My 60+ year old ears heard these little babies while auditioning them for sale in a private residence. The seller auditioned my older Polk Audio Monitor 5 jrs. An hour later and with a straight trade I was a happy owner of my Diamond 8.2s! For an inexpensive speaker these boxes offer good detail in mid to high ranges. My old Sony ES receiver spreads and separates stereo sound left, right and middle along my bachelor pad walls they are set up near. I find myself, as with all good sounding speakers wanting to listen, really listen-to them. Also, I've discovered good speakers produce sounds from time to time that are so life like that I MUST look up and listen to WHERE that realistic noise came from. My Wharfedale's approach the sound quality of some of my nice past owned bookshelf speakers, such as: Celestion SL6, Sonus Faber Concertino, Totem Rainmaker, Energy RC 10. To cite a few. I have been listening to stereo for over four decades.

I've had these speakers a long time now and I still love the sound that they produce. Pair them up with a second hand Rotel integrated amp and a decent CD player (Marantz, Denon, Rega etc) and you get a system that sounds beautiful regardless of what the original sound quality is like. This is why I've kept this system despite upgrading to something more than 10x more expensive, they are just a joy to listen to.

In character they have a fairly sparse and detailed sound without sounding over-bearing. Bass is very tight (thanks to the kevlar) which particularly helps with the loose bass sounds in some old Reggae/Dub recordings. Even playing Boards of Canada through these speakers you get a great perception of depth and can hear many of the details you wouldn't hear on any other speakers I know of in this price range.

Downsides are: Flimsy dust covers (sometimes rattling with music so best to take them off when you're knuckling down with some loud/serious listening. When coupled with an amp with punchy bass characteristics, you'll find the ports blast you with air (which is great in summer).

All in all, if this is your upper price limit and you're not wanting to use them for mixing music I'd settle with these speakers and try out some different cables to fine tune the sound.

By the way... I realise I'm reviewing old speakers but I'm so disappointed with the more recent 9, 10 etc series of speakers that these deserve some praise.

The sound is crisp and extremely warm, with an enveloping sound that surrounds you.

none

I bought these on ebay for $100, with $40 shipping and handling. They're fantastic speakers for the price, with very warm and lush treble and tight, punchy bass. I have these setup with an Infinity PS 8 sub, and they sound awesome together. These are the truest audiophile speakers you'll get for the price.

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Wharfedale 7.

Looks nice, Bi-wire, pefect size for bookshelf and place on stand. Nice treble sound and good singing voice sound, not too bright

Sound sucks, boomy bass. No soft and low bass sound at all. Difficult to drive them.

I bought this pair of speakers without audition and never listened to any Wharfadale speakers before. I bought just because I read a lot of good reviews in here, and the look of it. I actually was going to buy the Mordaunt Short Avant 902i as I have listened to many models of the MS. But instead I bought the Diamond 8.2 which was one the many biggest mistakes I have made over the past few years, again!

The bass sound is very boomy, which I hate the most. You would need quite a powerful amplifier to drive the Diamond 8.2. If any thing less than 50 watts amplifier, the sound sucks with definite boomy bass. To correct the mistake, I use bigger amplifier which was 120 watts Yamaha Class A to drive them and the sound became much better. But it was all wrong for me as I first wanted them to be used in my working place at home on the day I had to work late on the paper works and I end up with huge amplifier.

Why many said they were so good, I do not understand.

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many good brand name speakers

Great value

Grills

I purchased this speaker without any audition capability. For what I paid for these I am extremly pleased. I am still breaking them in but I found them to sound good right out of the box. I am running them with an 8" Klipsch sub and have found them to be a great jazz speaker. I have found some vocals a little thin but am hoping this will open up after break in. I am still "playing around with positioning. I am currentley running them off of 30" spiked medium mass stands and have yet to really crank them. Once again for the closeout price I paid I can easily live with the flimsy grills.

A very clean sounding speaker, capable of revealing the details/weakness in the music and in your system. Very clean looking and good construction.

The front grills have the mass and rigidity of toast bread. Not an adequate showing for such a wonderfully sounding speaker.

