Efficient power usage, lively sound for home theater.

Lack of mid-range clarity and highly directional treble.

I picked up a pair of these at a decent price (about $400 US) and have been quite pleased with the overall perfomance.

I am currently using them as the front channels in a home theater system and find the performance to be excellent - these things reproduce the dramatic-action sound effects with a great deal of punch and clarity (if your looking for a loudspeaker that can accurately reproduce gun fire and explosions, these are a good choice). A sub adds to the experience as the base is lively with these, but not terribly deep. For home theater these rate 5 stars.

For music, on the other hand, I give these 3.5 stars. They are great for basic rock/pop, but fall down a bit with more subtle genres music, particularily jazz vocals - due to the lack mid-range definition and overly vibrant bass.

These may not be the best loudspeakers out there, but for the price I was hard pressed to find anything that could do the double duty of CD listening and home theater as well as these.

cheap speakers. average performance, can produce fair amounts of bass but only plays down to 40hz, you will need a subwoofer to play the frequencies these just do not go down to. midrange is very poor also but at price these are not too bad.

Bass and Highs

Midrange

I love my speakers. If only the midrange was up to the task as the other speakers in the tower. I will try To change the midrange as someone did in here.

Power handling - very loud with no distortion, also the best value for money out there.

the mids - but that depends

If you want to get the best out of the 500's make sure you have a decent system - quality input and a decent amp. I'm running them off a 110w pioneer amp and a high quality marantz CD. These can go as loud as you want (might even break your windows). For me upgrading to the Marantz made all the difference - virtually all distortion is gone even at the highest volume. I suspect that a higher power amp would improve the infamous mids problem wihich is not that bad to begin with. If in a good setup the bass is extremely punchy and defined and the highs excelent. Lastly positioning makes a huge difference with theese - placing in a corner can give you very low resonant bass if that's what you like. I got theese for an absolute bargain - 6mo at 1/3 retail price - about the same as average new bookshelfs. What can I say - the quality is Wharfedale and the value is outstanding. As far as the mids problem goes, I listen to a lot of vocals and I don't think its that bad especially considering my whole setup cost about the same as an upper range mini system. Also I've seen Wharfedales last 20+ years so these will probably be the last thing I upgrade.

Similar Products Used:

Old wharfedales

Hmmm...well, if you like it midbass heavy, the midbass

Clarity, smoothness, mid and treble.

When my little (!) brother bought a pair of these for almost half the NZ shelf value (the finish on one corner was peeling, so they couldn't retail them) he thought he'd scored the bargain of the century. And I guess for half price you can't really argue. But I am.

These speakers are LOUD. Hooked up to a NAD C340 (60 watt continuous) they are clearly audible a block or more away on a still evening - we've tested it! If it's grunt you want, and especially that overblown car-sub-type low-midbass grunt, then you should buy these, cos you probably won't find such sheer room-shaking power for the price.
And there's a reason for that...

These speakers, while loud, are crude. They are boomboxes on steroids. Basically all they have is power. There's no refinement in the midrange, which is decidedly muddy, and the tweeters don't give that top-end 'air', that sense of space. The imaging is decidedly poor, and unless a track has pronounced panning between L & R channels, it's all a wall of sound. The bass is very loud, yes, but there's no substitute for a subwoofer - these only go to about 40Hz, for crying out loud! What you're hearing is overblown midbass. It's not even that smooth - try listening to the start of the "2001 - A Space Odyssey" theme (I forget who it's by), and you'll hear that long, sustained, wavering bass note. Except it's not meant to waver...

I myself have a NAD system with a pair of little TDL Nucleus 3s, and I'd much rather listen to these, despite their drawbacks.

If it's hi-fi sound you're after, look at some PSBs, which blow these Wharfies away, and are (for hi-fi) very well-priced, cos this ain't hi-fi. Having said that, they can be entertaining, and are great for parties!

bass off course.....apearence is also magnificent

hmm.....midrange slightly underpowered

I was looking for speakers that could handle my Denon amp (2*130 rms)and I found them..! first thing I played after installing the 500 series was a track from demanufacture by fear factory...AWESOME! me and my roommate where speachless, and very impressed by the incredible bass-output. (screw those neighbours!!) i think the best music to fit the speakers would be various dance, metal, rap and so on. tip: prodigy material is the greatest, perfect bass and very tight.
flaw 1: i blew up a tweeter once, still don't know why but it got repaired since it hadn't been a year from purchase so what the hell.
flaw 2: you get really annoyed by the poor quality of cd's, I didn't have that problem with my 2*6 watt's philips soundman.....!!!!!
flaw 3: they're hard to get here in holland so spair cones and stuff like that is not really an option here.
so when your looking to upgrade your system, get the valdus! and why not start with the 500.....
a while ago I put them on spikes and ever since my wall's tremble less anoying and the bass is even more tight. but it also kept the bass from shaking my lazy chair so when you're watching a good movie with stuff like thunderstorms or major explosions, try it without spikes!

Similar Products Used:

none

These are very ordinary speakers. If they were GOOD, they would not be so cheap. My son has had a pair of these for awhile and we have decided to get rid of them and go for a much higher quality solution, most probably JBL s312's.

