price, sound

break in period

good speakers for an inexpensive price.

And no, Wharfedales aren't "budget" speakers. As I understand it wharfedale was primed to come into the US market and decided against it. They entered into some kind of agreement with Ubid to liquidate they're US inventory rather than ship them back to England. Hence the inexpensive price.

I think some people just want to spend a large amount of money on speakers in order to "feel" like they've got a high-end product. Go figure.

Five stars for value to quality.

see below

see below

I had been auditioning speakers for the last year with a system price around $1,500.00. By pure chance I found these speakers on Ubid by pure accident. Wharfedale wasn’t even on my list of choices for a system, as I knew of no-place in the Chicago area where I could audition them. Besides, at the retail price of these speakers, they were not originally in my price range and I certainly wouldn’t take the risk of buying them sight unseen. When I saw that at UBID I could get a complete HT system for around $600.00 for a system retailing around $5,200.00, I figured that the risk of getting a system at about 3 1/2 times my price range for only $600 was virtually non-existent. I was not disappointed! Although these are not far better speakers than I have heard, they are far better than I was planning to purchase.

My purchase included: a pair of the Modus 1.6’s for the fronts (the flagship of the line - $330.18 with tax and shipping), a pair of Modus 6’s ($179.85 with tax and shipping) for the rear, and a sapphire center speaker ($95.52 with tax and shipping), at a total cost for the system of $603.00. As I said previously, retail cost of these speakers would have been around $5,200.00, although as most know, speakers can often be purchased for deep discounts of 30 to 50% of retail).

Since I had just started to rebuild my system (lost my old one in the divorce!) I hooked the speakers up to a rather low end, cheap receiver by Aiwa and was expecting to be disappointed, just because of the electronics I was using. To my surprise, these speakers sounded; smooth, accurate clean and open even with poor electronics! Bass was deep and tight, not boomy as some other systems I have heard.

One complaint I have read in several reviews here is in that the speaker lacks midrange. I can not concur with this assessment, as the vocals were smooth and natural. While these speakers may not have the midrange presence of some other speakers, its more because these have a more natural sounding midrange, one that won’t tire you out over with extended listening sessions (I have been listening to these for 2 days straight and still can’t get enough). When I listened to Mark Knopfler, I could shut my eyes and it almost seemed like he was belting out those deep vocals right here in my living room. Some of you have even said “that the nice highs made dialogue seem … realistic”. And my recordings of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli never sounded better. Since the majority of vocals fall in the midrange area, this is actually a testament to the smooth and natural sounding mids that these speakers portray.

As for the highs, they were crisp but not overly bright or harsh, like some speakers I have heard Infinity speakers (a great speaker company I might add) have a much brighter high that I find to bright and not natural sounding. Slightly toeing in the tweeter modules definitely improved the speakers imaging, but not dramatically. Still, this allows the speakers rear port to be properly aimed at a wall for maximum bass output.

These speakers sounded better to me than any of the other speakers I had listened to, except for the Sonus Faber and the Mark Logan’s, but at over $20,000.00 for a system each, they should sound better!

PROBLEMS/COMPLAINTS - When the speakers arrived I found that one of the Modus 6’s had no output in the bass or midrange speakers and almost none in the tweeter. A call to IAG (1-877-440-0888) had me removing both the woofer and the midrange drivers to see if any wires had come loose. To my chagrin, I found the crossover had broken off the binding posts. Although I probably could have resoldered it on, IAG had me fax a copy of the invoice and a cover sheet and agreed to ship a replacement speaker and return label for the damaged unit the next business day. Great Job Wharfedale!

Are there any weak points to these speakers? OF COURSE THERE ARE! As many here have commented, the speaker grills are very flimsy plastic, very cheaply made and it’s just a matter of time till they break. The crossover connections to the binding posts seemed to be of low quality for a system in this retail price range. But these are minor complaints when considering both the price paid and how IAG stepped up to the plate to handle the problems.

Bottom line is that Wharfedale put the dollars and quality where it counted to make a smooth sounding speaker that is sounding better every minute I play them! These are not just a bargain at this price; they are a steal! Again GREAT JOB WHARFEDALE and IAG!

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Polk, Klipsch, M & K, Definative, Paradigm, Infinity, Mirage, Mission, Mark Logan, Sonus Faber

Incredible value (through Ubid) Sound spaciousness, Separation, multidirectional tweeter.

So ok the grills are @#$!^&*%

Like alot of you recieved these from ubid. With an msrp of over one thousand dollars I was a bit confused as to why these are basically being given away. I use my main system for music only (gasp !) with Onkyo equipment, and was amazed at what I was missing. Had been looking at similarly priced speakers from a local audiophile shop in town and when I told them about the deal I recieved on these he was dumbfounded. Remember the break in period and bi-wire them. Great job Wharfedale !!!

Similar Products Used:

None at this price

The life like and warm vocal, clear and detailed high and mid, the low, powerful and tight bass will totally melt you.

