whatthedileo

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I always loved the look of the Modus 1.6, with the rotating top-mounted tweeter. I used the Modus 1.6 with my Onkyo TX-DS777, supplying 105wpc. I was never really impressed with them, but they performed just fine for movies, which is the overwhelming majority of their material.

However, I took them to my friend's house and hooked them up to his Yamaha 2500, supplying 130wpc. Night and day difference. I can't concluysively say it was the fault of the Onkyo, since it was 2 different amps in two different rooms. The room could have had a significant effect, but I think the Yammy just opened the speakers up in a way my Onkyo never could. I've been a Onkyo fanboy since the 80's, so that was hard to take.

Wharfedale stands behind their products! One of the swivel mount tweeters (a design which I really like) died and I got a whole new replacement assembly for $16, seven years after I bought the speakers.

These speakers cost less than my Polk RTi6's, but the Polks were not as good - even with their built-in amplified woofers.

View Comments (1)

Would you like to Comment?
Join audioReview for a free account, or Login if you are already a member.

Price Paid:  $450.00 from ebay

Summary:
Excellent loudspeakers with good sensitivity (93db). I love to listen them and see how they 'picture' the music both with t-amp and heavily-tuned Harman/Kardon HK680.
The highs are really sweet: the silk dome tweeter do an excellent job, it's warm and never sound harsh. Mids are clear, very responsive with a good soundstage and middlebass are tight. HK drives my Wharfedale very easily with a lot of control: this provides a good slapping mid-bass. Well, the bass is limited, obviously. 6" drives cannot fire the REAL bass. However, thanks to the 2 bass reflex ports and 2 sealed chamber the reproduction is quiet accurate and surely playful.
A good product among laudspeaker costing 3 or 4 times the price, ABSOLUTELY gorgeous for the value!

Strengths:
sweet highs, very good soundstage, tight-midbass

Weaknesses:
deep bass are not for 6" drives

Similar Products Used:
Klipsch RF-35, Tannoy Mercury, B&W 602, Dynaudio Audience 42, Canton Vento

Price Paid:  $400.00 from Wharfedale.co.uk

Summary:
These are a real bargain. I've had a pair for three years now and haven't looked back. My set up is: Amp (surround/60wpc): Sherwood RVD-6095 Power Amps (120w x2 ea): two NAD C270's CD Player (Optical): Kenwood DP-4090 DVD (Optical): Pioneer SCSI on Geforce4 Sub (10" 175w): Eltax Atomic a10.2 Rear Spkrs (100w/Eltax stands): Wharfedale Sapphire SP-83's Center Spkr (50w): Kenwood [???] Tweeter is best turned down - its tempting to turn it up to show off, but the truth is they don't need boosting very much at all. They are quite subtle but this is what draws you in. Mid range can produce port noise but you'd have to be very picky to spot it, as it is very rare. A larger port would ruin the punch of the mid range and since this is a floorstanding speaker I think it does an excellent job. These speakers are best powered with a power amplifier with gain control, like the nad c270. This way you can find the optimum bass setting to get the most out of the speaker. Use one power amp to power the bass and one to power the tweeters. Contary to popular beleif these aren't as 'budget' as people think, and they do need a fairly good set-up to run them to their full potential. They will sound terrible plugged into your aiwa. dont do it! These speakers are rated at 175w, which means you need to give them a fair bit of power to hear them properly (the nad c270s are rated at 120 but actaully give out more like 170, so it is the perfect choice). Connect these speakers up to the power amps and then connect the power amps to the pre outs of a surround amp, connect a sub, and you have some amazing movie speakers. Connect them straight up to a surround amp and they will perform well, but you will notice room for improvement (but only if you already know how good they can sound! I was happy enough for three years). Speaker grilles are a waste of time, and they look ugly. Don't bother with them unless you like the look of a huge bar of dark chocolate stuck to the front of your speakers. They also rattle. Overall I would recommend these speakers to people who are prepared to keep them for a while, although they are cheap to buy on Ebay, they are not as cheap as you think to get their full potential. Having said that, their full potential is breathtaking for their price, wheras you will not be dissapointed if you have a fairly decent amp like the sherwood, and a good CD player like the Kenwood. Anything much less than that and these speakers start to lose their consistency. I will definately be looking at wharfedale again for my next set of speakers.

Strengths:
Smooth and precise bass and treble, with a nice thudding kick to the mid range which will make your chest mimic the speakers actions. Adjustable tweeter, not too harsh. Can be turned up EXTREMELY loud with the right set up. They don't take long to warm up like some speakers. They look as hard as nails, and unique.

Weaknesses:
The front port can rarely come unstuck and rattle slightly, but it just needs a gentle push back in and its fine. Its intended to be removeable so you can fill the base up with sand. They need a fair amount of power before they start sounding really good. You have to secure everything in the house before you turn them up.

Similar Products Used:
See above & kenwood (amazing sweet treble), infinity (tight), jbl (very loud, very intense, but lacks clarity), nakamichi (surprisingly clear), technics (a bit muffled, but loud and punchy), sony (actually not too bad, not realistic though)

Price Paid:  $100.00 from Private

Summary:
I recently purchased the one.sixes privately for USD100.00 and am very impressed with the sound, projection and presence. These replaced infinities as the front speakers in my home theatre. I immediately noticed more separation and better bass that the infinities.

Strengths:
Full spectrum sound, escellant imaging and crisp high ends. The bass is tight and they handle high volume regardless of source; i.e. DVD, DTV, CD, etc.

Weaknesses:
Again the grilles a extremely frail. I am lucky enough to have purchased from someone who took very good care of them.

Similar Products Used:
Ohm Walsh 4's

Price Paid:  $200.00 from ebay

Summary:
Apart from the fact that the grills ARE frail I find that these are excellent speakers IRRESPECTIVE OF PRICE. First, proper placement of these speakers is absolutely essential. I keep them at least 2 feet from the front wall and toe them in (the tweeters can be rotated independent of the speaker enclosures ala B&W but I find that toeing the entire speaker greatly enhances the soundstage) to create an equilateral triangle, with my sitting position just inside the meeting point of the tweeters. Thus angled, the rear ports project mid-range sound against the front wall that eventually makes its way to the listener from a wider point than the front firing speakers and ports (be careful to avoid phase problems. I don't usually drive these speakers at levels as high as some of the other reviewers, but at a volume appropriate for personal listening (late night, for instance) I find these speakers produce a clean, well balanced sound with ample base, well defined mid-range and mellow highs. Serious night listening is quite different from casual daytime listening and these speakers are best experienced when sitting still with eyes closed and lights dimmed. I can "see" the sound in my head and the full breadth of the soundstage "appears". Poorly recorded music is NOT improved by these speakers. Properly arranged music is a joy to hear. Tight base riffs are transmitted clearly while high notes are not lost behind the middle ranges. Truthfully, speaker appreciation is a subjective thing. I think these are exceptional speakers.

Strengths:
The SOUNDSTAGE. You can "see" the musicians standing in front of you...and there is palpable depth projected.

Weaknesses:
Frail Grills are NOT a big deal. Unless you have kids or pets REMOVE THEM!

Similar Products Used:
Wharfedale 7.2 Anniversary (technical marvels), Wharfedale Emerald 97's (no rear port so soundstage is completely different but extraordinary speakers), Emerald 95's (same as 97's with slightly less b