he is very impressive. His knowledge and experience are sadly missing with many other speaker manufacturers of today. Thank you.
👍I never knew this before, but Mr. PC is well likely the “fundamental” reason why I love Wharfdale so much.😉Thanks so much for bringing this speaker legend into our homes for a chat. Great Stuff. I could’ve listened and learned for hours. I just wish you had a list of my tech questions.😉
Maestro Peter Comeau is one ☝️ of the very few magnificent loudspeaker designers whose works I personally admire and as usual you’ve done a great interview by simply asking the questions that any audiophile would have asked and craved to have answers for. Thank you 🙏🏼 Terry. Your fan from Tehran Iran ❤️🤍💚
He did a great job on the diamond 225's, an impressive speaker at only $449, when new. I love them, although I now mostly listen to my tannoys. I still have the 225's tucked away.
Always great to listen to what Peter Comeau has to say about speaker design. You just know that he's not just looking at the waves on an oscilloscope but using his ears to fine tune.
Me too! The Denton 80s are a much underrated speaker...and are now available for silly money. I sold my KEF LS50s and Dynaudio Emit M10 and much prefer the Dentons. I think they were a 'labour of love' for Peter Comeau....👍
I heard the Denton 85th and Linton 85th Anniversary speakers recently. The Denton 85ths have an overdone treble, not fatiguing but unnatural. While the treble on the Lintons is more comparable to Denton 80ths, it has a more congested and less coherent soundstage. It has slightly more emphasis on mid-bass rather than lower mids which are forward in the Denton 80ths. The Denton 80ths are much better, theres just something ultra realistic about the sonic presentation.
Peter Comeau is brilliant at taking a complex subject and presenting it in a very intelligible and enjoyable way. He explains with a clarity that isn't patronising, but is informative and insightful. The Wharfedale Dovedales look to be a gorgeous loudspeaker that harks back to the past, but with its feet firmly in the present. Thank you, Terry, for a fascinating interview.
I wouldn't buy any of Wharfedale's heritage range, but I could listen to Peter Comeau all day long. He has such a wealth of knowledge and he knows how to convey it in simplicity with just the right amount of historic relevance and emotion. An excellent communicator and engineer that applies his knowledge and experience in building the speakers. Personally I'm saving up to buy the Elysian 4's. Thanks for letting him speak without interruption and for asking wonderful questions!
Excellent intertview, delightful to hear Peter talking about the work he has done on these speakers, clearly he has a great deal of knowledge and experience as well as passion for music and it's ability to be recreated in as accurate and musical way as possible. I'd like to hear more from him if you ever get the chance again.
I think this is my third video with Peter we did one for speakers in general and then one for then mission 770 please check in the channel you will find them
I heard these at the 2023 Axpona over two days. This was the USA first demo. They sounded very nice, and the quality is very evident. I also heard the new KLH Model 7's and was very impressed with them. Those are only $4000 and have some impressive sound and are sealed acoustic suspension while the Dovedale's are bass reflex. The downside to me on the model 7's is they are 4 ohms, but they are well suited for next to the wall use. Since neither speaker has yet to be released, I am waiting for the release of each and some reviews before I make any final decisions. I will be buying one of these speakers!
I am in the same boat as you, but couldn't make it it AXPONA to give them a listen. Very intrigued by wide baffle designs and want to give them shot in my large listening room. I'm curious if you have another other thoughts about how they compare. Obviously hard to do given the different pairing of electronics and rooms.
Peter Comeau knows how to design great sounding loudspeakers, I've heard three of his designs - I currently own the Mission LX2 MkII and i've demoed the Lintons and the Elysian 4's and they all sound brilliant - albeit very different (and very different price points). Looking forward to hearing these when I can - these may indeed be my next and last (end game?) loudspeakers. Thanks Terry!
Brilliant interview, Peter sure knows his stuff! I got the Lintons this year which replaced some highly reviewed compact floor standers worth not that much less. I was blown away by how well the Lintons work in my small room, they sound like what I think a hifi should sound like. And when they are finished so beautifully the size is not a problem. If I have a big win I might have to upgrade to the Dovedales!
Me too. The Lintons were almost an outlier, at that price point you'll find very little else to compare and compete. Dovedales are nice, but 4x $$ nice? I don't think so.