I bought these speakers without any audition and based on many reviews. I wasn't possible to audition these with my NAD742 a/v receiver prior to purchase. I am pleased with the sound, very clean and airy. My preference would be for a slightly warmer and open sound but can't tell if due to the receiver or speaker. The clarity of this speaker is exceptional for value and is very revealing. Tonal balance is very good, my main concern/dislike is for speakers that either produce bright highs or boomy base. The 8.2 do not produce either of those, making it easy and pleasant to listen to at high levels. Driving these speakers at higher levels is real pleasure. The speakers open up very nicely and continue to deliver a clean and revealing sound. Imaging is very good and overall soundspace is commendable. I find this speaker to be very well in control even at high levels without any excessive or loss bass or highs. If you are looking for a speaker that can pound out loud poorly recorded music, rap/ hip/hop this should not be your first choice. If you need a speaker with warmth and control that can reveal all the details contained in the music this will do it. I have this connected to my NAD 742 a/v receiver and my NAD 513 DVD/CD player.

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JM Lab 706 B&W 603 Paradigm Monitor 7 Monitor Audio S2 Paradigm Atom / Titan

High quality drive units Very flat response Very 'tight' bass any others mentioned from previous review

This review is a follow up to the previous review I did of these speakers earlier this summer. Since my last review, several things have happened: 1. I added a Sony CA 70 ES cd player to my setup. 2. Have moved my system out of my tiny bedroom with highly reflective walls and hardwood floors, into my far acoustically superior basement. 3. Have no doubts that these things are now broken in fully. The changes that I have noticed from these few improvements have been huge. The biggest thing i've noticed have been dramatic improvements in the highs and lows. Now that I have a quality cd player, these speakers are able to reproduce the higher quality signal and do a very good job of it at that. Running a test track on the cd player, and comparing sound from the speakers and my headphones, one thing becomes glaringly obvious: these speakers have an exceptionally flat response curve, and my headphones do not. Highs are extremely crisp, and pronounced. Cymbals sound very lifelike and the tweeter can pack a punch when it gets hit up. Bass response shows even more improvement. With good inputs, this system really doesn't need a sub, bass is fully supported up to the cutoff, and very clean and tight at that. I wanted to specially note that these speakers play jazz music extremely well. Eastman theatre, Kilborn hall and the Eastman school of music are literally just five miles down the street from my house, so i've been listening to jazz for a number of years, but only really appreciating it live. Recently, i've been listening to tons of jazz on the Wharfedales, and i've been pleased cause its like having Kilbourn hall in my basement.

Price: get into hifi for just over $200 Sound quality: better than most people have ever heard, and leave plenty of room for you to grow as you upgrade your components, etc. Powerful: you really don't need a sub, unless you want to blow your eardrums out Build quality: solid, heavy units which will withstand years of use. BiWire capability: Offers extra contacts so you can Bi wire and get better sound. contacts btw are gold plated Kevlar drivers: Excellent self damping properties make listening much easier on your ears, even if you crank it up.

Grills that feel like they could snap at any time. Vinyl covering that does not even look close to real wood.

