Wharfedale - Denton 80th (Walnut) Walnut

Product Information

Upon my return last night night, I rewired them in phase and put them into listening position. Stands are heavy, sand-filled metal (Target?), with the tweeters raised to proper ear level. Multiple enhancements, along with the strong tie to one of the finest legacy's in audio, ensure music lovers of all stripes will want this model. The bass unit boasts a standard-setting woven Kevlar cone mounted on a ridged die-cast chassis, while the drive units are paired with a meticulous crossover to achieve seamless balance and performance. Denton's cabinet walls utilize Wharfedale's distinguished sandwich wood construction, leading to improved panel resonance, decreased internal vibrations, and diminished colorations. The end result: An alluring compact loudspeaker that fuses utmost craftsmanship, pure sonics, and incredible value. Wharfedale wouldn't have it any other way. The cabinet is reflex-loaded via twin rear-mounted ports, unlike the original’s infinite baffle design, and this confers dramatically better sensitivity (90dB up from 86dB) and bass extension (35Hz down from 60Hz). “It uses a sandwich of high-density chipboard with MDF skins that scatters panel resonance more effectively than the almost ubiquitous modern use of MDF alone”, he adds. “Finally the crossover has been designed using computer software together with hundreds of hours of listening tests and refinement”. What you get with the new Denton is a decidedly retro looking loudspeaker boasting a beautifully veneered Mahogany cabinet, inset front baffle and traditional cloth grille. But beneath that 1960s fascia things inside are very different indeed. The original model’s paper cone mid/bass unit is replaced by Wharfedale’s own 21st century 125mm woven Kevlar driver while the tweeter is a bang-up-to-date 25mm textile soft dome.

As others have stated, the rosewood finish on these speakers is rather stunning, much more so in person that how they look on the web. The wood grain pops with wonderful vividness and depth. These speakers are lovely to look at and look "high end."

Traditional Front Grille: The front grille has been designed to ensure it has no adverse effect on the speaker’s performance. The cloth chosen for the grille not only emphasizes the traditional look but also enhances the sonic performance. The Triangle Borea BR03 bookshelf speaker delivers impressive sound quality with a warm and detailed sound, tight bass, and good separation and precision, and offers a wide range of connectivity options, making it versatile and suitable for various use cases.

The problem with nostalgia is that it isn’t what it used to be, as the old gag goes. Yet actually this speaker sounds strangely modern – far more than you would expect by looking at it – while avoiding the pitfalls of both classic and new designs. The Linton sure is quite different to your average modern ‘tower’ loudspeaker, with a sense of physicality and heft to the lower registers that’s really something special. I start off with ELO’s Mr Blue Sky – a classic late-seventies slice of pop – and this speaker belts it out with relish. There’s an uncanny feeling of lots of air moving around the room, yet despite this it still sounds really relaxed, showing tremendous grace under pressure, never breaking into a sweat. That bullet was making me crazy... Ended up buying a pair within two weeks of this post if I'm not mistaken] Both speakers are highly capable, with the Dentons leaning more towards a lush presentation and the LS50's offering a more detailed, transparent presentation. As for the Ushers, they have a slight reported treble lift but I personally haven't noticed it much. However, my high frequency hearing is plateaing out at around 13khz .

Provided that you spend time properly toeing-in the speaker to the best angle for your listening position – and it can be quite a fine balance – you’ll doubtless be impressed by the stereo imaging. It doesn’t quite have the pinpoint precision of some rivals with coaxial tweeter/midrange drivers, but it’s still pretty good and gives the lie to the claim that wide baffle speakers don’t image well. Every recording I play sounds surprisingly large and expansive. Haitink’s superb reading of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.2 sounds wonderfully atmospheric with a great sense of the recorded acoustic, for example. Depth perspective is a real standout strength for this speaker, too. Underneath the exterior, the Anniversary Edition is a perfect mixture of traditional and advanced technology. The bass unit features Wharfedale’s innovative woven Kevlar cone mounted on a rigid die-cast chassis. The drive units are combined with a highly researched crossover that blends the drivers perfectly. The new Wharfedale Linton re-imagines the past, rather than recreating it. It delivers so much of what was great about old-school wide-baffle loudspeakers – the ease, effortless musicality and room filling physicality – yet consigns the age-old problems of vagueness, dynamic compression and poor transient response to the dustbin of history. It’s a special speaker in its way, but what I most like about it is that it offers all this for such an attractive price. DP I like to build another system around Wharfedale Denton 80th Anv. speakers and looking to replace above components as I will move those from current to my secondary habitat.