Amazing clarity, beautiful soundstage, incredible highs, decent bass, bi-wiring gold terminals, unbeatable price!

vinyl covering

These speakers rock!

I've have a complete Wharfedale setup, 89's for front, 87's for rear, and a Wharfedal Modius center channel. All powered by a Denon 3600dts reciever. I bought almost all of my equipment off www.ubid.com and I couldn't be more pleased. In all the shops I have visited, and all the stereo's I've ever heard...I've never heard a system that sounds better than mine, and all for about 3 grand! I personally like DTS better than Dolby Digital, and running a dolby digital, or espically a DTS movie, like "Gladiator" really makes my system come to life...The battles in my movies recreate sound like I'm actually there, with arrows whistling overhead, cannon shots rumbling my couch, and the crisp sound of fire tearing towards me with awesome realism. I just can't give these speakers enough praise for the price they are offered on ubid. My friends and family all agree that my home theatre setup is better than anything they've ever heard and that it is 10xs better than any movie theatre as well! :) If you want to put toghether a great system, buy a set of Wharfedale Sapphire speakers and couple them with a great reciever--you won't be dissappointed...I think most of the complaints against these speakers arise because they are being underpowered, or perhaps strained by crappy recievers. My first reciever was a dolby digital AIWA 120x5, supposedly AIWA's best reciever, and it just SUCKED. I noticed popping sounds in my Wharfedales with that reciever at the higher volumes, but come to find out it wasn't the wharfedales, but instead the crappy hardware of the AIWA reciever(NEVER BUY AIWA) When I upgraded recievers-first to the Denon-1700avr-and now the Denon 3600DTS the sound has improved incredibly.

BUY WHARFEDALE, BE HAPPY,

Jonathan Von Engeln
jvonengeln@hotmail.com

Similar Products Used:

too numerous to mention...many stereo shops demos etc.

Exceptional Value. Clean sound.

They're pretty big.

I read a lot of reviews and listened to a lot of speakers before taking the reviews I read here on good faith and bought a pair Sapphire 89's for under $400 for the pair from Ubid, shipping and all. I just got 'em and hooked them up to my Onkyo TX-DS575 (a receiver I'd also recommend BTW). All I can say is, "Wow!"

Here's the way I see it. I heard some mighty nice speakers from NHT, Boston Acoustic, Acoustic Research, etc. The ones I really like cost between $1000 and $2000 when all was said and done. I bought these at a fraction of the price. After listening to them for a bit, they gave me every bit of the excitement the others did. The build quality looks great, the sound is clear and dynamic. Unless you're a complete audio fanatic and you compare these speakers side-by-side with the more expensive ones, I doubt you could tell the difference. Buy 'em, you're gonna' love 'em!

My foray into the hi-end audio realm began with the Wharfdale Sapphire 89. I acquired them at uBid.com, $481.00 for both. Fortuitous? I'd say so. Upon receiving the 89s, I unhooked the JBL HLS615s, tossed in Boney James's "It's All Good," and watched the buildings outside my window bend and dip, swoon and sway. Or perhaps it was just my building swaying. I honestly couldn't say. I was transported.
I'm new to this, so let me first say that I have a modest receiver, the Sony STR-DE925. There was sufficient wattage there for the speakers to tap, so I did. My neighbor five doors down, a fellow jazz enthiusiast and alledged audiophile, came running down the hall. The tenant one floor below came running up the stairwell -- bypassing the elevator -- both anxious to know whether I had somehow beset the archangel, Gabriel, and his horn onto the world. Nothing quite so portentous, just the Wharfdale Sapphire 89s.

Ahh, but what monumental exploits.

These tower speakers capture every sound, every nuance, and disperses them to the four corners of the Earth. The highs trickle, the mids waft, and the bass confirms that it's stolen thunder inside of those cabinets.

