Wharfedale Diamond 9.1

Product Information

Last, and certainly not least, the 9.1s also look and feel like far more expensive speakers. Forget the bog-standard box design commonly used for budget boxes – these elegant standmounts boast curved, braced cabinets, cranking aesthetic appeal up a notch, and also helping reduce unwanted cabinet vibrations and dissipate any standing waves produced by the mid/bass driver. Prices (US retail price): the F1 Custom is USD140, the PSB USD 280, and the others are above USD300 (the Usher is above USD400).

Wharfedale DIAMOND 9.0 | Speakers Per Pair | Richer Sounds Wharfedale DIAMOND 9.0 | Speakers Per Pair | Richer Sounds

A speaker may offer a flat on-axis response, but how that response changes to the speaker's sides also affects its perceived tonal balance. Here the little Wharfedale also performed well, with a wide, even lateral dispersion below 8kHz or so (fig.5). What appears to be a slight flare at the bottom of the tweeter's passband in this graph is actually the small notch at 4kHz in the on-axis response filling in to the speaker's sides. In the vertical plane (fig.6), the overlap in the crossover region between the two drive-units leads to a peak developing in the low treble more than 10° above the tweeter axis, and a corresponding notch more than 10° below that axis. Suitable stands should be used to place the Diamond 9.1s' tweeters at ear level. It is very much to the credit of this Wharfedale that it carefully avoids such a pitfall and manages to sound like a genuine 'grown up' hi-fi speaker, despite its very modest price. With a front port, these bass reflex speakers are punchier than you might expect and in no way could they ever be described as tinny. Over all, they may be small but the sound is grown-up, with excellent staging, realism and surprisingly powerful.

The impedance plot indicates that the small woofer's reflex loading is tuned to 50Hz. However, as can be seen in fig.3, the expected notch in its response actually occurs a little lower in frequency, at 45Hz, with the twin ports covering a wide bandpass from 30Hz to 120Hz. (The outputs of the woofer and ports in this graph are scaled in the ratio of the square roots of their radiating areas.) The ports' higher-frequency rollout is free from the spikes that would indicate the presence of resonances, while the woofer crosses over to the tweeter at approximately 2kHz, with some overlap apparent. Both drivers mainly have relatively flat outputs within their respective passbands, with peaks balanced by dips. Wharfedale's Diamond 9.1 is a remarkable product for it's price in that it avoids the pitfalls that make most small budget loudspeakers unlistenable. The bass is quite surprising for a 5" woofer - solid and fast - without the "boomy" quality that is so common with entry level speakers. Highs are remarkably smooth. My first reaction was that the highs were rolled off, but as I listened more, I noticed convincing reproductions of triangle, piccolo, cymbals The professional reviewers were correct in saying Wharfedale designed a terrific dome tweeter for the latest Diamond series. With the 9.1s, there is absolutely no need to spend the extra money for the 9.2s or the PacEvo 8s or PacEvo 10s. There are no fewer than six stereo pairs in the Diamond 9 range, but the 9.1 miniature is the one that's been grabbing the headlines.

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 review | What Hi-Fi?

Wharfedale has made some great speakers over the years, so it wasn't difficult to choose some highlights The three-way drive unit array was made up of 3in, 10in and 12in units, with the two larger drivers being connected in parallel, and the tweeter crossover consisted of a single capacitor.

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The cabinet isn't just compact, it's also very solid. This combination gives the Diamonds an extremely accurate sound quality as the cabinet doesn't flex or vibrate. Equally impressive are the drive units. A soft dome tweeter gives the clarity and smoothness of sound you'd expect from a more expensive speaker, while the woofer cone uses a carbon fibre type weave to offer extremely taut and responsive bass.

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 loudspeaker Measurements Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 loudspeaker Measurements

I found the Diamond to have more extended high freq. than the F1 Custom. However, the Diamond has more colouration, the sound is nice and warm, but not in a good sense, these “nice & warm” things seem to be fabricated, as opposed to an honest and realistic sound. In other words, to me this loudspeaker really has its own colour, which are nice & warm, thus accuracy is definitely not a strong point here. Fig.1 Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.) Small speakers often show a tendency to 'shout', by over-projecting the upper midband and presence zone. The build quality is great for an small bookslef speaker. The speakers can be bi-wired and have quality terminals. Yes, the cabinet is vinyl, but it looks and feels far more lilke wood than the typical vinyl speaker.

Description: Two-way, magnetically shielded, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) soft-dome tweeter, 5" (125mm) Kevlar-cone woofer. Crossover frequency: 2.3kHz. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Frequency response: 50Hz–24kHz, –6dB. Recommended power: 20–100W.

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 loudspeaker Specifications

I think they're very good looking in the cherry finish, especially for a speaker at this price point.

Fig.3 Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, acoustic crossover on tweeter axis at 50", corrected for microphone response, with nearfield responses of woofer and port, plotted below 300Hz and 1kHz, respectively. Some very slight wrinkles in the impedance traces between 150Hz and 900Hz imply the existence of some cabinet resonances. Investigating the panels' vibrational behavior with a plastic-tape accelerometer revealed a strong resonant mode present on all surfaces, but strongest on the sidewall (fig.2). Other modes existed at 465Hz and 900Hz but were not as strong. This mode is a little high in frequency to contribute to the "warmth" BJR noted in his auditioning; though it might add some midrange congestion with some kinds of music, Bob Reina didn't hear anything untoward in this respect.