Clear Highs and mid-range Strong, but not overpowering bass Well made, attractive cabinet Price..........value The list goes on and on and on

They won't mow the lawn for you

I purchased these along with a Wharfedales strictly because of the rave reviews I have ready on this site, and the cost. I have never been to a retail store that sells them, nor do I have any friends who own them. Needless to say, I was sceptical, but I figured at the price, I wasn't going to lose my life savings. I am extremely satisfied with these speakers. These will probably be the last set of speakers I will buy in a long time. The clarity of the speakers, listening to most of my music, is a real treat. I really have never listened to music in my house before I bought these. My former speakers were given to a friend in need, but he even noticed the difference and bought a pair. If you can find these, buy them. I defy anyone to find a more pleasent sounding speaker for under $1200. They are that good. They can go from Mozart to Eminem to Star Wars with no difficulty. People talk about a breaking in period, and I thought that was just B.S. Not any more. These speakers only sounded better with age. For the price you can find them on the internet, if you need new speakers, buy these. They are that good!

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I have never had a product as good as this other than my Kenwood VR-4080 receive.....These speakers are worthy of this fine receiver. A very good match!

A quality speaker at an affordable price!

This review pertains to International Audio Group, the holding company for Wharfedale speakers. Last July I purchased a pair of Emerald 99's from UBid.com. I received a pair unmatched, cosmetically imperfect Oak Emeralds. Very recently, however, I negotiated a warranty exchange with IAG for a new pair of 99's. I'm very pleased to report IAG stands behind the Wharfedale label 100%. If you encounter any issues with your purchase call Customer Service at IAG for a speedy resolution!! Go to IAGAmerica.com for their phone number and/or e-mail address. In summation -- if you have the opportunity to buy either the Emerald 97's or 99's -- don't hesitate!! The cabinet quality is well above average. Moreover, Customer Service at IAG is excellent!! I hope this ringing endorsement for Wharfedale nets IAG many, many, more sales. I'm more than pleased....

Nice imaging, well recorded material is it's strong point. A very revealing high end that some may mistake for sibilence on poorly recorded material.

Midrange slightly clouded and bass can sound boomy with out proper placement.

First I am speaking for the Emerald MKIV 99!!! Not the MKIV-97 as they currently do not have an area for reviews of the larger MKIV-99. Most have covered this speakers strong points. I have these along with the MKII-95's, MKII-93's and Center in Oak. The build is very good along with thier real wood matching Oak veneer, making for a very cosmeticly attractive package not usualy seen anywhere near it's price point. As some may know the 99's differ in size as they are larger than the 97's and use 7.8" drivers for the midrange and bass driver as opposed to the 6.7" in the 97's. I am extremly pleased with the speaker on the whole aside from the midrange in the 99's. Far from bad, but I belive the 8" driver is what brings me to the conclusion that I describe as a slightly clouded sound. The 95's do not emit this, and I actually prefer them in the midrange area to the 99's. The speaker is a steal at it's price point and renders good recording very well. Being a speaker that dosen't really push in any one area and sounds almost to accurte sometimes. This is not a bad thing but on poorly recorded material it can drive you nuts. For a total out lay of 800.00 I have a beedroom system that I am extremly pleased with. Like most speakers the amplification can and dose have noticable differance in sound. Driving them with a lower end Yamaha 5x100 receiver they are much brighter and moving almost to the in your face fatiging syndrom. Changing to a SAE Pre Amp & 502 Power Head the speakers change drasticaly. A much cleaner balanced sound with no high end fatiuge. The speaks like power (99's) but can be over driven like anything else. Matched with a receiver or Amp that woud be considered neutral with ample power reserve would be my recomendation. This is with the MKIV series. The MKII's use a diferent tweeter with a horn flair and seem to be softer & more forgiving on the high end. Also the II's have a better of axis responce where as the IV's sweet spot is more direct and placment for this is just as crictical as controling boomy bass response by keeping them away from corner loading and or away from front and side walls. Simply at thier price point a fantasic value and most would be hard pressed to be un-happy with them. Speakers are probley the most subjective piece in anyones system and what one likes another may despise. Hope

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AP-Monitors, AR, Boston-Acoustics, Kline, DBX, Carver, Karns, others...

Incredibly accurate reproduction of source. Low frequencies are great for almost any music type, and balance well with other drivers to provide transparent, uncolored sound reproduction.

