Well balanced, warm, and nice open soundstage. I’m currently driving them with a NAD 7125 (rated 25 watts), so I may not be getting the best out of them, but I still love listening to them. The are well designed and understated.

Difficult to transport without worrying about the grill.

Strengts.... well in my opinion they only have strengts ! The enclosure is huge ! So bassresponse is out of this world. Wharfedale claims 35 hz, a Phillips freq test CD clearly lets them play till 20 hz audible. Due to the way this speaker is build, it had extreme deep lows. So how is it build ? It's diveded internal into two enclosures. The top part is a two way with reflex pipe on the back. The bottom part is a huge enclosure with one woofer and a very big, front faced port. It's like each speaker has it's own, dedicated subwoofer on board. The softdome tweeter gives sweet, silky highs. Not fatiguing to listen too, never. I believe this speaker has a very well balanced sound, even at low volumes the lows are there, with all tone controlls to neutral. They can handle any type of music, pop, rock, metal, dance, classic, ... everything I trow at them, they deliver ! Untill now, I own them for 23 years and bought them new, I haven't heard better in the pricerange untill €1000/pair. Been comparing to Quadral Rubin MKIII (big lack of lows, in comparison) and Magnat Lambda 10 (slight lack of lows and a bit harsh mids, in comparison) I really love my Wharfedale Modus One-Six and will never sell them.

They are huge and women don't like it. But women don't know good sound, neither, so who cares what they like.

all right lets get right to the point about these speakers,people say they look great and loved swivel tweeter -------------how do they sound,well allright you need a amp thats going to do the job for you,no point hooking these up to a amp that is some cheap arse so called big name,mid 90,s marantz etc,what you need is something like a harman kardon amp of any sort to realy bring these speakers to there full peak,the harman kardon amps have at least 40 amps of current which is at least double that of yamaha,denon,and marantz,and once doing so these speakers will realy shine,very strong bass,and the mids to hi you just can,t fault,but i must say you might want to take the front grills off tho,they are cheap and nasty and tend to raddle,but a bit of blu tak can fix that,sometimes it makes you wonder why a company which has such a good name as wharfedale would over look these simple things.in closing if you can pick a set up for under 500 bucks go for it,you realy need the right amp to make them shine

I always loved the look of the Modus 1.6, with the rotating top-mounted tweeter. I used the Modus 1.6 with my Onkyo TX-DS777, supplying 105wpc. I was never really impressed with them, but they performed just fine for movies, which is the overwhelming majority of their material.

However, I took them to my friend's house and hooked them up to his Yamaha 2500, supplying 130wpc. Night and day difference. I can't concluysively say it was the fault of the Onkyo, since it was 2 different amps in two different rooms. The room could have had a significant effect, but I think the Yammy just opened the speakers up in a way my Onkyo never could. I've been a Onkyo fanboy since the 80's, so that was hard to take.

Wharfedale stands behind their products! One of the swivel mount tweeters (a design which I really like) died and I got a whole new replacement assembly for $16, seven years after I bought the speakers.

These speakers cost less than my Polk RTi6's, but the Polks were not as good - even with their built-in amplified woofers.

sweet highs, very good soundstage, tight-midbass

deep bass are not for 6" drives

Excellent loudspeakers with good sensitivity (93db). I love to listen them and see how they 'picture' the music both with t-amp and heavily-tuned Harman/Kardon HK680.
The highs are really sweet: the silk dome tweeter do an excellent job, it's warm and never sound harsh. Mids are clear, very responsive with a good soundstage and middlebass are tight. HK drives my Wharfedale very easily with a lot of control: this provides a good slapping mid-bass. Well, the bass is limited, obviously. 6" drives cannot fire the REAL bass. However, thanks to the 2 bass reflex ports and 2 sealed chamber the reproduction is quiet accurate and surely playful.
A good product among laudspeaker costing 3 or 4 times the price, ABSOLUTELY gorgeous for the value!