I learned about Wharfedale from a friend of mine from boston who spins house music. Extremely impressed by his Sapphires, I was hoping to get an identical pair of speakers, only to discover they are now discontinued. This left me in a dillema about what to get, my choices now narrowed down between the 8.1's and 8.2's. Although I didn't necessarily want a powerful system, just a system that had really good sound quality, I opted for the 8.2s after reading reviews online saying the 8.1s lacked even decent bass. I'm not sure there is any merit to this, but there are not any Wharfedale dealers within a two hundred miles from me, so whatever. That said, I have been extremely pleased with my purchase, before these speakers I really didn't know what hifi was, or that there was anything wrong with the speakers that came with my parent's Sony surround sound system. If you have never been unsatisfied with cheap, standard namebrand speakers, these guys will knock your socks off. I had a good set of sennheiser headphones that I thought were great, until I got these. While powerful enough to rock any party, my main reason for getting the speakers was for personal listening. That said, don't fool yourself into thinking a good set of headphones can match the quality of a good set of speakers, the sound coming from two speakers has a chance to interact with itself in ways that provide a depth or dimension that cannot be recreated with sub $700 headphones. Personally I was quite disappointed with the sound of these speakers, when I first got them. I knew they required a burnin of about 20-40hrs from others online, but after that they still only sounded marginally better. Thankfully my next door neighbor deals in extreme high end audio sales, and advised me to hold out to 80-120hrs of burnin time, a point which I have finally reached. Now, the clairity of sound is excellent, recordings sound as if they are being performed live right in my bedroom. Other factors that become very noticably apparent with these speakers are: the audio source, room acoustics, and recording quality. As for audio source, I cannot say I have explored this factor much, but know my current setup is far from perfect. I actually lack a hifi cd player/cassette player/turntable, and have been only using digital sound from off of my laptop or minidisk player. While both of these are pretty good, each has limitations, my computer's sound card is excellent, but the laptop's fan is too noisy and interfere's with delicate parts of the music, and my minidisk player is limited by Net MD to only 132kbps playback, though damn good for 132kbs. In the next month I'm hoping to add a sony "ES" series cd player unit, which I'm guessing will have a significant improvement on the sound. Acoustically, these speakers need space. Ideally, they should be positioned a half meter, to a meter away from any walls, and at least a meter apart from each other. The ideal listening spot is about 2-3 meters away, eye level with the speakers, requirements that my small bedroom does not fulfill. The sound is limited at times by the reflection/echo effect off the hard walls in my room. Moving my setup into my office in the basement for this fall should help. Lastly, these speakers suck, because they reveal every recording inperfection in my low bit rate .mp3's. When ripping cd's I now record at 320kbps in .wma format for highest quality. The difference in quality is most noticable between 128kbps and 192kbps recordings, which make up the majority of my music collection. Still, albums like Miles Davis' "kind of blue" sound incredibly lifelike when played off my MD player. These speakers are perfect for a college dorm, and despite the format limitations, would still rock the house even if the source is an ipod. Kevlar drivers have excellent self damping properties and make listening very easy on your ears. Build quality is perhaps the only place where these speakers suffer. Functional and well built? Yes, but not luxurious. I got black ones, and yes the cabinent are actually made from vinyl, and they look like it very much. In black they still look pretty good, but I'd imagine the fake wood grain, would indeed look very fake. As fake as the cabinents look, the are in fact very solid. One of the most beautiful aspects of the speakers are the kevlar woofer cones, which are sure to draw attention. The speakers look very distinguished with or without the grills on, though I'll complain again about the lack of build quality in the grills, which feel like they are going to break every time I take them off. Get these today, and don't buy any bose "junk"

Clarity Suprisingly big sound for their size Powerfull bass Brilliant value

Horrible grilles

I am reviewing the 8.2+ version. I don't know the differance between that and the normal 8.2 version. For the price paid you would be very hard pushed to get speakers better than these. The sound is very clear and detailed, I noticed bits of recordings that I never noticed before. The bass is powerfull but sometimes a bit boomy depending on what you are listening to. I was thinking about buying a subwoofer before I got these but now I really don't need to. Their only weakness is the grilles. I don't know whether mine are supposed to be taken off, but I broke one of them when I tried.

Clarity, detail, accuracy. They just disappear.

*usual rant about the grills* 5 way binding posts aren't on standard spacings, so I had to cut my dual banana plugs in two.

There are lots of good speakers out there, and a few bad ones. These are among the best. The 8.2s are clear, warm, full, and detailed. Most of all they are revealing. The revealed the weaknesses in my receiver and my CD player. Now that I have updated them, the 8.2s reveal the weaknesses in the CDs I play. I have bought a few SACDs and the 8.2s strongly reveal the improvements these are over regular CDs. They will get you hooked on the SACD habit. If you're looking for speakers that make your music sound "better" these are not for you. The Diamond 8.2s will make your music sound just like it is, no more, no less. They have a wonderfully open and airy feeling with a wide soundscape. They reach below 50 hz effortlessly. Listening to Springsteen's E-Street Band is a revelation of clarity and detail. Pianos on SACD disks are breathtakingly real across the entire spectrum. I don't know if there are better speakers available in this price or size range, but I do know that anyone who loves music will love these speakers. I'm using them as my only speakers in a mid-high range system. I'm going to capture another octave on the bottom end with a pair of high quality subs, but right now the 8.2s are doing the job very well by themselves.