So great to hear Peter talk technical about those lovely Dovedales. I can listen to this guy for hours and hours. Kinda like our generation's Gilbert Briggs. I've been a fan of Wharfedale speakers since I first saw/heard the E series at a huge audio show in the '80s. They were blasting the Human League song: "Don't you want me baby?" You can see the woofers happily dancing about to the synthesizer bass and drums. True Audio Heaven was I in, at a young adolescent age. Well, the E series escaped me. I then bought some small bookshelf speakers from Wharfedale and I couldn't believe the sound they produced with a paper 4" woofer. So I bought a second pair. Then I went vintage and bought the W40D, and the mighty W70. Wow, the sound out of such old speakers blew me away. So I have no doubt a new pair of 'dales would also impress me, and the way Peter talks about the. Dovedale, it may be the one that breaks my new speaker celibacy !!!!
Peter expressed what I've been thinking about the trends in speakers. The smaller speakers can't fill the room as well. They can't move enough air. I've tried a couple of new smaller speakers over the last couple of years , but they haven't beat the sound of my two different sets of vintage speakers.
I so agree. After 35 years in the hobby, I’m after bigger scale from my speakers. You have to have serious surface area from your drivers to achieve scale.
Absolutely agree. I just purchased Yamaha NS-670 (from 1977) a few days ago from original owner and as much as I like the sound from my Dali 2-way bookshelf….not even in the same realm as these 3-way Yamaha’s with 10” drivers.
The Dovedale kit speaker was my introduction to HiFi, my uncle built a pair to go with his Leak stereo 70, Garrard 401, Shure V15 Mk2....I was captivated by how it all looked as well as the sound....Great interview, thanks....
Great interview. I like it when a person in charge of design can integrate old style with modern components and not loose the style and quality of sound. Obviously he likes to rock out and builds a speaker that can handle that yet get finesse for different types of music.
Seen this twice now. Terry just listens and allows Peter to speak and explain the design decisions behind this so that was great. I am aware of Peter’s background and considerable experience from Heybrook, his Mission designs and articles with World Audio Designs and of course heading up IAG. Clearly still very passionate about acoustic design and music and proud of the Dovedales. I need to hear these!
As usual, it's enthralling to listen to Mr Comeau once again giving us details about what was intended. In particular I found it very interesting to learn about how they tackled on that "one bass note" constriction problem from bass reflex designs by shifting! - And rather than dismissing critical listeners in the sub 40 Hz region (like me) as "bass heads" he made his point about realism by giving some examples about instruments. Yes, that's mouth-watering altogeher, Terry is right.
I Still own a pair of Heybrook HB3s which IIRC were designed by Peter. Midrange suspension foams were replaced a few years ago and foam grilles disolved into a million tiny pieces but to this day they remain one of my favourite affordable 1980s speakers and still going strong.
Great to hear from a speaker designer manufacturer. All loudspeakers are designed to a price point and the Dovedales are no different. The cheaper the speaker, the cheesier the parts used. In theory the higher price one goes so should the quality of parts/components. Unfortunately not always as it has often been proven ( what you don't see, you don't know ) At $10,500 au the price is not exactly cheap so one would expect quality parts throughout. Separating crossover boards for the woof and mid/tweeter is good. Crossover parts appear cheaper than they should be and yes air coils should of been used and distant from any others on the board and caps should of been better quality. Then there's the foam used for damping, cheap! No one uses particle board for speaker building now days ( vintage stuff yes ! ) Do I sound critical, not trying to be just stating what I can see and hear. Hope I get the chance to hear them as it may prove that I was barking for no reason, if they sound great then it is all that maters.
Thanks so much for the vid! I like seeing all these 70’s Wharfedale models being reissued. Myself i have the-apparently lesser known-three-way Wharfedale Glendale 3XP, which i’ve been enjoying a lot for the past 5 years. Got the pair for 50 eur/usd. Cabinets have some scars but the grills and everything behind it are still perfect. The good thing about these is the woofer being in the front. Always had trouble with rear-ported. So these are a blessing. Oh, and it’s true what Steve Guttenberg once said, no matter how well a small speeker can sound, a larger cabinet speaker will always sound fuller, bigger, better.
