If I can channel my inner Great Carnac, I’d say the answer to my question would be to unload the W90Ds and just build a proven DIY design. But I’ll don my fire-rated garments and ask anyway…forgive me if this offends anyone.
I’ve had these W90D speakers for several years and have made several attempts to bring them up to par. I’ve seen many comments about how easy and pleasant sounding the Wharfedales of this era are but these have never done much for me. I’ve tried the SX-780, my Denon AVR-3000 and currently a Kenwood Basic M1A in various settings and nary a positive twitch. My hand-me-down A25s (in comparison) sound just like many describe: perfect to listen to all day even without the highs and lows. And yes, the A26 or related alternate designs are on my radar.
I’ve got the original purple egg tweeters, but one had the broken Al lead so I pulled them and dropped in some Visatons. I also replaced all caps with the Dayton PMPC precision series and most recently grafted new L-pads. The crossovers still have the original autoformer and iron core inductor.
My build experience is limited: small bookshelf full rangers with Alpair 10P units. I like these.
Also, I’m working on the LX-Mini (no sub); bought the kit from Madisound and working out the assembly/construction.
But back to the W90D. These are the single cavity design with standard (not Alnico) woofers. It would seem from all the modern “Kate Moss” like designs (tall and skinny), the horizontal side by side layout is out of fashion.
Is there ANY potential to use the W90 cabs/enclosure with updated xo and drivers to make these worthwhile?
Full disclosure, I would exercise every option to be able to revert back to stock - for some reason I can’t adulterate a pair in decent shape. But I’m willing to exercise my CNC router to make the most of it.
I did try to offload these a while back but seems few had interest.
Ok, ready for the flames…..
Z
I’ve had these W90D speakers for several years and have made several attempts to bring them up to par. I’ve seen many comments about how easy and pleasant sounding the Wharfedales of this era are but these have never done much for me. I’ve tried the SX-780, my Denon AVR-3000 and currently a Kenwood Basic M1A in various settings and nary a positive twitch. My hand-me-down A25s (in comparison) sound just like many describe: perfect to listen to all day even without the highs and lows. And yes, the A26 or related alternate designs are on my radar.
I’ve got the original purple egg tweeters, but one had the broken Al lead so I pulled them and dropped in some Visatons. I also replaced all caps with the Dayton PMPC precision series and most recently grafted new L-pads. The crossovers still have the original autoformer and iron core inductor.
My build experience is limited: small bookshelf full rangers with Alpair 10P units. I like these.
Also, I’m working on the LX-Mini (no sub); bought the kit from Madisound and working out the assembly/construction.
But back to the W90D. These are the single cavity design with standard (not Alnico) woofers. It would seem from all the modern “Kate Moss” like designs (tall and skinny), the horizontal side by side layout is out of fashion.
Is there ANY potential to use the W90 cabs/enclosure with updated xo and drivers to make these worthwhile?
Full disclosure, I would exercise every option to be able to revert back to stock - for some reason I can’t adulterate a pair in decent shape. But I’m willing to exercise my CNC router to make the most of it.
I did try to offload these a while back but seems few had interest.
Ok, ready for the flames…..
Z
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Good pictures are hard to find. This pair has had a woofer swap in one box.
A buddy has sime, he likes them. I have not heard.
At least teh tweeter side by side with the mid comes in mirror imaged pairs.
The purple domes are not great, the strong point on these is the bass driver. The weak points the enclosure and the XO.
You could consider making them into a WAW.
dave
Sorry about that. I should’ve posted some pics. Here are some:
I didn’t figure out how to embed photos from my phone so hopefully the links above work.
Z
I didn’t figure out how to embed photos from my phone so hopefully the links above work.
Z
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I also applied some surround Vintage AR “goo” to seal up the cloth surrounds on the woofers. I read somewhere about the woofers getting tight over time so I did exercise them a bit on a low frequency generator signal. 🙂
Z
Z
Some puzzlekoat/ModPodge on the bass driver will help. The mid as well but you have to be more careful. The Al dustcap in particualr will ring and benefit.
Yours ar ethe pair with the weird woofer (from the front)?
dave
Yours ar ethe pair with the weird woofer (from the front)?
dave
Yes indeed, one traditional woofer adjacent to one with a flat polystyrene face. But as you can see from the inside pic, the backsides look the same. I’ve seen some people assume it’s a passive radiator, but it’s not.
Essentially a pair of three ways wedged into a common cabinet x2. With sand in the rear cover.
I think prior versions (more desirable it seems) had the two chambers separated. The ‘E’ generation seems to be less desirable - not sure how the ‘D’ stacks up.
Z
Essentially a pair of three ways wedged into a common cabinet x2. With sand in the rear cover.
I think prior versions (more desirable it seems) had the two chambers separated. The ‘E’ generation seems to be less desirable - not sure how the ‘D’ stacks up.
Z
Here they are in front of my (departed) K-horns.
Two cabinets. Each cabinet with 6 drivers (2 woofers, 2 mids and 2 tweets). Quite the opposite of my bookshelf full ranger 🙂
So, the 3/4” thick motorboard cutout for the woofers is about 10.9” (278mm) in diameter and they are rear mounted.
