Which would you recommend? Yorkville vs. Wharfedale

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Everyone's pimping the Wharfdales, but I've got a pair of YSM1i through a yumcha power amp - very happy. Just good sound, solid bottom end, smooth highs, not hyped like the berrys or the ns10s.
 
I own a pair of Wharfedale 8.2A, had 'em for a couple of months now. I don't have a lot of experience with studio monitors so I can't give you any comparative comments.

That said, the Wharfedales sound pretty much like you would expect for an uncolored 8" 2-way: prominent mids and highs and a bit lacking in low end compared to an audiophile-quality system. In the near field the low end is definitely present, though, and audible. The sound is clear and undistorted at loud listening levels.

I guess the best testimonial that I could offer for the Wharfedales is that the first mix I made using the Wharfedales came out sounding excellent on my "quite good" home stereo speakers (Audio Concept Sapphire II's with Titan subwoofer) and also sounded good in the factory (shitty) stereo in my SUV.
 
Got them today, although they put down a wrong house number (invoice was right, shipping label was wrong), so the UPS guy was about to not deliver them today as the house number on the label doesn't exist. Lucky for me when I heard the truck drive up on the street I went outside waiting for my speakers. He asked who I was and I told him, man I couldn't have waited till monday, I have to much pent up energy to wait 3 more days. Anyway all is well.
 
Zaphod B said:
I guess the best testimonial that I could offer for the Wharfedales is that the first mix I made using the Wharfedales came out sounding excellent on my "quite good" home stereo speakers (Audio Concept Sapphire II's with Titan subwoofer) and also sounded good in the factory (shitty) stereo in my SUV.
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thats what its all about anyway...nothing to do with cost and brand name.

the new dropped prices is crazy?
I'm test driving the YSM1p and love them. Sound, Tracking, listening good stuff. $380.

Never heard the Wharfs....but at $250 their almost 30% cheaper.
And the RP8s at $300pair is extremely hard to believe.

At this rate if I keep upgrading, decent monitors will only cost about $125 a pair by next Dec.??? :eek:
 
Speaker stands arrived while I was at the CES last week so I finally got my 8.2a's set up this morning and I must say that I'm less than impressed with their overall performance.

Initial impressions are...light on the bass, forward midrange and overly-sibilant highs. I'll reserve final judgement until they're properly broken in, but I'm disappointed with their "out of the box" performance.

Also, a complaint about the fit and finish...one of the grille mounts was jammed into its mount and snapped off when I tried to remove it.
 
sibilant highs? the highs on mine seem some kind of mellow.
 
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Sibilant might not be the best word...harsh, scratchy and thin also come to mind. But, as I said, these are just my initial impressions (YMMV) afer 3-4 hours of listening to a limited amount of program material. I'll give them a good 100 hours of break in before making any final judgements.
 
Waiting for my Wharfedales. Got "the deal" at Pro Audio Direct. For this price there's no reason not to get them! They have to sound better than my blown out Roland MA-8's (desktop speakers). :D

Was wondering about the break-in period. What changes can I expect to occur from breaking the Wharfedales in? Should I just run a freq sweep on them for a constant 100 hour stretch to get the best results? How loud does it need to be? Is the whole "break-in period" just a joke or something?
 
Mixed opinions on the validity of a break-in period, Sorcerio. There was at least one entire thread a year ago if you use the search function. Interesting reading.

J.
 
When I got my wharf's, they sounded very stiff until they were broke in. Personally, I liked the stiffness.
 
every EE type person and Audio Guru i have spoken to says that there is some break in time for all analog sound equipment..(100hours for most things)



definitely true for cables, and my tube playback gear...
 
Sorcerio said:
Should I just run a freq sweep on them for a constant 100 hour stretch to get the best results? How loud does it need to be? Is the whole "break-in period" just a joke or something?
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Break in is not a joke.

Several aspects of a speaker's performance will change during the break in period, most notably the compliance (stiffness) of the woofer's suspension (the spider or damper [depending on what part of the world you live in] and to a lesser extent, the surround).

A frequency sweep is certainly one way of accelerating the break in period. My preferred method is using pink noise...either from a dedicated pink noise generator or a looped .wav file on my media player. It doesn't have to be wall-rattling loud, but you do want to get them playing loud enough so the woofer is moving a decent amount...maybe 3/8" - 1/2" peak to peak.

Having spent some more time with my new 8.2a's, I'm not as down on them as I was in my previous post. Their strongest feature is their low self-noise (or wide dynamic range). I'm hearing the inner details of many mixes that I've never heard before and, as I continue to work on their placement, I'm getting some impressive imaging.

What really helped to "lift the veil" off of my initial impressions was applying some subtle EQ to the tracks I've been listening to with my WMP. The more I listened to these speakers, the more I realized that the problem wasn't with the HF as much as it is with the midrange. In their present state, they have a very boxy, honky sound which is tamed by a 1-2 dB cut on the octave centers from 125 Hz to 1 kHz. This really opens up the sound and hopefully some of this will go away during the break in period.
 
I've heard its even more so with Kevlar, weaved cones.
One of the reasons some prefer the Aluminum cones, for an opposite example, they don't stretch out or change as much over time.
 
Hay just thought I would report back, got my 8.2's finally set up. Need to get them up off the desk (6-7inchs higher would be about right). But I can easily tell they are going to help out a lot. The only other studio speakers I have heard, are NS-10s and some large custom jobs, so I can't compare them to much. But, yes they are probably worth more then what I paid for them.
 
I'm thinking about jumping on this deal. What sub would you pair with it? I know wharfe puts out a sub as well, but didn't know if you could couple it with something else.
 
Baaaah, couldn't stand it. Placed the order and I now have Wharfies on the way. I've just heard too many good things about these monitors from those with better ears than I have to let this deal get away. That is a smokin' deal on those monitors. THanks for the link Jeff!

Jonathan
 
And the Wharfe QC issues continue...Got my set from Atlanta Pro Audio and one was a dud. Seems the balanced jack ain't so balanced on that one, lots of noise. Tried different cable setups with different outs, but to no avail. Also the little blue light doesn't work. I know these are budget monitors, but come on. I spoke with Atlanta Pro Audio about getting a replacement and they were saying I was going to have to contact Wharfedale directly. Hmmmmm....customer service? I'm hoping that's not the case, but my email has yet to be answered, granted I sent it on Friday night so maybe they haven't seen it yet. Either way, I'm hoping that I can get a replacement ASAP from them. We'll see.

It was still a good deal, now I hope that they'll atleast follow through with the customer service.

Jonathan
 
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