Floorstanding loudspeakers — Wharfedale DOVEDALE

The Dovedale is the largest model in Wharfedale's Heritage series, from the British company whose founder Gilbert Briggs began making drive units in 1932 in Ilkley, Yorkshire, near the River Wharfe. The original Dovedale dates back to the W2 of 1959, and this new version was introduced to mark Wharfedale's 90th anniversary, following the Denton 80, Denton 85 and Linton Heritage models. It was developed by Peter Comeau, who heads acoustic design at the company, is made in Britain, and is supplied with dedicated steel stands with glass inserts.

Key specs that matter

The Dovedale is a three-way bass-reflex stand-mount with a 250mm (10-inch) black woven Kevlar bass driver, a 135mm (5-inch) woven Kevlar midrange and a 25mm fabric soft-dome tweeter. Crossover points are 560Hz and 2.9kHz. Frequency response is 36Hz to 20kHz (+/-3dB), with bass extension to 25Hz at -6dB. Sensitivity is 89dB at 2.83V/1m, nominal impedance 6.5 ohms and minimum 3.6 ohms, with 25 to 250W recommended and peak SPL of 112dB. The internal volumes are 8.6 litres for the midrange and 64.7 litres for the bass. Each speaker stands 660mm tall on its plinth, 370mm wide and 447mm deep including terminals, and weighs 26.2kg, in hand-applied walnut real-wood veneer. It is classed as a stand-mount rather than a floorstander.

Engineering and use context

A 250mm bass driver is large by modern standards, and the Dovedale's wide baffle accommodates it, giving the cone area to move plenty of air at low frequencies, with twin rear ports tuning the bass enclosure. The midrange driver works in its own separate chamber, isolated from the pressure changes in the bass enclosure, and handles the band between the bass and treble crossovers. Woven Kevlar cones are stiff and light and have good internal damping. The midrange and tweeter are offset on the front baffle to scatter reflections from the cabinet edges, and the speakers are supplied in mirror-image pairs so that placement is symmetrical. The Heritage cabinet construction bonds an inner layer of high-density particle board to an outer layer of MDF with a high-damping glue, so the two materials with different resonant frequencies spread panel resonances instead of concentrating them at one frequency. Wharfedale voiced the speaker for use with its traditional cloth grille in place on the inset front baffle.

Pairing

Its fairly high sensitivity lets the Dovedale work with modest amplifiers, preferably ones stable into lower loads given its impedance dip. The supplied stands set the drivers at the intended height, and the cabinet volume is best matched to rooms of medium size and up.

Alternatives

Wharfedale's own Linton is the smaller three-way Heritage stand-mount with an 8-inch bass driver.