I was impressed by the confluence of these streams of sound. With some speakers, your bass defeats your tweeters, or maybe your mids just falter from the strain of trying to reproduce typical sounds at high output levels. Not so with the Wharfdale 89s. No matter how complex the piece, the Sapphire 89s will convey precisely what you expect and then some. It's titillating to the imaginative ear.

We all need to be transported from the mundane, the banal, the pedestrian. Somebody call Stella and tell her about these Wharfdales, just in case she gets offtrack and wants her groove back.

Well balanced sound specifically mid range. Very good warmth and presence. The bass is tight and not boomy

The size of the speaker is the only draw back. You have to have the room size to accomodate and realize the tonal quality

I am not an audiophile, but I appreciate quality sound. I do not feel the need to spend alot of money for the sake of spending it. Value is the intersection of dollars and quality.

This speaker for the price is definitely undervalued. With the plethera of speaker on the market and no significant distribution channel in the states, the manufacturer is pressed to sell the speakers below market price. However, these speakers will give any speaker in its class (dollars and specifications) a serious run for their money.

Well balanced tonal quality. Warm and natural mid-range, nice tight and controlled bass. The highs are natural and not tinny (i.e. metalic). The imaging and stereo seperation is excellent.

If you want a deal, put these up. You'll be pleased

HUGE STURDY DESIGN. ATTRACTIVE LOOKS. HIGH POWER HANDLING. BLUE DRIVERS ARE UNIQUE. GOLD BINDING POSTS. VERY LOUD, BUT STILL CLEAR WHEN DRIVEN WITH PROPER SOURCE.

Not the speakers fault, buy I recieved 2 (left speakers) from ubid! There is a distinct right and left speaker for this product line. I kind of got screwed. No real noticable sound differences that I can distinguish though.

I bought a pair of the Modus 1.6's and really thought they were a steal at $100.00 a piece. So after trying them out for a week, I saw a pair of Sapphire 89's on Ubid and decided that they were definatly worth the $160.00 a speaker I bid for them. I thought my 1'6's were tall, these 89s are huge! They are about 5 inches taller and a couple inches deeper. The 89's look like a very impressive speaker without even being listened to. I found out through a little experimenting that the 89's seemed to require a little more juice before they really come alive. My reciever(soon to be upgraded) is DENON 1801. It can dish out 70watts per channel to all 5 channels, but when you are trying drive 4 tower speakers and a Polk CS400i center channel, things start to bog down a little. I hooked up my reciever to my Newcastle 120watt/5 channel Amp. Now these monsters really come to life! I presently live in an apartment building so I have'nt even come close to hearing these speakers full potential.My only complaint is with Ubid. I was supposed to have recieved a right and left speaker, wrong! They sent me 2 lefts. Yes I was pissed, but who is really going to notice a difference. I'm not even going to bother trying to get Ubid to send me another speaker. The customer service there is absolutly terrible. I would rather keep what I already have than wait 2 months for a response from them. All in all, this is a fabulous speaker that I would have guessed to be in the $1,000.00 a piece range. You can't go wrong for under $500.00 a pair for such an oustanding, underated speaker.