I still have the Wharfedale W70E Rosedales and they still beat the pants off of many stereo speakers. You either love them or you just prefer a different sound. They were originally purchased for their presentation attributes against competitive speakers at the time, very neutral with a lifelike representation of acoustic instruments. Mine are close to 100 L boxes with the 15” woofer, a 5” midrange in a sand filled cylindrical chamber, and the 1” mylar dome tweeter. They look similar to drivers in the original Dovedales. Needed new crossover caps eventually, but to this day STILL sound GREAT and I can’t and won’t give them up! They dig so deep that a sub is just a moot point.😉I’m fortunate I have the space to appreciate them! Great video.. 5 stars !!👍
@@PursuitPerfectSystem You're right. Maybe I'm one of the few who likes it without. I have Lintons and when I bought them I planned to add a subwoofer. But once the speakers were in the right position and paired with the right amplifier, it appeared to be not necessary in my listening room. Pleasant surprise and one less burden on the budget 🙂
Wharfedale and Celestion speakers of that era were "the" speakers to have. I had a Wharfedale kit, and the cabinets was a lot bigger than the ones shown here. A nice NAD amp made music beautiful to me.
Good interview Terry. I got chatting with Peter at Bristol’s Trade day as Mission 710’s were my first hifi speaker back in the day. He explained just why he reintroduced the 700 series which struck a real chord with me and it’s an attempt at satisfying nostalgia certainly but also showcasing what the larger cabinets can bring in terms of efficiency and timbre. Coincidentally, we both attended Plymouth Uni and both ended up as hifi loudspeaker designers although I came into it very late on. I never got to listen to the Dovedales but in design terms they’re a drop of common sense in a sea of nonsense and mediocrity. My own idea of a large speaker is somewhat more literal being my 220 litre Malmesbury enclosures (!) and I’d consider Dovedales quite compact really and quite aesthetically pleasing. They represent good value considering the effort and attention to detail and the finish is rather good. Once people hear a good 3 way done well and using an efficient bass driver they’ll soon want to ditch their narrow baffle stand mounts. Realism requires full range, efficiency and correct timbre. Peter is being quite modest here because the technical aspects of what he’s done there are more involved than meets the eye. His comments on the crossover were spot on. High damping factor is a must as is minimising or eradicating crosstalk and electromagnetic inductive coupling. Externalising the crossover would be my next step to remove it from the resonant environment of a loudspeaker cabinet but I appreciate not everyone wants extra boxes. Great job Terry, relevant questions and great answers from Peter. I see these as winning a lot of fans over from another uk manufacturer making similar looking speakers, and the Dovedales should prove to beca winner.
Thanks now I'm rethinking the whole function of inductors in those deeper bass areas. One aspect is that a woofers voice coil is an inductor with an iron core and the inductance isn't really negligible...this has got to be considered. His point about the iron core inductors is making sence to me and those big heavy air core coils are expensive especially once you get the DC resistance lowered. So my next question is do the iron core inductors have a smaller electromagnetic field due to the intrinsic design....I'm thinking that there are some that are better than others. Anyway cost is usually not an insignificant factor for most of us and wasting money on things that only have a minor benefit needs to be considered. Even the Lintons are out of my budget and I lean towards DYI. But these Wafdales really look nice and could bet that they actually nice to my ears.
Great and informative interview. Especially for me the discussion about Grills on or off. I have one of the original Wharfedale Heritage designs being the Airedale Neo from 2007 (l think) and I've never been able to find out whether that my were also designed to be used with the grills in place. So Terry the next time you are talking to Peter Comeau can you ask him for me please. 😉😉 A long shot I know. Awesome channel, by the way.
Well done! Superb discussion on Wharfedale speaker design and history. Growing up, these were one of the speaker brands that said you took your listening seriously.
Such good vintage-looking speakers! I still want the wharfdale Elysian 4 towers❤ or the Mission 770s more than the Dovedales…but they’re growing on me by the minute!