Will not reproduce earth shaking bass for Home Theater use, or RAP music.

I own the following: Wharfedale Diamond 7.1 Wharfedale Diamond 7.2 Wharfedale Rubiance 21 Wharfedale Rubiance 25 (tower) Wharfedale Rubiance 27 (tower) Wharfedale Sapphire 89 (tower) Wharfedale Emerald Mark IV (tower) Wharfedale Rubiance Center Wharfedale Powercube DX12 BIC America DV736 (tower) BIC America DV62CLR (center) Dahlquist PDQ200 (tower) Dahlquist PDQ100 (center) RTR 123 (floor) Merak 66 (tower) Ultralinear 450 (tower) Arkay 3 way (floor) Accord 2 way (floor) I have owned many other types and brands of speakers, both stock and modified, and have experimented extensively with Home brew speakers as well. I am a cabinetmaker, so I don't have a problem building enclosures. Over the years, I've owned some nice components to power the speakers, and have found that seperates indeed sound the best, but it's still hard to beat some of the vintage receivers from Pioneer, McIntosh, and Sansui. The Wharfedale Emerald Mark IV's are some of the best speakers I've heard. I have listened extensively to "High End" speakers from Sound Lab, Vandersteen, Magnepan, KEF, Jamo, Theil, EFE, Polk Audio, Infinity, JBL, Klipsh, AR, NHT, B&W etc. In fact, at one time or another I've owned most of them. I've come to the conclusion that once you reach a certain point, most of the differences people hear are "perceived". Once you audition several types of speakers, and then lay down your hard earned bucks for those "high end" speakers, your mind is going to tell you that they are indeed superb to all the others. Every speaker on the market is going to offer some compromise. For the younger reviewers on this site, no speaker can provide enough bass. For the more seasoned reviewer, a balanced sound is the cat's meow. In fact, when music is recorded, the sound engineer strives to achieve a balanced sound. Overemphasized low frequencies present in such "music" as RAP, are an embarrassment to the recording industry. Overemphasized midrange is fatigueing, and overemphasis of the highs is ear-splitting and worse! You need a nice smooth transition throughout the frequency range of any speaker as one driver hands off to another. You want a nice balance and a speaker capable of reproducing the source music. This is such a speaker. The Emeralds produce wonderful low frequencies-not overemphasized, and not overly boomy (it's difficult to get rid of all boominess wi

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See the text.

Great mids and highs that are incredibly accurate and live sounding. Can make a good recording sound fantastic, but bad recordings are not covered up.

Bass is inaccurate, muddy, and usually an overemphasized boom (on rock, some blues, etc.) On jazz or classical, which is much less bass-emphasized, the bass is nice and tight, but sometimes lacking--in other words, bass is always there, but every recording sound different bass-wise. I am constantly adjusting my receiver's bass setting to adapt to the recording.

I think I've reviewed these speakers a few times already, but they keep sounding different daily, and I keep changing my opinion, so I'm here to offer my last and final opinion. These are very nice speakers for the price most of us will pay--if you take the grills off and inspect each driver, and tweeter, etc., and the wood that houses it all, you will realize that just these parts, regardless of sound, are worth well above $400. When you first turn these on, without a brake-in period, which I've found to be incredibly important for this product, the highs are thin and too bright, and bass is a boomy effect--without the impression that bass is coming from a bass guitar or a bass drum--it is more of a bass presence. After around 20 hours of music ran through them, they will begin to significantly open up, and although I haven't even reached the 50 hour brake-in mark, I can already tell a big difference from the initial sound. Bass is still too muddy and too inaccurate, but it is deep enough and tight enough for most recordings. Mids and highs are really what you pay for, as vocals have a stunning atmosphere, soundstage, and live sound. Again, the bass is really where I tend to cringe. There isn't a seamless stream of music connecting the lows, mids, and highs--there is with the mids and highs, but the bass sounds like it's own, separate monster--but keep in mind, this is ONLY for SOME recordings, not all. These speakers are also very honest, and will never cover things up to pretty sound artificially--bad recordings sound bad, and good recordings sound great--all your cd's won't be reborn, but instead you will now be able to realize what was made on a budget in 1965 and what is quite new and well-recorded. I do recommend these speakers for the $400-$800 range, but there are better products for the money when you get into the $1000 range--for example, check out B&W, Paradigm, or Thiel, which is quite a bit more.