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Modus 1.6

price, clarrity, detail,

Bass tends to boom in the 100 hz region

I purchased these speakers after hearing the the 87's at my nephews home. I have been a stereo nut for 25 years and have always been interested in high end gear but have never been able to justify spending more than $1000.00 a pair for speakers. for me the auditory memory is quite short so I have great difficulty in doing A B comparrisons. I listen to speakers over time and if I do not get mentally fatigued I judge the speakers to be quite neutral. When I first received the Wharfedale 89's I was disaapointed in the bass output but I had a Boston Acoustics subwoofer to supplement the low end. At first listen these speakers were very neutral but seemed a little weak in the midrange compared to my Boston Acoustics. I have been listening to them now for approximately 6 months and the bass is now quite extended and because of my placement position it was also quite boomy in the 100hz area. The midrange is quite clean and natural sounding and the highs are all there but not quite as sparkling as the Bostons. I used a Yamaha equalizer to tame the low end and it tightened up quite nicely and I have disconnected the subwoofer since there is no need with the bass output these speakers can derive. You can fill the punch in your stomach when these things are cranked up and there is no breakup of the sound at listening levels that bring the Police to your house. Speaker wiring and wire does make a tremendous difference. I am currently running these in a 4 channel stereo setup where the 89's are my fronts and DCM time windows are my rears. The pre-amp is a Harman/Kardon 2.0 and I am using an Acurus A125-5 to bi-amp these speakers.I have in effect 250 watts a channel to each speaker. I use a Crown CE-1000 to drive the time windowsand it pumps out 275 watts a channel into 8 ohm loads. As with any speaker, room placement is critical for best sound quality but in my world placement also has to be aesthetically acceptable to my wife. I find an equalizer can compensate for room anomalies if the speaker is of good quality and this was the case with the Wharfedales. The sound reproduction of these speakers were dramatically changed when I bi-amped them using acurus power amp and the Z seies monster cable. The low end is well defined and the midrange blossomed although the highs are still not the best I have heard they are quite acceptable. These are excellent speakers for the price and I would recomment them to anyone over your normal store brand speakers in the $1000.00 a pair range. My taste in music ranges from Jazz to Rap and these speakers do justice to all of it. I have friend who purchased Monitor Audio 9I's and they are excellent speakers but wheen he comes to my house and hears my system he always comments on the fact that he has to upgrade his power. I take this to meen he really likes the way my speakers sound. First let me say Power does make a difference as well as your inter connects but if the speaker is awful mor power will not make it great. What I have found over the years is that most good speakers sound a whole lot better when the electronics driving them surpass the capabilities of the speakers just like great speakers sound average if the equipment driving them is not of the calliber to deliver great sound. Being a stereo nut I just purchased the BG radia X3's and I am waiting for them to arrive because I am still trying to find a set of speakers under $1000.00 that will give me the transparency I heard 20 years ago when listenening to a pair of Dahlquist DQ10's driven by an AMP called Ampzilla. I had to see if the ribbon tweeter would give me this transparency with all the dynamic range I expect from a full range speaker.

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DCM time windows 1A, Boston Acoustics VRM 60, Bose 401

great imaging, great highs, great lows. They look great with the grilles on, and the "true blue" drivers impress at parties with the grilles off

vocals are pushed SLIGHTLY forward, but not harshly so, as some have said; only available at ripoff.co--I mean, UBID.com

Let me begin by saying that the people at ubid.com are the most uprofessional, least intelligent, most scatterbrained, least organized group of people I have ever had the displeasure of doing business with. From order placed until now has been almost two whole months, and it still hasn't been filled to my satisfaction. TERRIBLE service.

Now, about the speakers: My first impression was one of a very forward, confident sound. I listened to Steve Vai, Bela Fleck, Diana Krall, Miles Davis, and the Smashing Pumpkins, and I fell in love with these recordings anew. These speakers are just revealing enough to cross that magical line of "garbage in, garbage out"--well-recorded music sounds brilliant, but poorly engineered music is revealed as such. The newest 20-bit CD reissue of 'Kind of Blue' is pure sonic heaven, such as I've never heard before. I really must emphaize the imaging. Even squooshed into a tiny room (10 x 13!), even with inadequate space behind them for optimal bass response (only a foot!) , the sounstage was clear and decently wide (I still expect a big improvement when I move these into a much larger room). I suspect that amp/reciever quality does make a difference--I for one am pushing these with a harman/kardon AVR-7000, and I'm quite pleased. I wouldn't try a JVC or RCA with these, but if you're on a very tight budget, I think these are the best you'll be able to get for that limited money, and try to upgrade your amp later.

