11.2019

Wharfedale Speakers

Wharfedale is among the most venerable English speaker brands, founded in 1932. Wharfedale is known for making affordable speakers with uncommon technology. Wharfedale sweats the details to create a more refined mouse trap. Consider driver materials, cabinet construction and damping, unique porting techniques… We think they’re making the best inexpensive speakers out there now.
For example, Wharfedale has unique venting techniques compared to everyone else. The speakers have an internal down firing, flared escape path. The opening is slot loaded for greater control with virtually no sludge. By the way, placement is a breeze.
W uses dense absorbing material within their cabinets, and also within their TWEETER enclosures to make the smoothest sounding speakers in their price class- yet they sound open, not dark. W tames resonances to avoid bright, uneven performance.
Driver surrounds are a cutting edge poly/foam mix for light weight, prolific travel and speed. They deliver bass without being muddy.
Tweets are soft dome with a precision wave guide for wide dispersion. We’re starting with these models. They make a zillion more!

Diamond 11.1 $350 pr (13h, 7.76w, 11.6d)

5.5” Kevlar mid/bass with 1” soft dome tweet.

Diamond 11.2 $500 pr (14.2h, 8.84w, 11.6d)

6.5” Kevlar mid/bass with 1” soft dome tweet- best $500 speakers out there!

Evo 4.1 $700pr (13.4h, 8.4w, 11.8d)

5” Kevlar mid/bass with RIBBON tweeter

Evo 4.2 $1000pr (18.2h, 10, 14d)

6.5” Kevlar woof, 2” soft dome mid with RIBBON tweeter

Linton $1200pr (22.24h, 11.81w, 14.17d, 41 lbs)

Outstanding Heritage Model in real wood- a true descent of Wharfedale’s history. Linton is an 8” 3-way in a full sized stand mount design. Matching stands are $300pr. Or, you can run them on shelves. 8” Kevlar woof, 5” Kevlar Mid, 1” soft dome tweet.

 

Kimber Kable Carbon Interconnects

.5m $476, .75m $526, 1m $576, 2m $676, 3m $976, 4m $1176

My favorite interconnects are the Kimber Selects, KS1136 which run $3335 for one meter. They use solid core silver wire with a handful of Kimber tricks. They’re great and we sell them once in a while. Great as they are, that’s too big a number to sell regularly. So how can we achieve something CLOSE to the KS1136 for much less money?

Answer: Kimber Carbon Interconnects! The Carbons are high purity (102% IACS) stranded copper. Ray Kimber and staff have designed a new insulation technique which introduces a CARBON INFUSED factor to the Teflon jacket coating. Carbon is conductive, which gives the cable a more lively, dynamic sound.

When you first listen to the Carbons you’ll think you added more POWER to your system. Of course you did NOT. What you’re hearing is greater dynamic range, bass impact and clarity. Ray has been working on this secret sauce for about 25 years!

You don’t have to have a $100k plus state of the art system to hear this improvement. I can hear the difference clearly with a cut above system which runs under $5k.

NAD C568 CD Player $800
NAD C388 Integrated amp $1750
Magnepan MG 1.7i speakers $2200

Just install a Carbon Interconnect between the CD player and integrated and then, install the speaker wires!

Kimber Kable Carbon Speaker Cables

Carbon 8: 2m $1500, 3m $1900, 3.5m $2100, 4.5m $2500, 6m $3100
Carbon 16: 2m $2600, 3m $3400, 3.5m $3800, 4.5m $4600, 6m $5800
Carbon 18XL: 2m $3600, 3m $4600, 3.5m $5100, 4.5m $6100, 6m $7600

Yep, everything I stated about the Carbon Interconnect above follows through with the speaker cables. Having Carbon infused with the Teflon jacket provides approximately a 5% increase in transmission speed. It helps everything musically- transients, starts/stops, dynamics. Consider installing a set of Carbon 8s to glean the most from your system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kimber Tonik Interconnects

If you’re after affordable interconnects that perform closer to high end than entry level, please consider the Kimber Tonik line.
Tonik uses Kimber’s Varistrand design. Instead of using wire of all the same thickness, Kimber uses a variety of thicknesses so the sonic signature of a given size doesn’t dominate. Ameliorating the array makes for a more detailed, less identifying sound. Kimber uses a Three Wire Braid geometry to avoid heavy capacitance and deliver cleaner sound. Traditional wires use wire of lesser purity and quash audio performance with suffocating grounding techniques. Tonik is a true cut above its similarly priced competitors who use lesser metallurgy and foam construction.

Tonik Single Ended
.5m $83, 1m $94, 2m $116

Tonik Balanced
.5m $99, 1m $110, 2m $132

ETM:
“These interconnects are close to a neutral balance, or are very slightly to the warm and rich side of it. For better performance a much more expensive cable would be necessary.”

 

 

 

 

 

Diahann Carroll (1935-2019)

Anyone who has visited hi-fi stores or shows, has heard the very talented Diana Krall. She’s so likable that she is over played these days. Hey, it isn’t her fault.
Audio Emporium opened in 1977. In 1978 one of the best sounding, and selling, direct to disc albums came out on the Orinda label. Diahann Carroll sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. It was a tribute album to Ethel Waters. That D2D was just as ubiquitous in hi-fi salons throughout the world THEN as D Krall has been for a few years. Virtually everyone in our biz used this disc regularly to showcase their systems- for years. What a classy singer to front a great big band!