I got these on sale for $300.00 a pair. They have a smooth sound with a detailed yet not harsh or ringing treble. I prefer these soft dome tweeters over aluminum and titanium. Bass goes deeper than bookshelf speakers and is fairly well controlled. I don't detect any boom. Mid-range is subdued. They reproduce jazz well. Instruments image well and sound stage is wide.

The music has a distant sound as if it is coming from another room. I'm thinking it's due to weakness in the upper bass and mid-range frequencies. Bass and treble dominate the sound. I turn up the volume to hear pianos better only to turn it down later when the highs sound to loud. For this reason I couldn't give them five stars. Nevertheless; I like these speakers because they sound realistic and smooth. It is easy to imagine the sound stage and presence of musicians. They reproduce jazz very well.

Removing one of the woofers let me see the inside design of the speaker boxes. The upper half of the cabinets are acoustically isolated from the bottom half. The bottom halves serve as a speaker stand. Normal looking crossovers are wired with average gauge wire.

I would like to discuss some interesting issues regarding the Wharfdale Diamond 9.4.

I bought them a few years ago on a whim! First I have to say they looked great, at least two or three times their price. How Wharfedale can construct such a speaker for the price is beyond me. I took them home and hooked them up!

I heard the following: Starting with the treble, that was balanced well with the mids. Personally I have a lot of experience with metal dome tweeters and I have to admit the tweeters used by the 9.4s sound surprisingly lifelike. Moving to the midrange, provided you are careful in how you aim them to your listening seat, is quite special. Aim them directly to your seat and you can end up with a bit too much exitement with voices. Dinamics in the midrange and treble is good with the listener being able to distinguish between louder and softer sounds quite clearly!

Then there is the bass. Here unfortunately I had to make a plan! Using them as is the two ports seem to be misaligned in my pair of speakers. They can't seem to play the correct bass notes! I ended up blocking them and ended up with tight clear bass that makes sense... They do sound slightly on the lean side, but to me I prefer knowing what goes on in the bottem registers. I now really enjoy them! If you block the ports, do not play them too loud as power handeling will suffer. For me, I get sufficient volume from them!

Warm sound, yet detailed.
Vinyl cherry looks nice.
Kevlar woofer looks great.
Great for acoustic music.
Nice binding posts.

For $300 USD, very few.

Dealing with Wild West Electronics was great. I originally ordered the 9.2's, but they were out of stock. WWE gave me a selection of two other monitors plus the 9.4's to choose from, which is why I got them for 300.

If you have hardwood floors, these speakers are a good choice. They are fairly "laid back". The bass is taught and defined. Midrange is slightly recessed. Treble is smooth and detailed without any harshness at all, which is why they probably work well in a room with poor acoustics. Soundstage and bass are not as defined as they are on my Revels, but the Revels cost another 400.

The vinyl (in cherry) looks nice and the build quality looks good. Kevlar woofers look great. I think the usual asking price for the 9.4's is around $500. Even at $500, I would consider these speakers money well spent. For $300, I don't think that I could find another speaker that sounds as "listenable" and enjoyable as the 9.4's. Most of the music that I listen to is classical and folk, which these seem to excel at.

Please note that my review ratings are based on the $300 USD price that I paid.

Customer Service

Dealling with Wild West Electronics was a pleasure. Would definitely do business with them again.

Similar Products Used:

Revel Concerta M12
Mirage M-290
Cambridge Soundworks Newton M80

Accurate, full and controlled bass. Bring out the best in vocals.

Not many. I guess they don't sound as good for loud rock as some speakers, but they're not really meant for that anyway.

This is the first truly decent pair of speakers I have owned. I run them with a Proton D540 integrated amp (oldie but goodie!) and so far don't have any complaints. In fact, I think they sound brilliant, overall. If you like to rock and like to rock hard, these might not be the best speakers for you. A lot of that is probably just the fact that these speakers can bring out flaws in a recording that sounded great on a crappier setup. The thing the wharfedales are meant to do is reproduce sound accurately. Vocals, classical and jazz sounds real. These speakers are clear and crisp, but not trebly. Also, the bass is tight and surprizingly full for being small 2-way speakers. I've heard that the 9.6's are supposed to be far superior, but then again theyr'e almost twice as expensive. If you are looking for a pair of speakers that sounds great, but you're not a hard-core audiophile type, I say look into the wharfedale 9.4s. In the end, it's best to listen to a bunch of speakers and buy the ones that sound the best for your money.

Similar Products Used:

Old pair of EV speakers that I rebuilt with new 3-way components.