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Klipsch RF-35, Tannoy Mercury, B&W 602, Dynaudio Audience 42, Canton Vento

Smooth and precise bass and treble, with a nice thudding kick to the mid range which will make your chest mimic the speakers actions. Adjustable tweeter, not too harsh. Can be turned up EXTREMELY loud with the right set up. They don't take long to warm up like some speakers. They look as hard as nails, and unique.

The front port can rarely come unstuck and rattle slightly, but it just needs a gentle push back in and its fine. Its intended to be removeable so you can fill the base up with sand. They need a fair amount of power before they start sounding really good. You have to secure everything in the house before you turn them up.

These are a real bargain. I've had a pair for three years now and haven't looked back. My set up is: Amp (surround/60wpc): Sherwood RVD-6095 Power Amps (120w x2 ea): two NAD C270's CD Player (Optical): Kenwood DP-4090 DVD (Optical): Pioneer SCSI on Geforce4 Sub (10" 175w): Eltax Atomic a10.2 Rear Spkrs (100w/Eltax stands): Wharfedale Sapphire SP-83's Center Spkr (50w): Kenwood [???] Tweeter is best turned down - its tempting to turn it up to show off, but the truth is they don't need boosting very much at all. They are quite subtle but this is what draws you in. Mid range can produce port noise but you'd have to be very picky to spot it, as it is very rare. A larger port would ruin the punch of the mid range and since this is a floorstanding speaker I think it does an excellent job. These speakers are best powered with a power amplifier with gain control, like the nad c270. This way you can find the optimum bass setting to get the most out of the speaker. Use one power amp to power the bass and one to power the tweeters. Contary to popular beleif these aren't as 'budget' as people think, and they do need a fairly good set-up to run them to their full potential. They will sound terrible plugged into your aiwa. dont do it! These speakers are rated at 175w, which means you need to give them a fair bit of power to hear them properly (the nad c270s are rated at 120 but actaully give out more like 170, so it is the perfect choice). Connect these speakers up to the power amps and then connect the power amps to the pre outs of a surround amp, connect a sub, and you have some amazing movie speakers. Connect them straight up to a surround amp and they will perform well, but you will notice room for improvement (but only if you already know how good they can sound! I was happy enough for three years). Speaker grilles are a waste of time, and they look ugly. Don't bother with them unless you like the look of a huge bar of dark chocolate stuck to the front of your speakers. They also rattle. Overall I would recommend these speakers to people who are prepared to keep them for a while, although they are cheap to buy on Ebay, they are not as cheap as you think to get their full potential. Having said that, their full potential is breathtaking for their price, wheras you will not be dissapointed if you have a fairly decent amp like the sherwood, and a good CD player like the Kenwood. Anything much less than that and these speakers start to lose their consistency. I will definately be looking at wharfedale again for my next set of speakers.

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See above & kenwood (amazing sweet treble), infinity (tight), jbl (very loud, very intense, but lacks clarity), nakamichi (surprisingly clear), technics (a bit muffled, but loud and punchy), sony (actually not too bad, not realistic though)

The SOUNDSTAGE. You can "see" the musicians standing in front of you...and there is palpable depth projected.

Frail Grills are NOT a big deal. Unless you have kids or pets REMOVE THEM!

Apart from the fact that the grills ARE frail I find that these are excellent speakers IRRESPECTIVE OF PRICE. First, proper placement of these speakers is absolutely essential. I keep them at least 2 feet from the front wall and toe them in (the tweeters can be rotated independent of the speaker enclosures ala B&W but I find that toeing the entire speaker greatly enhances the soundstage) to create an equilateral triangle, with my sitting position just inside the meeting point of the tweeters. Thus angled, the rear ports project mid-range sound against the front wall that eventually makes its way to the listener from a wider point than the front firing speakers and ports (be careful to avoid phase problems. I don't usually drive these speakers at levels as high as some of the other reviewers, but at a volume appropriate for personal listening (late night, for instance) I find these speakers produce a clean, well balanced sound with ample base, well defined mid-range and mellow highs. Serious night listening is quite different from casual daytime listening and these speakers are best experienced when sitting still with eyes closed and lights dimmed. I can "see" the sound in my head and the full breadth of the soundstage "appears". Poorly recorded music is NOT improved by these speakers. Properly arranged music is a joy to hear. Tight base riffs are transmitted clearly while high notes are not lost behind the middle ranges. Truthfully, speaker appreciation is a subjective thing. I think these are exceptional speakers.