Now, after a break-in period, and a little HT use (Top Gun, Gladiator), I can report that the bass response seems to have bloomed somewhat--a friend I was demoing them to remarked "I was about to ask where the sub was, since I couldn't see one--then it hit me that you just didn't NEED one!" I'm still really impressed with the instrument separation and fidelity, even with rock music. The highs are quite good, not overpowering or artificial, but detailed and present. As I said, the mids are great, but the higher mids seem to be VERY SLIGHTLY exaggerated. This effect acutally works quite well for instrumental music, espcially guitar-focussed instrumental music, but with some higher female vocals it can be a little overbearing after extended listening (multiple hours). Ultimately, if you want an impressive loudspeaker at a great price, with plenty of oomph, and capable of reproducing an eclectic repetoire well (from John Coltrane to Limp Bizkit), you have to at least audition them.

Compared to the others I auditioned:

The Polks I tried just seemed artifically bright, with exaggerated highs. The Klipsches, were, well, Klipsches. I personally don't like that sound--but YMMV. The Infinity and JBLs that I tried were not even in the same class.

All in all, I highly recommend them, and you'd have to spend over $1250 to find better.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, Polk, JBL, Klipsch

clear highs; excellent tonal qualities in both HT and music/stereo; bass still shakes the room, even in the absence of a powered sub

HUGE size; build quality of the grilles

A follow-up: I've owned these speakers for 2 years now (see below for my original review on 7/20/99) and they still deliver. I've not had any problems in the time that I've had them, with the one exception of a single prong coming unhinged on one of the grilles.

Since purchasing these speakers, my tastes in design quality have changed somewhat, but my ear has not. I will probably pass these speakers down to my younger brother who has the room and the inclination to "bump" these speakers on a regular basis. I'm now looking for a more refined appearance in a speaker, like the Vienna Acoustics Mahler series (http://www.sumikoaudio.com/Vienna.htm).

On any accord, make no mistake, the Sapphires are powerful performers when coupled with an adequate receiver/amp. I've used them intially with a Sony STR-DE925, and now I'm using a Denon 4802 with equally "monumental exploits." Truly remarkable, these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Polk, Infinity

Forgot to add my system specs!

Receiver: harman/kardon AVR 7000
5 CD Transport: harman/kardon FL 8370
Mains: Wharfedale Sapphire 89
Rears: Wharfedale Rubiance 23
Center: Wharfedale Sapphire Centre
Interconnects: Monster HP-XP, Monster Gold Banana Plugs

Very Musical, transparent, good range, SUPERB VALUE

Finish of Cabinets/Grills not up to the Sound Quality

I bought these off of UBID at the absurdly low price of $129 each plus $32 shipping. I had previously bought a set of Sapphire 87s for my vacation house, and they were so good I knew that I needed to pick up some more of these for my home theater setup in my main house. Since the Sapphire 89s have an extra bass driver, I suspected that they would have plenty of bottom end without using a sub-woofer, and this has turned out to be the case. I ended up moving my subwoofer to one of my other systems that uses small bookshelf speakers. These Sapphire 89 towers are just transparent speakers, without any obvious presence or coloration of their own. I mostly listen to classical and Jazz, as well as home theater, and I have not heard any speaker system that I thought was appreciably better, for less than a grand apiece, They have no problem at all holding up their end in a top-end system that's being driven by a couple of grand in electronics (mostly Denon and Nakimichi equipment) The only flaws I can see are that the grills are too flimsy to keep removing and putting back on in a regular basis, and the cabinets use cheap wood veneer over particle board, rather than solid wood, but hey, they cost a pittance, and sound like there's an extra digit in the price. I don't know if these would be as sensational for hard bass-heavy rock music, but for vocals, classical, and jazz, these cannot be beat for the money. I wonder if anybody pays the list price on these, when they sell pallet-loads of these Wharfedales on uBid every day, for tiny fractions of the list price.

Similar Products Used:

KEFs, Dahlquists, other Wharfedale Sapphires