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Wharfedale Launch Diamond 10 Series

For almost 30 years, Wharfedale's famous Diamond speakers have served as the classic entry point to true high-fidelity sound, their exceptional value for money earning dozens of awards around the globe. Now, with the introduction of the all-new Diamond 10 Series, Wharfedale has again raised the bar for affordable, high-performance loudspeakers.

The first speaker to emerge from the Diamond 10 Series is the Diamond 10.1 - the latest evolution of the classic Wharfedale Diamond ‘bookshelf' speaker. Replacing the hugely successful, multi-award winning Diamond 9.1, the new speaker aims to build upon its exceptional heritage by delivering even better sonic value.

For Wharfedale, the challenge was to improve upon a design that has won more awards for sonic excellence around the world than any other speaker at its price point, whilst maintaining its predecessor's highly competitive asking price. The Diamond 9.1 has been consistently hailed for the exceptional sound quality it delivers at under £200 per pair; a major contributing factor is the 9.1's cabinet, which boasts an ambitious design previously unseen at such affordable prices. Also key are the high-quality drive units, including a mid/bass cone made from woven Kevlar.

Following an exhaustive period of research and development, Wharfedale's acoustic design team has enhanced the speaker in the following ways: it has stronger cabinet walls, acomposite front baffle panel, improvements have been made to the mid/bass drive unit, there are rear-firing twin reflex ports and tweeter diffuser, and it has anenhanced front grille with ‘invisible' fixing.

These improvements have been applied not only to the Diamond 10.1, but also to the rest of the extensive Diamond 10 Series. The full range - details of which will be announced shortly - includes two further standmount speakers and five floorstanding designs, plus three centre speakers, a dedicated surround speaker and three active subwoofers for home cinema applications.

Established Diamond attributes are retained throughout the range, like the sturdy bi-wire terminal block, high-purity copper internal wiring and ‘purist' crossover with high-quality silicon iron and air core inductors. Crossovers have been upgraded throughout the Diamond 10 Series to ensure superb drive unit integration and a smooth response.

Peter Comeau, Wharfedale's recently appointed director of acoustic design, has been responsible for voicing the Diamond 10 Series prior to production. The brain (and ears) behind many award-winning speaker designs spanning three decades, Peter is ideally placed to ensure that the Diamond 10.1 and the rest of the Diamond 10 range set new standards at their respective price points, like the Diamond 9 range before them.

Commenting on the development of the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1, Peter said:

"Following the highly successful, award-winning Diamond 9.1 was always going to be a difficult task. However, we were determined to bring the latest Diamond right into line with the standard of performance expected from a class-leading standmount speaker in 2009.

"The overall result of the engineering changes is to deliver a tightly focused and spacious stereo image, allied to a clean and clear performance throughout the audible bandwidth. The coherence of the midrange and treble balance provides a highly musical and natural delivery that maintains the strengths of the Diamond 9.1, particularly in the midrange, whilst adding to the sense of space and musical communication in a way that is instantly engaging, and consistently appealing in the long term.

"Wharfedale speakers have a long-lived tradition of being great all-rounders across various music types, and the Diamond 10.1 is no exception. The new speaker draws upon the strengths of the multi-award-winning 9.1 and adds even more immersive music making and listener enjoyment. With the price tag remaining on the right side of £200 per pair, despite the upward pressures on pricing to which many manufacturers have succumbed, this is - as its name suggests - a jewel amongst standmount speakers."

The Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 loudspeaker is available from July.

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Wharfedale Launch Diamond 10 Series

4th June 2009

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