The majority of people who have rated this product have no clue. They are punks. "YEAH, AWESOME SPEAKERS, THEY ARE BIG, CHEAP, THE BEST SPEAKERS EVER, OH THEY MAKE LOTS OF NOISE TOO".

4 starts out of 5 is a generous rating but is most probably correct.

These speakers pump out bass, which seems to be the highlight. Note, the bass only goes to 40hz. This is nothing. The two 8" woofers totally kill the midrange and dont do much for the trebble either. OVERKILL.

Marketing strategy so people will go ooh ahh and purchase.

These speakers are a toy. Do not use them in a serious system. And by that, I mean a system which is going to be used for HIFI and its original intension. If your going to sit around listening to HIPHOP, RAP, heavy-metal, go get a midi system and leave hifi to its origins.

QUALITY not QUANTITY people. These speakers = QUANTITY. Very small amounts of quality.

The fact that most people say they will get subs to accompany these speakers is quite amusing in itself. Two of these speakers will give you a combined 4 * 8 " woofers. If these were any good what-so-ever, you would not need a subwoofer. However you do. Not only to provide 20-40hz bass, but to make up for lackluster performance.

*EVERYONE* finds these speakers cheap. Dont think your special, they are cheap speakers.

Bottom line. If you have any level of seriousness about hifi, stay away.

These have no place in a quality system. And no , you do not need to spend thousands for a quality system. You just need carefully selected components. NOTE: check Tannoy, JBL at this price range.

These speakers are very powerful but at the same time give clear audio definition.

My cat pissed on one of them. It still works fine.

When dvd's were starting to come out in 5.1 I got hooked on the idea of a home cinema. Three years later I have A complete wharfedale home cinema package(Without the sub). I have been looking at all available brands in Australia for many years which would'nt kill the budget.I heard these speakers at a Bing Lee home theatre room at the local shops and was very impressed. My main use of using these speakers is for dvd use and I started researching the 500's. After reading the reviews here I was impressed until i read that really bad one. Anyone interested in buying these speakers should just ignore that review as there are no flaws with these speakers. I use the Sony strde-675 receiver and I picked up the wharfedale Wh2 surround and centre package which complements the valdus 500's and sounds well....breathtaking. To make sure that you get the most out of these speakers I reccomened that you do not go with cheap cabling but save your money for more expensive (higher quality), thick, well-shielded cable like I did. I used monster cabling with everything and I also suggest that you should use coax from dvd to receiver not optical as you will start to hear imperfections with optical. Even though I do not use a sub the 500's produce enough bass to make up for one but at the moment I am starting to look at buying one to get that extra feel out of the movies(See matrix chapter 29). Also my best friend who is a sound technician helped me set them up and all my friends who have been round in the last months love them and say that it is better than going to the movies. Also if you are going to buy this product be assured that you are buying the leading brand in all Britain which I discovered on my travels and that they are great for all use(Tv, dvd, ps2 and vcr). Well what else can I say that after years of annoying salesman and countless hours on the net that I am satisfied that I have reached my home cinema goal so I highly recommend these speakers and if you want any specific details or anything just send me an E-mail and I'll get back to you.

:) Ian

Bass, Bass , Bass and Loudness

Grills

Got these on the 1st jan 2002 and even with out the run in they sound alot better than the eltax speaker i was usin. With the Eltax speakers i was always havin to reach for the bass tone control and the loudness control on my amp to get the sound that i wanted. Where as with the Valdus 500s i dont need to, in fact its sounds bassy enough with the loudness control off and the bass on 2 out of 5. these speakers suit my choice of music very well (Heavy Metal, Rock, Drum N Bass, Dance, Garage and Rap). If u like your music at ear bleedin levels and really bassy then these r the speakers for u.

Similar Products Used:

Eltax Liberty 5 +, Spendor BC1

Bass, value.

Midrange at high volumes

I was searching for speakers to boost the muscle of my old system, which was sounding too light for my tastes (I confess, I'm someone who loves bass), without messing round with sub-woofers and such, I decided on the Valdus 500's after reading these reviews. Having had them for 3 days or so, and even without the recommended 24 hour run in period, I couldnt be happier, they certainly add some beef to my setup.

I got them for 250 UK pounds brand new, and after managing to fit them in the back of the damn car and get them home I tried them with my entire music collection. I'll admit I was worried that the midrange would be clouded after reading some of the comments here, but I've only noticed that occuring on one of my CDs so far (D12 album to be exact) at quite a high volume. I think thats due to the fact that my room is hardly accoustically favourable, and I've got the speakers close to the rear wall, so I've got another pair of smaller speakers to try and make up for any lack in mid and treble that occurs. The system I've got at the moment is a Technics SUA808 amp, rated at 100W per channel, with a Technics CD player and Tuner, the smaller speakers are Wharfedale S500's (old versions) at 75W.

Overall, I'm totally happy, I've got the heavy bass I wanted at a very decent price, but if you are thinking of buying a pair, I would advise you try to get a listen to them with your amp, as I've tried them with my older, crappy amp and they dont sound half as good, but if your input is good, I recommend them fully, especially at the price.

If anyone is confused about the impedance, I got in touch with tech support, and they are rated at 8 ohms.

Similar Products Used:

None