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Bose, RCA, Klipsch

Great build, great looks, great highs, mids, and lows, great size and weight, and great upgrade possibilities--especially with the whole biwiring thing. Fantastic value for the price--better than the JBL s312, which is more expensive at stores, but less retail.

Require a break in period of 50 hours--that's a lot of music. I haven't broken them in yet, and they sound very edgy--sharp highs that are even painful to the ears--I hope they'll smooth out after some use.

Firstly, I wanted to point out that everyone on this site seems to think that the Emerald 97 speakers are the flagship speakers of the Wharfedale Emerald line (not made any longer), but infact, the Emerald 99's are. Anyway, just like others have said, these are fantastic speakers. I ordered these from ubid and had some issues as others had--they took 4 days longer than supposed to for shipping, and it was the wrong type of wood--walnut, not the oak I ordered, but it's still very beautiful, and it in no way affects the sound, so I'm not going to complain, especially for the price I paid (compare it to amazon). I've heard the walnut wood is pretty rare, but I just wanted a brighter wood like the oak--too bad. Before I bought these I was worried about not trying them out first, and buying them completely based on reviews (much of which was from this site), but, like everyone else, I am more than happy (especially considering I was upgrading from Bose 201's!) The difference is just staggering. I was afraid they wouldn't have the bass I wanted, but I've found they have MORE than enough bass--DEEP and tight. I was having regrets about not just buying the next model up, the Emerald 99's, which have dual 8 inch drivers instead of 6.5 inches, but I would only reccomend the 99's for home theater--I only listen to music with these, so there is plenty of bass--with the bass turned up enough, it sounds as deep as any subwoofer, but I feel too much bass, or an artificial outside source, like a subwoofer, only muffles the music and ruins the purity--I don't like the way subs "round out" the recording. Anyway, I also just found out the Emerald 99's are much bigger than these, and I'm somewhat tight on space, so I'm glad I picked these. I was between the JBL s310's, and s312's, and these, and I listened to both JBL's but decided to go ahead and take a chance on these without even hearing them, mostly because of the build quality and the price--fabulous decision. The JBL almost had too much bass for me, and I like the bass these have--nice and tight. These can make a terrible recording sound half-assed, and a bad recording sound good. I have a Harman Kardon AVR 110 receiver, which only has 40 watts, so I was worried it wouldn't even come close to being about to drive these, but I was wrong. I'm also biwiring with two sets of monster XP's, and even though m

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Bose 201's, Klipsch, RCA floorstanding

High Wife acceptance factor, accurate sounding, quality build

makes you want to upgrade everything

Wharfedale Emerald 99, Very nice speakers right from the start, getting better with breakin. These speakers have caused me to appreciate classical music. They are incredible bargain. Highly recommend, these sound great in both Stereo and HT with plenty of bottom and smooth articulate high's. I have them bi-amp from the start and can't comment on regular hook-up. MY system: Denon AVR-3802, AMC 2N100-5 power amp, Wharedale em-99 up front, Sapphire 89's in back Wharfedale WH-2 wide dispersion in back surround, Cambridge MC500 Center, Toshiba 2700 dvd, Toshiba HDTV, Dish HD dish, JVC SVHS, Monster interconnects

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various Bose :(, ESS AMT-5's, DBX, Wharfedale Emerald 89

Size (I guess anything is smaller than my old gigantic JBL S412ps.) Looks Price BASS Frequency Response BiWirable

I really can't think of any!!!

This is a review of Emerald 99 speakers! All I can say is that these speakers are just unbelievable... The sound is better than my old pair of JBL S412Ps. Nice tight bass and extremely detailed sound. What a bargain!!! JBL is good, but this is better...

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JBL, SONY

Detail, Clarity, Tight Bass

None really, maybe limited power handling

I've got the Mark IV version of the 97's with a frequency response of 30hz-20Khz. These are amazing speakers for the money. The detail, clarity, and punch are better than my JBL 4311B control monitors. The amount of tight punchy bass is unbelievable for 6.7" drivers. Build quality is also quite good. I've got mine hooked up to a Crown D150 amp and IC150 pre-amp. They really shine with the control and headroom the crown offers.

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JBL, Advent, Klipsch, Aura, AR, Bozak, Altec, Infinity

The quality of the woodwork, clear mid-range.

Not enough bass

I agree with the review just below my msg. This speaker will be great with a sub otherwise the bass won't be enough for music or movie.