Do not know yet.

I have listened to few speakers including Infinity Overtune 3 and Polk RT2000 (both with powered subwoofer). None of them give me more (or the same) excitement and happiness as the Modules Music 1.6 !! The life like and warm vocal, clear and detailed high and mid, the low, powerful and tight bass will totally melt you. Based on this experience, I decided to get a pair of Sapphire 89 model from uBid. For some reason its value is about 30% to 50% more than 1.6 at uBid. Actually the 1.6 is $300/pair more expensive at www.Wharfedale.co.uk ! I was expecting something much better based on the bidding value at uBid and also based on the feedback on this site. With its dual woofer, I was expecting a much powerful bass. With its bigger tweeter, I was expecting a louder and clearer high. But I am only 30% right. I got the speakers today, the boxes are damaged by UPS as usual and I have to help that lady, but the speakers are fine. After connecting to the same receiver. I am not too excited ! The high is louder but as clear as the 1.6. For the bass, it is at least 50% weaker than 1.6 although it has dual woofer (different type of driver). Something wrong here ? There is only about 50% bass coming out of this speaker using the same receiver at the same volumn setting comparing with 1.6 !! It is also not as tight and accurate as the 1.6. I am not sure if it will get better and louder after the break in period. If not, I may have to exchange them with 1.6 although I pay much higher than 1.6 at uBid !!! I will be back for more comment. The 1.6 was better even before the break in period.

Please do not rate the speakers based on uBid's customer support. We all know that they are suck and cheat on customer. Many times the picture does not match the item description. I was cheated several time and told them many times. But they keep on selling with the wrong picture forever. They cheat on my shipping too. I could save money if I ordered them seperately ! Basically, they just ignore you ! Do not buy any refurished product there because uBid has no quality control on them at all. So you could get a junk if you are bad luck. Do not expect to return it with a full refund. I tried it ! If you want to complaint, call the investment news reporter, or post a message to consumer report or to the investment site.

It is not fair to lower the rating of this wonderful speaker based on uBid support !

Similar Products Used:

Do not know yet.

every thing!!

grill

After reading the reviews on this site, i bought these speakers from ubid. These speakers sounds terrific with my home theater and music also. Highs are clear and bass is great. This is the best quality of music i heard. Great buy!!

Sound, Separation, Clarity, Appearance

Grills

Before my review, just a comment on Jim Denver's review and his experiences with UBid. I don't know if Jim's score of one is based on his problems with UBid, but if so, I don't think that it is fair to blemish the speakers based on that. Counter to Jim's experience, I have had excellent results from Ubid's customer support.
The Modus One.Six's are perhaps the best speakers I have heard in this and in a significantly higher price range. I likewise have a pair of Wharfedale Sapphire 87s (which I thought were great), but the One.Six's are even better. Whether it is thunderous bass you want, or the clarity of the stings in a symphony, these speakers deliver. Like most of the others, I wish the grills were better, but I don't listen to grills , besides it isn't all that bad, just not great, IMHO. The cabinets are neat and clean in appearance. Unlike the Sapphire series, the port in the front is covered by the grill. Bi-wiring clearly adds to the overall effect, so I would recommend adding the extra cable. Like everyone else, I for one am glad the Ubid is getting out at a great price. Although, it seems that the last few auctions there, have had a higher ending price.

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Sapphire 87s, Much Older BCS Towers

Good sound

Cheap cabinet

I also got these speakers from ubid as most of you after reading the good review here.
I have been please with the speakers.
The problem I have is with ubid. First the speakers arrived without any document, not invoice, not shipping detail.
After getting my credit card statement, I noticed that
the shipping charges was higher than the max of the range for UPS ground.
email correspondences to help@ubid.com do not return with timely responses within the number of working working days pledged, instead it took weeks. Finally, they admitted that I was overcharged and credit me with a small sum. However, that is much lesser than what I should be getting back.
Calling the 1-888 number keep me on hold for 20+ minutes and their agents were always busy.
When eventually spoke to their agent, I was asked to provide all kind of information and numbers, but then still I am not getting my money back.
Beware of the shipping charges scam if you are buying from ubid. I definitely will not bid there anymore.

All

For movie, needs a little more high for dialogue, but a good center speaker could help. For music, the high is warm and is perfect to me.

(continue from last review here)

Today is my 4th day to own the Sapphire 89 speakers, still in break in period. The bass is much better than 1st day, but still not as loud, as tight and as deep as Modus 1.6. When I stand in front of these speakers both Sapphire 89 and Modus 1.6 will shake my floor, but modules 1.6 also shake my pants, my body and my heart ! (weak hearter should not try) There is a great amount of air coming out from its computer designed big front hole and the bass is deep and low on 1.6 !

