Wharfedale Sapphire 83 Floorstanding Speakers

Wharfedale Sapphire 83 Floorstanding Speakers 

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 22  
[Sep 12, 2002]
dkord
Casual Listener

Strength:

Nice looks, rich sound, great buy.

Weakness:

None

Well, Ubid overcharged me shipping on these so I complained and they credited the overcharge so I was happy. Came to $80 total. Got these for the rears in my system which has Sapphire 87's in front. Though they don't fill a very large room as well as the '87's for a small room they're great. Nice balance w/ no harshness. Without a sub they do OK if they're about 1 ft. or less from back wall on stands or on a bookshelf. With sub - full range, "it's all there" sound.

Similar Products Used:

Boston CR8, Paradigm Titan, BIC V62si

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 17, 2000]
michael
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

cost, sound

Weakness:

a little to bright for my taste

These speakers possess much fuller sound that I expected from a speaker this size. Actually bought them on a whim from ubid for 77 each plus shipping. I auditioned a pair of bose 301s about a year ago and was about set to purchase a pair of mini monitor when I saw these on ubid. I did as much research as I could and finally ran across this site. The reviews sounded good, so I said what the hell for 70-80 bucks if I don't like them I can give them to my son. I wasn't to impressed at first, but after I bi-wired them and played them for a few hours they seemed to warm up. I was so impressed with the wharfedale sound I decided to give their modus line (Modus 8 a great speaker) a try and they ended up in my son's room anyway. I plan to eventually use them as rear's in a home theater.

I must say that I liked these better than the mini monitor though it wasn't a fair comparison i.e. 2 different rooms, amps, cd players, and so on. But for the money it would be hard to go wrong with these.

Similar Products Used:

compared to bose 301, paradigm mini monitor

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 19, 2000]
M B
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Price/Value = Great Sound

Weakness:

"W" on the blue cones! UGLY!

-This is a follow up post! I finally Bi-Wired my Saph-83s using quality Monster Cable, All that I have heard is true. The sound stage is more open, the highs are slightly more detailed, and the bass is tighter. I didnt hear much change in the mid range though.. (I bi-wired the left channel first, leaving the right side wired conventionally, then proceded to fade between left and right channels.. testing which sounded better).
I believe my speakers are still in the break in period.. so Im expecting even better sound to come!

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 07, 2000]
Bill
Casual Listener

Strength:

RICH SOUND. I bought 4 of these beauties from ubid, i got 2. im waiting for the other 2. The two that are set up, are amazing. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe them so i'll just say they kick @$$.

Weakness:

none so far.

You shouldn't waste time by reading this, just go buy these speakers. That is all.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 12, 2000]
M B
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Sound, Bi Wire/Amp, Quality Co.

Great speakers for the price! For a book shelf they really put out the sound. Im anxious to try the bi wire set up.. I hope it will open them up as others have claimed. Im not impressed with the looks of the cones though.. I wish they would have left them a solid blue. (minor complaint) Just last night I cranked up the volume to Limp Bs Three Dollar Bill.. Man they sounded GREAT! (as with other music)However, Im not pushing alot of bass thru them since Ive got two seperate powered subs..
But when I do bypass the subs, theres plenty of bass for a book shelf. Ive also got the matching center channel.. and am planning on getting the Saph-89s. Overall, a great speaker for the price! Im very pleased with my purchase.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Janzen Electrostats, Infinity, JBL, Bose

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 09, 2000]
newuser
Casual Listener

Strength:

vocals, mids and highs

Weakness:

Boomy bass. kind of big

Paid around 100 for a pair at ubid not including shipping. I got ripped off in shipping like everyone else. I'm rather a newbie in the sound world and purchased these speakers based on the reviews of the site. After listening to them , they are everything the other reviewers said they are. excellent, excellent vocals. very smooth and warm sound. good mids and highs. The only problem i have with them is that the bass is rather boomy, drums don;t really sound like drums they sound very muddled. Plus the size is kind of large. I was going to use them as surround speakers but they are too big for my living room.

Similar Products Used:

stuff from wiz and circuit city.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 17, 2000]
speedyj
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

focused, detailed sound, natural voacls
solid construction

Weakness:

marginal vinyl finish

I too got these from ubid on a whim. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the sound. The vocals are natural, well defined and very present. Higher frequency are detailed, yet relatively smooth. Low end is satisfying, but a little loose. For the price $67each, its hard to beat. Definitely a strong contender in the $300-500 bookshelf market.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Atom, Titan
KEF Coda's 7,8

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 11, 1999]
George
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Bi-wiring,silk dome tweeter,wharfedale quality

Weakness:

wood venier would be nice

Bought these at UBID.com for 77 each,along with a sapphire cc,and a set of saffire 89`s.I got these first and had a week to play them before the others arrived and these would be moved to be my rears for HT.These are terrific sounding speakers!At first they sounded kinda tinny,but played them for several hours and they seemed to loosen up.As another sage reviewer on this board noted,positioning is everything.Boy,was he right!After a few days I found the sweet spot,so to speak,and think these speakers have really good separation,tight bass,clean highs.I`m not a audiofile,but I feel I sure got my moneys worth.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 22, 2001]
Marvin
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Nice warm sound for a bookself speaker, looks good and BI wire option.

Weakness:

Speakers can not handel bass very well sounds very boomie and fuzzy!

Over all a graet set of speakers nice clean warm sound I have bi wired them and the sound great well worth investing the time and money bi wiring these speakers, great for home theatre I would suggest you use theese speakers with a quality sub woofer if your looking for bass. For the price you won't do much better than these speakers.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 21, 2001]
Odin
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Clear mids and Highs. Good dispersion and dynamic range. Very affordable. The grill is removable and the speakers are attractive. Nice five-way binding post and bi-wiring capabilities.

Weakness:

Not magnetically shielded (over 1 foot away is fine). Lacking bass. Imaging isn't the best. Ubid charges $50 shipping for a $80 pair of speakers!

I brought this pair of speakers on a whim after seeing all the positive reviews on this website. Honestly, I think this website is the most informative out there. Other website tend to focus too much on hi-end equipments that most of us don't want to spend on.

Anyway, back to the speakers. I bid them at Ubid.com for $39 each. I thought I will end up paying at most $100 dollars total for the pair. But Ubid charged me $50 for shipping (making the total at $130). Shipping is almost the price of the speakers! I wasn't too happy.

I had a pair of CSW Model 17 bookshelves and I liked them, but I want to see what else is out there. The new speakers arrived and I was amazed at how smooth they sound. The musics are not colored and the dispersion of the speakers fill up the room well. I usually used a duel vocalists (male and female) with orchestral music as my test. I particularly look at how well speakers can reproduce male and female vocals (especially when they are singing together). Most low end speakers tend to merge the singers into a single focal point. That is not good and you loose the imaging. This Wharfedale does a decent job. It might not be in the level of some B&W or KEF that I've heard, but for casual listening it is acceptable. For the money, it is hard to beat.

The cons is that these bookshelves are not magnetically shield, so be careful if you are using them for mains. Also, the bass is a bit lacking, like what most reviewers mentioned, even though I read somewhere that they go to around 40 Hz.

To make a long story short, coupled with a decent subwoofer (I have a CSW basscube 8) and with a good amp (which I don't have), these speakers will be nice. For $130 total, they are much better than most speakers you will encounter at Goodguys/circuit city for the same price. I haven't tried them out for surround and I also haven't tried using bi-wiring (amp is too crappy to deserve it).

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Soundworks Model 17 and Model 6. Klipsch satellites.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 22  

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