Interesting speakers the Wharfedale Opus2 3. They are truly a music lovers speaker but I'm not sure every audiophile would agree. First they are horrible out of the box. Get at least 100 hours on them before any serious listening is planned. Next these are among the most equipment and cable sensitive speakers I've ever encountered. Get it right and they can perform way beyond their price but get it wrong and you might think them another mid fi speaker with an overblown price.
They are an excellent match for McIntosh electronics as well as CJ and Cary. The best cable I have found for them so far has been Transparent Super and Transparent Ultra.
The sound: After break in and with the above equipment and cables here is what I heard. A full but well balanced bass that worked best with the speakers at least 2 feet from the rear wall. The mids were very well defined with an excellent representation of width and depth. The detail was among the best I've heard under $10,000. This same mid range is forward and spitty until break in has been achieved. Very nice extended treble with a silk dome type smoothness that I have always found to give a closer to live balance than most metal domes.
In my room when I pulled the speaker about 4 feet into the room I got a huge stage with depth that extended at least 10 feet behind the front wall. If you are planning on buying these speakers audition them first. If they work with your equipment you may just have a speaker you can live with for years to come. After reading the previous review I contacted Walter at Sound Imports and was told that there were some issues with parts in the past but these issues are now resolved so I purchased the speakers. I played them very loudly for over 100 hours while away to break them in and have had no issues.

This is an update to my earlier review of this product. Since I bought these speakers in January 2009 I have had multiple problems occur recently since my initial problems I mentioned in my first review.

November 2009 - the midrange of one of my Opus 1 speakers that I was using as my left rear speaker started to distort badly. I called Sound Imports (The representative for Wharfedale here in the US) per the Wharfedale website. He said that he would ship out a new midrange replacement. 2 weeks went by still no replacement. I called him and he said that he had packed it up but forgot to ship it out. I did receive the replacement speaker and it did work.

December 2009 - The tweeter in my Opus 3 speaker I noticed started to distort. It was especially noticeable when I played solo piano music. I e-mailed Sound Imports (The representative for Wharfedale here in the US). After several e-mails he said on December 15th 2009 that he would ship me out a replacement tweeter that day he said that he would actually ship me out a pair of Opus 3 tweeters just in case. It is now January 20 and I still have not received my replacement tweeters. I have e-mailed Bob Springston at least 4 times and left 3 messages on his voicemail and as of day (January 20, 2010) I have not heard a word from him. He has totally disappeared yet Wharfedale's website still shows him as the contact here in the US.

January 2010 - While I was waiting for the tweeter replacements I used my rear Opus 1 speakers as my front speakers. I put a new SACD of Ravel's piano music volume 2 on the LINN label with Pizarro. I immediately heard distortion coming from the Opus 1 speakers. The SACD sounded terrible. I then got up and put my hear close to the tweeter of my Opus 1 speakers and my left rear Opus 1 tweeter was now distorting badly. I then checked my right Opus 3 speaker with the same SACD and my right Opus 3 speakers was distorting as well but not as badly as my left Opus 3 speaker which is really bad. I then changed speaker wires to see if my Opus 1 center and my Opus 1 right rear speaker were also distorting, but they sounded OK. I then re-connected each of the distorting speakers just to make sure it was not the connection and yes they are still distorting.

January 19 2010 - I put in an Opera my Mozart Cosi fan Tutti on a Harmonia Mundi CD and listened it on the remaining 2 good Opus 1 speakers and by the end of the opera the two remaining speakers were distorting. There must be some sort of design flaw with these Opus (series 1) speakers. Maybe they are over heating and that is why the new Opus series 2 tweeters has heat sinks on them (according to the pictures and description in the owner’s manual that is downloadable from the website now.

The thing is I don't listen to my music very loudly and I only listen to classical music, so this problem could not be that I'm over taxing these speakers. My Denon AVR-3805 receiver is only rated at 120 Watts per channel. The smaller Opus 1 speakers are rated at 150 watts continuous program and the Opus 3 are rated at 300 watts continuous program.

As of today I still have not heard back from Sound Imports nor have I heard yet from Wharfedale who I sent a message to yesterday and today about my problem that is not being taken care of. No customer likes to be ignored. So far Wharfedale has not honored their 5 year warranty on my 5 expensive Opus speakers that I paid around $4000.00 for. I'll let everyone know if they ever come through with replacement tweeters and honor their warranty. 1 star for very poor customer service and not honoring their warranty.

I’ve been searching for a speaker that I can listen to my classical music for extended periods without my ears getting fatigued. I first bought the Wharfedale Diamond 9.6 from Wild West Electronics. I was struck by the natural sound of these speakers and especially liked the extended deep bass below 50Hz which really shows off during romantic organ music and orchestral music with bass drum. However, after listening to these speakers for more than ½ hour my ears seemed to become fatigued. Also, I noticed that I had to turn the speakers way up to hear all the details in the orchestra. After about a year of research, I decided to try the best that Wharfedale offers, the Opus 3’s for fronts and Opus 1’s for rears and center. So I saved my money for about 6 months and then purchased them from “At Your Service Electronics” on-line. That was a mistake, I do not recommend purchasing from “At Your Service Electronics” because one of my Opus 1 speakers turned defective only after a couple of days of listening. The 3” dome midrange started to distort badly. I called the person at “At Your Service Electronics” and left a message. I never heard back from him. After several more calls over the next 2 weeks I still never heard back from him. So I had to call the distributor, Sound Imports, who’s address was on the shipping label and I talked to Bob Springston and told him my problem with the guy from “At Your Service Electronics” not getting back to me. He was able to help me, thank God. He shipped me a new speaker and had UPS pick up the defective speaker at the same time. He is really a nice guy to deal with. In the future I’d buy my speakers from Wild West Electronics and avoid “At Your Service Electronics”.