The mids are also rear mounted with 4.5” (114mm) diameter cutouts.
The tweeters are slightly recessed (0.25” or so/6mm) with a 3.84” (98mm) cutouts.
Just to drive dispersion concerns, the front wood “fascia” is about 1.18” deep. So the black motorboard is recessed that much (30mm) and then these drivers are (mostly) rear mounted.
The approximate box volume in each cabinet (not including drivers) is 3.3cuft (93 liters).
Knowing even less than enough to be dangerous, I’ve considered portioning each cabinet to have a sub on one side (perhaps replace mid with vent, block off tweet) and leverage a normal mid base woofer, mid and tweeter on the other side. Each side would have 1.65 cuft / 46 liters or so.
I’d make another mounting board on top of the existing one to get the drivers flush(-ish).
Crazy? I’ve been called worse…
Z
Two cabinets. Each cabinet with 6 drivers (2 woofers, 2 mids and 2 tweets). Quite the opposite of my bookshelf full ranger 🙂
So, the 3/4” thick motorboard cutout for the woofers is about 10.9” (278mm) in diameter and they are rear mounted.
The mids are also rear mounted with 4.5” (114mm) diameter cutouts.
The tweeters are slightly recessed (0.25” or so/6mm) with a 3.84” (98mm) cutouts.
Just to drive dispersion concerns, the front wood “fascia” is about 1.18” deep. So the black motorboard is recessed that much (30mm) and then these drivers are (mostly) rear mounted.
The approximate box volume in each cabinet (not including drivers) is 3.3cuft (93 liters).
Knowing even less than enough to be dangerous, I’ve considered portioning each cabinet to have a sub on one side (perhaps replace mid with vent, block off tweet) and leverage a normal mid base woofer, mid and tweeter on the other side. Each side would have 1.65 cuft / 46 liters or so.
I’d make another mounting board on top of the existing one to get the drivers flush(-ish).
Crazy? I’ve been called worse…
Z
I have several systems setup, one each from the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The components are more or less period correct as well as the music played thru them. The 1960's system may color the sound more than the 70's or 80's systems but that is okay with me, I enjoy the different sounds.
I had a pair of W60E that looked like 1/2 of a W90. I regret selling them, they were lovely sounding speakers.
I had a pair of W60E that looked like 1/2 of a W90. I regret selling them, they were lovely sounding speakers.
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According to Gilbert Briggs: "We have noticed that the flat polystyrene diaphragm makes a useful addition to some existing cone speakers, as it lowers the resonance and also acts as an acoustic filter to reduce enclosure resonances heard through the cone".
Note the "divided bass range assignment".
The polystyrene diaphragm woofer handles the low bass range while the other woofer handles the upper bass and lower mid ranges.
The polystyrene diaphragm woofer handles the low bass range while the other woofer handles the upper bass and lower mid ranges.
I know I'm a year late to this conversation but in this past years I picked up a set of those speakers and I currently have them running with set of Sansui sp5500 (no X). I also have the w70 which go fantastic with either one. I have been running a pioneer SX 1500 t from 1968 using the two sets of speaker outputs and the configuration you see behind the drum set. Is nearly the width of my living room and is extremely pleasurable at any volume level. My Pets look inside of all of these speakers for whoever is playing those instruments. Speaking of these w-90d i'm trying to get a good tube amp from the late 50s early 60s..stereo prefers. El34, or 7519, or higher.powered t.. I'd really like to leave the speakers laid out as they are there but what would be the best way to go or what would be the possibilities they're all, 8ohme these two sets of speakers what's the best way to go? Is it safe to put the two 8 ohm speakers in parallel and use the forum taps on the the Fisher dynaco Scott eico Heathkit etc ? Or do I need separate stereo amp for each set of speakers to keep it at 8ohm stereo load. I'll tell you what these w-90d came to life when I switched from the pioneer over to a sansi 1000 that had one channel fried . I turned it into mono stereo so gave it half the power (split mono stereo usng1 channel, y cable etc .. holy wow and then I switched it to the sp5500. Too much.. even the wood grills moved.. I really like the combination of the w90d with the w70 and I really like the combination that you see on the floor there behind the drum set and I really like the sp5500 accurate but still intense .. mixed with smooth and very difficult to make sound bad w-90d. The sp5500 are much more sensitive to change in the bass treble adjust
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Such beauties. I really like this kind of woodwork.
Rarely to be found. Today so many "old" things are thrown away. It's a pity.
Rarely to be found. Today so many "old" things are thrown away. It's a pity.
I presume you mean the 'four ohm' taps! 🙂
Yes that is safe.
What is not safe is to put signal through a valve amp when there is no loudspeaker load connected.
The real question is ... Which amp would sound the best with that 4speak setup. (Pair of W90d and sp5500)Fisher x202b, St-70 of dynaco and eico st-70, various h/k , many many similar powered tube amp stereo from 58-63 ish.. I'm looking something for the perfect amount of power for those four speakers but everything that you saw in my speaker room photo up there except for the drum set I started with $20 I don't have a job and I ended up with all of that and that's only 1/4 of it