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Wharfedale 7.2 Anniversary (technical marvels), Wharfedale Emerald 97's (no rear port so soundstage is completely different but extraordinary speakers), Emerald 95's (same as 97's with slightly less b

Full, rich, smooth, accurate sound. Best sounding speakers I've found for the price. Sure you can find better for more money, but if you want to spend < $200 each, they're well worth it.

Not able to shake the house with bass, but that's what subwoofers are for.

I'm not sure what the last reviewer was talking about as far as port noise goes. The only way I have been able to get these speakers to reveal any weakness whatsoever is by pumping too many watts of good solid bass through them. Don't get me wrong, the bass response is excellent, reaching far into the lower frequencies without a problem, but if you really want to shake the house, you'll need a seperate subwoofer. That being the case, who cares? These speakers sound awesome and adding a sub just leaves headroom for the rest of the response curve to be reproduced that much more accurately. I have 4 one.six's as my fronts and rears with the Modus Center rounding out the configuration. Everytime I have people over to watch movies, the response is the same... "wow, these speakers sound great, with such a smooth character and even response, not too bright and not too boomy". I have been stupendously happy with these speakers for 3 years now and wouldn't hesitate to buy another set should these fail. The only reason I may end up replacing them is for lack of living room space for floor standing speakers, although the narrow profile of these speakers makes them fit almost anywhere.

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Just about everything.

Looks. Tweeters are not too harsh.

Speaker grills are just garbage. They have broken tabs right out of the box - also causing rattling noises at high volume. (same problem with speakers grills on my Wharfedale Sapphire 83's). Take the grills off one time and the tabs break. Is Wharfedale just ignoring this quality control issue? Rear port is too small.

Paid $100 each at eBay & uBid. I have a total of four of these speakers -for the mains and the surrounds. Rear port is too small - loads of port noise whilst playing the launch of the Discovery spacecraft in the movie "2010". This is with the tone controls on the receiver set to flat (or bypass, etc). These speakers apparently are not good for movies. I feel that the upper driver is crossed over too low, allowing that driver to share too much of the bass work - either that or increase the size of the rear port for that driver. It seems like this aspect of the speaker was designed in somebody's garage using the Radio Shack speaker design book - instead of a supposedly world-class speaker manufacturer. My next step up will be the likes of B&W, although I will go listen to them first before buying. I feel that they are an average speaker overall. And to think that they once retailed for $400? each!

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Cerwin Vega VS-120. No port noise or rattling speaker grill problems there!

Excellent value for the money. Clear and detailed. Good bass.

Cheap grills.

I've had these for a few months now, so I believe I can now give a fair review. To put it simply, I feel these are probably the best full range, floor speakers available for the price paid. I found these for $129/pair on Ebay, shipping was another $100, so really we're talking $229/pair delivered. Still, an excellent value, in my opinion. The sound is full and strong. Good mids, highs, and deep, powerful bass. They do seem to show the quality of the source given. Bad quality source = bad sound. Good quality source = great sound. I have hesitated buying a sub, because in my current HT room, that would be overkill. The one six towers have ample bass and punch. They are bi-wireable, which I have done, and they really shine. One of the speakers I purchased didn't have floor spikes. I emailed Wharfedale and they sent me 2 free sets out right away...great customer service.

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None really. I have one other set of towers that pale in comparison and a set of Infinity bookshelfs.