Напольная акустика — Wharfedale DIAMOND 12.3i

The Diamond 12.3i is the smaller of the two floorstanders in the Diamond 12i series, launched by Wharfedale in November 2025 as an update of the Diamond 12.3 introduced in 2020. The drivers, cabinet size and sensitivity carry over from the earlier model, and the UK price stayed unchanged at GBP 499 per pair. What changed are the finishes, the port and the internal damping. The four wood-effect options of the first version gave way to an all-black semi-matte cabinet, classic walnut with a semi-matte black baffle, and stone grey.

Key specs that matter

This is a 2.5-way bass reflex floorstander with two 130 mm Klarity cones, one for mid and bass and one for bass only, plus a 25 mm textile dome tweeter joined at 2.2 kHz. The ported enclosure has an internal volume of 26.6 litres. Frequency response runs from 45 Hz to 20 kHz within 3 dB and reaches 40 Hz at -6 dB. Sensitivity is 89 dB for 2.83 V at 1 m, nominal impedance is 8 ohm with a 5.0 ohm minimum, and peak SPL is 102 dB. Amplifier power of 30 to 150 W is recommended. The cabinet is 925 mm tall plus 50 mm for its base, 180 mm wide and 320 mm deep plus 28 mm, with a mass of 19.5 kg per speaker.

Engineering and use context

For the 12i update, Wharfedale refined the rear bass reflex port using laser interferometry, anechoic and in-room measurements, and computational fluid dynamics modelling of the airflow to cut port noise, and it revised the internal damping. The drive units are the same designs as before but are now made to tighter production tolerances, and the magnet structures of the mid/bass units were adjusted to make space for crossover parts. Klarity blends polypropylene with mica, and the magnet assembly includes an aluminium compensation ring. The tweeter dome is coated with a high-loss damping layer. The crossover is a Linkwitz-Riley design with air-core inductors, and the cabinet combines wood fibre board sections of varied thickness with internal bracing modelled by computer.

Pairing

The high minimum impedance makes it an easy load, so most integrated amplifiers within the power range will drive the 12.3i, including modest designs in the 30 to 50 W class. The narrow front suits two-channel listening and home theatre alike, where Wharfedale offers the 12.Ci centre and 12 3Di effects speakers from the 12i family.

Alternatives

The Diamond 12.4i, built around two larger Klarity drivers, is the bigger floorstanding model in the 12i range.