They were my first serious speaker back in 1968, got them inj edgware road and cabbed them home if I recall. Those days Edgware road and Tottenham Crt road were the Mecca's of hi fi. Got home an played them all night.
eventually I partnered them with the Trio 2001 amp....fantastic all thought that little trio at 15 watts per channel ran out of steam but6 sounded magic
What a legend. I have the Lintons and couldn't be happier with them. That said, I now of course am debating whether to upgrade to the Dovedales. ARGH! Great discussion and absolutely fascinating even for a non-science geek like me!
Got my Lintons brand new, matched pare with stands for €950,-. I think nothing can beat those for the price. Sure, Dovedale will sound even better than the Lintons but not willing to spend that amount off money. Would love to take a listen tough. Great interview by the way!
I had a pair of Heybrook HB3 series 1, designed by Peter in early '80s and loved them. They had mirrored crossovers on a large PCB! I'd love to ask him about that. Wish I still had them!
Very enjoyable discussion to listen to. I've always loved the look of the Linton but just could not imagine myself purchasing relevant to multiple reviews and the type of amplification I prefer (300B - tubes). My music listening goes all the way back to the 50's (mono) and I've observed and heard the wonderful audio evolution both in science and sonic quality. I will be definitely learning everything I can about this speaker because sonically it just might fit-the-bill and aesthetically I think it is drop dead gorgeous. At my age could the Dovedales be my last set of speakers? Not if I have anything to do with it. I do wonder how these would sound with a well recorded version of Beethoven's piano concertos followed by some David Gilmour?
Peter designed one of my favourite speakers ever, the Heybrook HB1 still a great sounding speaker 40 years on. Next in the heritage range could be the wharfdale kingsdale 3, which were given to me from a house clearance in the eighties, wish I kept them !
Great interview! I've learned a couple of useful things for my home-made speakers design. I was just considering that idea about low-tunned bass-reflex enclosure instead of a sealed box for the last couple of days. And here you are with a confirmation that it could actually be very good. Also, yesterday I was checking all needed crossover components and had noticed that all of them would not fit into a dedicated (for crossover) space. But that idea of separate low and mid-high sections could be a good solution for that issue.
Superb - thanks for the Video. I've a feeling my dear late father would have enjoyed it even more as he was a fan of Wharfdale Lintons back in day. He also once had his own speaker enclosure built up with a massive bass driver - probably 15 inch (either Goodmans or Wharfdale) in the late 1950s to match his Leak valve tuner Amp.
Thank you for this video. Very well filmed and (ok you're a "HiFi" channel so.....one would hope) splendid clear sound, again cheers also lovely of Wharfedale to give you the access and time to film.
Really great video Terry, you have a gift for interviewing people allowing the interviewees to take centre stage. I'm tempted by the mission 770 for next upgrade, I know you love them. But now with the Dovedales being released I have another contender on the list. Having now heard both speakers, can you give any advice? Thanks 🙏
funny how we are going back to the old 3 way design in a large cabinet with separated rear compartments for each woofer, and dressing it up as something new. It was always fundamentally a good design! Now, with new materials such as kevlar, better bracing and greater emphasis and good damping and the improved crossovers, this is an improvement, no doubt. However, I really think Wharfedale seriously missed a trick by not allowing them to be tri-wireable or at least even bi-wireable, as in my experience there is always an improvement when adding separate power amps for each driver. I appreciate they designed the optimal sound to be with the grills on, yet I would emphasise something in the way of a driver like a grill/piece of fabric is still something that obstructs, and is therefore arguably detrimental to the sound, after all you can't deny physic's.
Great interview and I love the old-world perspective of Peter Comeau. I couldn't help but be saddened by the fact that Wharfedale like just about everything else is no longer an independent British Company but is owned by a Multinational Chinese interest
I can tell the old Dovedales 3 sounds amazing and are very very honest in the mid range with the right amp. I run them in dual mono,each has a NAD214 power amp behind them. Amps get feeded by a SPL volume 2 controller. And the SSL audio card feeds the SPL ... Heaven!! No pre amp between it that colours the sound is the best! 💯
I look forward to your review. I heard them at the Bristol hifi show & was surprisingly unimpressed . Perhaps the system was pushed too loud.( It was booming) Please note I haved owned the Lintons since 2020 & use them everyday so no axe to grind on my part 👍
$7,000 US is a lot of money with many good speaker choices available for this price. It's obvious the construction of this is over the top. I hope these live up to the hype.
