Pros: Well built, quite acceptable sound quality, easy to mount, LOW price.
Cons: Difuse Bipole design not the best for music programs, treble sounds a little plasticy.
The Bottom Line: Great little surround speakers for not much money. There is certainly better out there, but if you are on a budget and have difficult mounting circumstances these are teriffic!
jawzx's Full Review: Wharfedale WH-2 Center Speaker
It's important to note that the WH-2 line from Wharfedale includes a 10" powered subwoofer and a shielded Center as well as the product I'm reviewing here, the Bipolar Surrounds.
Well, as others have noted these little suckers are tremendously well built and finished considering the $90pr price tag. The cabinets are sturdy and seem to have pretty low resonance (tap-tap, not KNOCK-KNOCK when rapped with a fist.) The drivers themselves are pretty nice looking little units with metal frames and high-quality materials used throughout (and remember, since these are bipolar, there are two woofers and two tweeters PER SPEAKER). The binding posts on the back of the speaker are also quite sturdy and confidence inspiring, and are fat enough that you can get some good leverage and really clamp down tight on your wire. The wall bracket is simple but sturdy and I have no fear that these will ever fall off the wall. The grills are also a step above what you usually see at this price point with shaped diffusion cuts around the tweeters and nice, large, tight mounting pins.
Based entirely on the build and finish quality of these things I'd call them a deal. Although I purchased the black model from Amazon.com, the real wood veneers offered for $10 more are very attractive, and based on the surface quality of the black ones, are probably competitive with speakers costing three times the amount. Looks good so far!
A Simple sealed box is what these speakers are, with 45 degree-angled panels in a trapezoid arrangement. Each angled panel contains 1 4" poly bass-mid and a 1" soft dome; ferofluid cooled tweeter, for a total of four drivers per speaker, that’s eight drivers for $90! Plus you get a well-built box, a crossover, and good quality binding posts! How does Wharfedale do it? Well they ARE made in China; still the value is incredible, just based on the parts used. The ferofluid cooled tweeters and double woofers give these little jobbies a 120 watt power handling rating, but since my receiver (see my review of the Onkyo TX-DS494) only puts out 70 Watts at 6 ohms I don't think I'll ever have a problem with blowing these. That and I don't often listen at high volumes anyway.
My surround system consists of the following: Paradigm CC-170 center channel (another bargain speaker!), Magnepan MG-IIc mains (no sub needed with the Maggies) and now the little Wharfedales. The Wharfedales are technically a downgrade for me as I used to use my Paradigm Mini-Monitors (see my review) as my surrounds, but since moving into a new apartment I don't have room behind my listening position to place them on stands, and I didn't want to put four screw holes in the wall for each speaker to wall mount them (I've got a damage deposit to think about!). Enter the Wharfedales: small, cheap, bipole, and I only need one screw to put up each of them.
On to the Sound...
Well, they aren't half-bad! The WH-2s have an effective woofer radiating area slightly less than that of a 6" woofer, and the bass is not as powerful as the thumpity Mini-monitors, but it is tight, controlled, snappy, and tuneful! Treble is ever so very slightly plasticy (but not shrill) sounding, these are new and may improve with break-in. Mid-range seems surprisingly good.
Well perhaps not too surprising since the 4" mid-bass drivers in a sealed box are close to what one might see in a high-end speaker with a separate midrange chamber. Since they are bipolar, talk of their stereo imaging is useless. The Wharfedale WH-2s are diffuse by design, which is fine for rear, or even side speakers in a 6.1 or 7.1 system, but don't think you can get away with using these as fronts!
The plus side of the WH-2's diffuse sound field is that mounting location becomes less critical. I have mine mounted well higher than they ought to be and not centered between the side walls, I can hear the problems this arrangement has (ie: slightly larger space on one side than the other, and a feeling that rear-channel effects are hovering over your head...), but if I had put a standard speaker in this unflattering location the results would likely have been awful, instead of just non-optimal. CD audio and DVD-A programs sound surprisingly good with this arrangement! (Another reason the WH-2s sound OK placed higher than normal is their inverted design; the tweeter is on the bottom and the Woofer on top.)
All in all, I'd be a horrible complainer if I called these little Wharfedales anything less than a fantastic bargain. Build quality is top-notch, sound quality is great for the price point, and they don't look half-bad either. If you are searching for an inexpensive, easily wall-mountable side or rear speaker for a budget home theater system don't over look the Wharfedale WH-2 surrounds.
Pair of rear satellite speakers for multichannel surround sound applications Bipolar design disperses audio in full 180-degree field to create larger ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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