Now for the review of the Opus 3 speakers, on first hearing I immediately heard more detail and breath in the high frequencies, midrange, upper bass and mid bass regions of the audio spectrum compared to my Diamond 9.6 speakers. More of the ambiance of the recording venue came through and the instruments sounded even more life like than the Diamond 9.6 speakers. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the deep bass below 50Hz. The bass frequencies did not come in quit as strong as the Diamond 9.6. Perhaps it’s because of the Diamond 9.6’s dedicated sub-woofer (the lower 8” woofer) specifically designed to reproduce frequencies below 150Hz. However, the Opus far outshined the Diamonds in reproducing everything above 50Hz. The SACD of Janos Starker playing Bach’s cello suites is absolutely more life like. It gave me “the cello is right there in the room with you” feeling. It was an emotional as well is visceral experience with the cello vibrating my whole body just as it would if the Janos Starker was really in the room with me. Listening to orchestral music give the same life like experience as if I’m really in the concert hall sitting right behind the conductor. The timbre of the instruments is exquisite and truly life like. Voices as well come through with amazing life like qualities. Also, with the Opus 3s I’m able to listen to music for extended periods of time (several hours) without my ears getting fatigued. I’ve had the Opus speakers now for 6 months and I’m very happy with them. I’d rate them 4 out of 5 stars.

A really well balanced pair of speakers

Very heay

I been searching for a pair of lousdspeakers for nearly a year the speakers had to reach certain standards for me to purchase them. They would have to be.
1)Floorstander
2)Have a open sound
3)A cleam=n treble that extends well
4)Good detailed mid
5)Extended bass
6)Be dyanamic but not tiring
7)Good intergration
I found that to get these qualities I had to look at high end speakers such as the Hyperions, Pinish3 and Proac D38. I also tried speakers like the Spendors S9e, PMC 0B! and Lorriel but they just missed the on 1 of the qualities I wanted.
I then saw a pair of Wharfedale Opus 3 with 30 hours use going quite reasonably; so decided to take a risk with these speakers I could only find minimal infomation on the net around these speakers; hence this review.
I mainly listen to prog metal; world fusion, rock, sone jazz, some classical and some film scores.
I mainly use a few cds to test potential speakers; music I know well but will test the speakers Surinder Sandhu- Amirah is a great track on these I can hear how well the mid; bass and treble intergrate; it sense of timing and how well the instruments sound; and the Opus 3 are more than up for the job I next usually use Metropolis Part 1 by Dream Theater this will test the bass response how open the speakers are; how dynamic and clean the Opus 3 are; yet again the speakers do a real good job with this difficult challenge.
So the speakers work well in my system; better than I could of hoped I recently got a friend who writes reviews and sell hi-end equipmwnt and he was impressed by how well they sounded. I paid £1050 for them and they usually sell for £3500. For me the speakers combine tha bass response and openness of the Pinish3 with the transparency of the Hyperions and the Intergration of The D38

Customer Service

Other equipment
Gamut D200 Mark 3
Music First Preamp
Musical Fidelity Nu-vista Complete mod by Audiocom

Similar Products Used:

Silverline Sr17 Wilson |Benesch Actors and Jamo concerts 8

Clean extended highs
Good sounstage
Dyamic
Excellent Mid and bass
Good sense of detail

Very heavy to move around and will show up weak productions for what they are

Its been awhile since I owned a pair of floorsatnders for the past few years I been using a standmount. I spent alot of time and effort trying to find the right speaker at the right price; a could find plenty of speakers that were out of my price range.
Its really hard to find ant=y reviews on this product and was produced as limited edition. The company themselves are more known for budget speakers and not the high end Market; brand new this speakers cost £3500 pound I got these privately with hardly any use.
Although these speakers are really heavy and hard to move around; they completly lose themselves in the soundstage. They combine all the qualities I look for in a speaker; great soundstaging; dynamics, scale, timing and clear mids/highs. The bass can really move air when needed and the mids are tight and detailed.
I enjoy listening to a variety of music world Fusion; prog metal, film scores, Rock, Jazz classical and some folk.
The first test is Surinder Sandhu. Saurang Orchestra Which really tests the mid bass intergration of the speakers. The speakers extend quite high making a really enjoyable listen to Xandu by Rush and manage to move real air when listening to Fragile Vastness A Tribute to life. On classical music the guve a real sense of scale. I guess what I notice most is how fuller the sound of instruments are; a real sense of depth and presence.

Customer Service

Equipment Used
Fully mod Musical Fidelity Nu-vista by Audiocom
Music First Preamp
Gamut D200 Mark 3 Power amp
JPS Superconductor 2 Interconnects and speaker cable
PS Audio lab Mains cable
Seperate JPS mains spur
Solid Tech Feet of Silence (Cd Player)
Ayre Isolation blocks (Power amp)

Similar Products Used:

Silverline Sr17
Wilson Benesch Actors
Spendor S93
PMC 0B1
Hyperion 938
Pinish 3