As Wharfedale celebrates its 85th birthday, the company has just announced the new Diamond 11 Series, with the promise of budget-friendly quality.

Wharfedale’s famous Diamond speakers have served as the classic entry point to true high-fidelity sound. Since 1981 their exceptional value for money has earned numerous ‘product of the year’ awards in the UK and around the world.

With the introduction of the all-new Diamond 11 Series, Wharfedale has once again raised the bar for affordable, high-performance loudspeakers.

Wharfdale Diamond 11

The new range comprises eight models: three standmount speakers, three floorstanders, and two centre speakers for home cinema systems.

The most obvious change is a return to the elegantly curved cabinet sides. These were made famous by the Diamond 9 and Diamond 10 ranges, which yielded What Hi-Fi? ‘Product of the Year Awards’ in 2005 and 2009 for the Diamond 9.1 and 10.1 respectively.

The end result is an affordable speaker range with a distinctly premium look and sound.

Extensive improvements

• New drive units across the range, designed and built in-house to deliver exceptional performance at this price
• Bass/midrange drivers incorporate massive magnet designs, special ribbed baskets and advanced suspension to complement their woven Kevlar
• High-performance textile-domed tweeter sports an over-sized ceramic magnet and specially shaped rear
• Redesigned crossover network, perfected over thousands of hours of listening
• Cabinet walls made from a sandwich of woods of differing density, ensuring excellent acoustic characteristics and an impeccable standard of
• Curved cabinet walls enhance acoustic performance as well as the speakers’ aesthetic
• Bass loading via an improved version of Wharfedale’s slot-loaded distributed port, enabling deep, articulate and well-integrated bass with an absence of ‘chuffing’.

Advanced driver systems

Instead of designing drive units that are built down to a price, Wharfedale started with the premise that Diamond drivers should be aimed at performance.

This means that the Diamond 11 Series sports advanced driver systems incorporating elements that normally found in high-end loudspeakers.

For example, the bass and midrange drivers use a basket with a network of ribs that maintain the rigidity of the basket while leaving a large open area behind the cone.

These new speakers also feature massive magnet designs to both raise sensitivity and ensure absolute control of cone movement over lower bass frequencies.

In addition, the use of a specially shaped one-part-forged pole piece with copper cap reduces inductance, controls the magnetic flux and ensures low distortion through the critical midrange area.

Naturally, the woven Kevlar cone, a long-time favourite for Diamond designs, has been treated to provide a precise match to the new suspension elements. This avoids the ‘midrange dip’ caused by reflections from the surrounding edge.

High-frequency performance has been similarly enhanced with a sophisticated new tweeter design.

Again, an over-sized ceramic magnet system is used. Here, the pole piece is vented through to a specially shaped rear chamber, damped with a fibre filling.

This provides a low resonant frequency below 800Hz. This not only, ensures excellent linearity throughout the operating bandwidth, it also allows the textile dome to contribute to a lucid midrange performance in addition to precise high-frequency detailing.

Cabinet

For the Diamond 11 Series, Wharfedale’s engineers have refined the multi-layer sandwich of woods to subdue the cabinet ‘sound’. This should let the drive units speak for themselves.

Critical bracing of the cabinet panels, together with the curved cabinet walls, have reduced resonances more than 25dB below the driver outputs.

Furthermore, the cabinet walls are lined with a specially developed fibre chosen for its outstanding absorbent qualities across a wide bandwidth.

The result is that the listener hears the drive unit output unsullied by unwanted colourations caused by panel vibration or internal resonances, revealing more of the detail of the musical performance.

Slot-loaded  distributed port

The slot-loaded distributed port is a recent Diamond innovation. First introduced in the Diamond 100 Series in 2012, the internal port tube opens into a slot formed between the cabinet and the plinth.

This reduces the turbulence and audible ‘chuffing’ suffered by conventional ported systems. A further benefit is to increase the efficiency of energy transfer from the bass reflex tuning to the room.

The result is said to be an entirely natural and low-distortion recreation of the fundamental notes of bass instruments, matching the realistic sound of the midrange and treble characteristics.

The low ‘Q’ (broad tuning) nature of this ported system also allows you to position Diamond 11 speakers close to a rear wall.

Wharfedale Diamond 11 Series prices and availability

The Diamond 11 Series is available from July. All speakers come in a choice of black, white, walnut and rosewood. Recommended retail prices are as follows:

• Bookshelf speakers Diamond 11.0: £159.95 per pair Diamond 11.1: £269.95 per pair Diamond 11.2: £349.95 per pair
• Floorstanding speakers Diamond 11.3: £599.95 per pair Diamond 11.4: £779.95 per pair Diamond 11.5: £999.95 per pair
• Home cinema centre speakers Diamond 11.CC: £149.95 Diamond 11.CS: £229.95

Wharfedale Diamond 11 Series specifications