From reading the review of Sapphire 89 section. I must agree with the comment from "Renato" for Sapphire 89 speakers, "the female singers all sound like they're shouting. The voices are not built naturally, but rather they jump at you." I found out that Sapphire 89's high is much louder than the bass and this is why the higher frequency voice is jumping at you. With 1.6, the high is not as high and not as loud but it mixes with the bass very well with very good seperation. For music, I love 1.6, but for movie I wish 1.6 could be a little bit higher (center speaker could help). The Sapphire 89 also give you more detail and clearer at high and mid because it is louder.

I also have to agree with the review by "Shlomo", "Imaging, sound stage is very good (on Sapphire 89),that much I'll give them"

So far I discovered one good thing. If I put both 1.6 and 89 speakers as front speakers at the same time (A & B on), they sound excellent ! I got the clear high (helped by 89) and deep low bass (helped by 1.6). The dialogue and vocal is crystal clear and outstanding while the bass is thunderous loud and low. Wharfedale should consider transferring the 1.6 cross-over and bass unit to Sapphire 89, or transferring the bigger tweeter from 89 to the Modules music 1.6. Both 89 and 1.6 use the same tweeter type (89 is 25mm and 1.6 is 19mm) and same mid unit. But the bass unit is different between them. I love the bass sound from 1.6.

From their web site, the next new Pacific "flagship" model is the same style as modules 1.6. So I guess they are transferring the bigger and better tweeter to the Modus music 1.6 to improve its high.

I will be back with more report after more break in. My young son keep stopping me to test these speakers at high volume after his school and my wife is having some headache from these speakers too !!

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Sapphire 89 (owed 4 days) I owned Wharfedale Modus One.Six for 3 months.

Great clarity, imaging, range. Just about everything is great about these speakers. PRICE PRICE PRICE. They were a steal! (~$300 shipped from uBid). Excellent tweeter.

Cheap Grill (suprise huh?), trebble is slightly on the bright side, buy nothing bad.

I'll start off by saying that this review will slightly be biased because of price - but how can it not be for so cheap?

Like everyone else I bought these from uBid, not really knowing what they sounded like. I had a set of Klipsch's that I was using for my setup, but they weren't floor standing, so there was a huge hole that i needed to patch. Enter the Wharfedale's. I figured that they couldn't possibly be *that* bad and it wouldn't be as if I were sinking my life savings into them. So I ordered them.

Speakers got here 4 days later and UPS guy insisted I signed they were signed for because he said they were so valuable. Guy seemed to know of them and had nothing but good to say about them. Looking good thus far. I opened up the boxes and first one I open, the tweeter was apart from the rest of the speaker. I looked in the instructions and there was nothing. Second speaker was fine so I guess it fell off in shipping. No biggie. Just popped the one off the good one and looked at how the wires were hooked up (for anyone else that may have this problem, the yellow wire goes to the contact on the tweeter with the red dot. the blue goes to the other one).

I first tried out the speakers at a friends place using a Yamaha DSP-A3090. His CD collection was kinda lacking, so first CD we put in was Hole. Didn't really sound all that impressive, although I'm really not a fan of them so I don't know what I should have been looking for. Second CD was some classical music cd but they were crappy recordings. Let me say I was pleasantly suprised. The recording was terrible, yet these speakers seemed to hide that fact. Finnaly found a CD of acceptable quality after a while - a James Taylor CD.

After popping it in, I absolutely didn't know what to say. I've been thinking about what I could say here and I could only come up with one word: incredible. They were ALL was expecting and so, so much more.

I really don't know what to say, except that everything was excellent with the speaker. Very clear and musical, not at all muddy. The bass was deep and tight. One of the stongest points of these speakers - imaging. They have a very wide soundstage. May not be as wide as my friend's Bose 901's, but 1) this speaker is not crap and 2) it doesn't sound like crap, 3) the tweeters aren't crap 4) there aren't 1000 non-crap tweeters. I guess I'll have to get another pair and face em towards the wall to get that "direct/reflecting" sound. Back to the speakers - the range was very good. Bass wasn't overpowering like Cerwin Vega speakers or anything, but it wasn't meant to be - these are musical. The're perfect for music listening, although as always, i'd recommend a sub for HT use.

I'm not going to say that these are the best speakers i've ever heard - they aren't by any stretch of the imaginaton. But it's not as if I can go out and spend $10000 on B&W Nautilus 801's. For the money you spend, there is NO WAY you will find a better deal. These speakers can run with speakers that cost many hundreds more.

What are you doing wasting your time reading my review? Go and buy yourself a pair!

Similar Products Used:

Mirage, Polk, JBL, Klipsch, Optimus (linaeum)

Soundstage, Imaging, nice looks/

Little bit too big.

I am not saying these are among the best speakers that I ever used. But this speakers definitely are one of the best that I've ever listen - at least for the money. I'd paid $800 Aus$ (around $500 US). I think it worths for every cents. The tweeter is exceptional good for the design. The bass are tight and but boomy at all. I would highly recommended to anyone at this price range.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio Silver 5i, Klipsch RF3, Mission MS704, B&W DM604 S2.