Our listening revealed taut, punchy sound with dramatically smooth midrange frequencies and detailed but never excessive or harsh-sounding treble. So you'll hear all the nuance of sticks on cymbals, but the crashing won't rip your ears off. Fittingly, voices and acoustic instruments sounded especially lush and realistic owing to the 8.3s' beautiful midrange, while the bass ran surprisingly deep for speakers using only a single 6.5-inch woofer each (the rated frequency response is 40 to 20,000 Hz).

The speakers owe a lot of their clarity and openness to their textile tweeters and woven Kevlar woofers. The tweeters are 1-inch silk-dome, ferrofluid-cooled drivers powered by a strong, neodymium magnet for speed and accuracy. Kevlar is said to be self-damping, a fact that would grant the woofers high rigidity and easy movement--a terrific recipe for dynamic sound from even wimpy amplifiers. And, indeed, it doesn't take much to make these speakers sing. Anything from 20 watts-per-channel integrated amplifiers to 85 wpc surround receivers will make a good fit, though be warned that the speakers are rated for use only to 120 wpc.

An especially choice feature of the 8.3s is their dual, gold-plated speaker terminals, which let you power each driver independently if desired, a process known as biwiring. (The speakers come with jumpers to allow standard wiring; remove the jumpers to biwire.) Whether you use separate mono-block amps for each speaker or merely use your receiver's A and B speaker outputs to power the tweeters and woofers, respectively--with set A for the tweeters, set B for the woofers--extra cable required!--you'll hear a little extra clarity, openness, and even frequency extension since the amplifier is focused only on a given driver's needs at any given moment. (Think: division of labor.)

The speakers' low end was not as rich, powerful, or as even as you'd find in a more expensive speaker with additional drivers or more sophisticated engineering (Wharfedale's wonderful Emerald 97, for instance)--but for at this price, the performance is exceptional. We recommend placement at least one foot from any room boundary, and the closer you can get to putting three feet between the 8.3s and your walls, the better, in our experience--though the port's front-panel positioning allows closer wall placement than would a rear port.

Each of the speakers in the Diamond 8 line uses the same tweeter and cone material for perfect timbral matching, so you can use the 8.3s for either stereo or surround-sound applications, enlisting Diamond 8.1s or 8.2s as surround speakers and the Diamond Center for a center-channel speaker.

--Michael Mikesell

Pros:

• High value
• Genuinely good, balanced sound overall
• Attractive design
• Excellent midrange reproduction (voices, etc.)
• High sensitivity/easily driven
• Biwirable for cleaner sound

Cons:

• Slightly tubby bass

What's in the Box
Two speakers, speaker grilles, speaker-terminal jumpers (for non-biwired applications), wood-plate "feet," a user's manual, and warranty information.

I wanted our speakers to do double duty: movies and CD's. The speakers perform admirably in both. For the price the sound is superb; the highs and mids are crystal clear and the bass is punchy and fast.

It is true that you won't get copious amounts of bass from the 6.5 inch woofers. However, what you will get is accurate sound reproduction. Our music tastes range from AD/DC to jazz and classical. We can "crank" the volume to an almost uncomfortable level on our AC/DC and have ample bass, as can we on our classical, jazz etc. The key is to not adjust the bass control on the receiver beyond the mid or neutral point. Beyond that there is too much bass anyway. In addition, speaker placement makes a difference too. We experimented for a few days before finding the best distance from the corners and furniture.

Where the bass is somewhat inadequate is in surround sound movies, but then that is what the subwoofer is for. In the first two Lord of the Rings DVD's there are parts with deep and prolonged bass. Again the speakers can do the job, but they really benefit from the subwoofer for the lowest, house shaking lows.

In the end, you can probably buy cheaper, higher bass producing speakers than the 8.3's. However, what you gain in bass you may likely lose in accurate and clear sound. These are excellent consumer level speakers with a very reasonable price (in fact, all 6 speakers cost less than some of those cubes/subwoofer sets). If you don't want to take up huge floorspace with giant towers, but still want a quality sounding speaker, these speakers should be on your potential purchase list. The longer we have them, the better they sound.


One of the best speaker values available.   January 10, 2003
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

By now most serious speaker shoppers have read some of the praise Wharfedale has garned regarding the retooling of its Diamond line of speakers. In my opinion, that praise has been well earned. Like all good speakers, the 8.3's posses the ability to reproduce recorded musical content accurately. However, the 8.3's ultimate strength lie in it's ability to produce a very wide and deep soundstage. Musical instruments seem to float in space without ever "wandering" or losing their correct position. Want a good demo? Listen to any track from Flim and the BB's "New Pants." Vocalists take on almost ghost-like attributes (you can hear'em, almost touch 'em, but you can't seem 'em). Dawn Upshaw's "I Could Write a Book" from her Rogers and Hart songbook is a great example of what the 8.3's can do with in this instance. You get the sense you're in a small club, maybe a table back from the stage. Close your eyes and you can see Miss Upshaw on stage. The tweeter has to take some credit here. It's capable of reproducing sound without being analytical. It simply reveals details better than many other speakers, some of which cost lots more.

I realize this is not a perfect world and the 8.3's are not perfect either. Their shortcomings? These are not big speakers. Not that big by itself means better. While they are capable of playing loud, they do have they're limits. They can be pushed too far and they're not too forgiving in this instance. To be fair though, these speakers are using only a six and half inch woofer and they do get the most from it.

Why four stars? They are not perfect, but I have to remind myself that these are really bookshelf speakers at heart and cost just [$$$]. Bottom line, used in the right location, with a good front end and not driven to extremes, the 8.3 is a winner. It's sure to deliver lots of musical satisfaction.


Highly over-rated 8.3's   December 21, 2003
 9 out of 24 found this review helpful

I bought Wharfedale 8.3 for $ 200 after reading all these reviews last year. I paired it with HK AVR 51 amp, and Marantz CD player. Just yesterday I finally go so pissed off with the wharfedale that I went and picked up infinity Studio Monitor SM 205's. They are an older model which they dont make any more but I got it unused from a store. And what a difference. the wharfedale could not handle bass, and music with fast heavy bass. The kevlar woofer in fact does not even recover from its instroke in time to start the next outstroke of bass. And mine is perfectly fine, no damages. Wharfedale is a sweet sounding speaker if you listen to only norah jones, and at low volumes.try switching it to a infinity sm 205 to really hear quality music, the frequency highs and lows, in pure, unrestrained way.no comparison, i really dont know why people are raving so much abt wharfedales. i will now have to donate my wharfedale to someone, since if i play it together with infinity, it is distorting the quality of infinity sound too. i myself believed that wharfedale was very good, till i noticed it was not taking bass at good volumes. try with Shaggy.now i really know the difference, and also the fact that it is not for someone for whom music matters a lot.