Wharfedale - Diamond 220 (Walnut)

I wouldn't ordinarily go for expensive imported speakers, but these are used for my near field listening at my home office. I listen here for hours a day and I wanted really exceptional sound quality - not little plastic computer speakers. The price on these was reasonable for such a well regarded brand, and the reviews for these 220's have been stellar. So I took the leap, and haven't regretted a thing. They sound flawless. Rock, jazz, and classical, I just smile when I listen with these. Quick transients, crisp midrange, smooth treble. I also purchased the small subwoofer from Wharfedale, the 10.SX, to accompany these, and I'll admit that it gives them the lift in the low end that they need. So all in all, larger than typical desktop speakers, but worth every penny.

Very nice speakers. I have them paired with PS Audio Sprout and a laptop full of FLAC. It took about 60-80 hours to really burn in the system, but then the speakers disappear. When you close your eyes, all you get is the music. On well recorded tracks, the system is a dream a,d not unexpectedly, with badly recorded, over-compressed crap such as mp3s, the system unfortunately shows it, lighting up with sibilance on the high end and muddiness on the low.This setup is particularly wonderful for jazz recordings. Wow... Like sitting in a club while the music plays. Sufficiently detailed for classical. Not the best I've heard, but that's an unfair comparison against a larger, more sophisticated system. In a small room, these will make Solti's Wagner recordings really sing.The real surprise was with rock recordings. These speakers pack some serious oomph for their size. Yes, you can crank up "Smoke On the Water" with these and happily air guitar along. The bass is well extended and pretty tight.Didn't bi-wire, even though they're wired for it. Honestly don't think I could tell the difference if I did. As far as price/performance goes, these are some serious bang for the buck. I've listened to far more expensive speakers that didn't sound half as good.For the money, I couldn't be happier.

I had limited space for where these speakers were going to be placed. These Wharfedales fit the bill and sound very good. I was lucky to find them. They look beautiful as well.

These British-designed, Chinese made speakers do a fine job for speakers at this price point. Skins are vinyl, enclosures are solidly built and components are weighty enough to avoid unwanted vibrations and to provide fine, clear sound. They make a handsome pair for bookshelf or table top display. I took the word of audiophile reviewers whose 'ears' are more demanding than mine about the quality of this set and I have been very well-pleased with my purchase, which I am using with a combination stereo radio/amp/phono/cd player base unit by Yamaha. My kit would blow the windows out of my senior community apartment and still would provide high quality sound. As it is, the setup delivers a full range of quality sound at low volume levels as well.

Excellent sound! Love it.

Have been using this speaker for 20 hours, it haven't fully break in yet. Anyway, great sound, I like the warm characteristic of this speaker. The speaker just getting better and better from hour to hour. Besides, the look and construction are great as well, feel luxury. Am happy i purchased it.

sound great to my ears

was going to use these for games and EM music... speakers sound good for games very detailed mid-range driver, tweeter on music cracked in the highest regions... and sound soft on top.. they do not show up the definition of EM music ... They do a great job on dialog in movies ... watched Hannibal and voices were perfect.. near field background noises were distinct.. hannibal standing at a phone booth could hear everything and the sound of rushing car noise people walking everything in place... sounds excellent on vocals... guitars.. but subtle timbre on EM music did not sound distinct.. and on some music tweeter would break up with some high freq. sounds playing music.