Home > Consumer Reviews > Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 Bookshelf Loudspeakers (Maple with Champagne Front Baffle)

I was a bit worried when I ordered the Wharfedale Diamond 8.2's based solely on written recommendations from here and from the web. Any concerns I had disappeared the first moment I heard them. They give clean musical sound with a transparency and realistic soundstage I didn't think possible from such an inexpensive speaker. The sound just 'pops' on these babies and you'll hear things that never made it to your ears before. I'm running them with ancient Carver equipment (TFM-25 amp, CT-17 Sonic Holography Preamp tuner) that has never sounded sweeter. The sound is clean and strong throughout the music range. These speakers handle high volume room filling sound cleanly and yet play great at low volume as well. An unbeatable sound/price ratio, I highly recommend the Wharefdale Diamond 8.2s.

Ive been a music producer, record executive, and pop music critic. besides all that i've been a music fanatic since i got my first transistor radio in 1965. i need superb speakers! after shopping around brick and mortar stores, and having been flummoxed by high prices, too many options, and imbecilic sales people i came to Amazon and began reading reviews. then i ordered these fantastic speakers. i cannot over state how happy i am with them. it's just a wonderful experience... even listening to records i have heard thousands of times. i didn't want huge speakers dominating my living room (actually my wife didn't want that), but i NEED a clear vibrant bass sound. i like to hear clean high frequencies, but i don't want shrill fake treble. in the studio, we would use Yamaha NS-10's for the final mix. they offer a completely faithful, no-frills, replication of the recorded music. but they sound was so faithful that it was, well.... boring. these wharfedales are EXCITING. they are ALIVE. despite their small size they have full, warm,. round bass tones. even with my relatively low powered Denon 80 watt amp. one recommendation... plug your speaker wires into the Bass inputs in the rear of the speaker. there are two alternative plugs and when i switched to the bass inputs, the speakers realized their full potential. what a deal, too!

These speakers are phenomenal. I spent months researching speakers, listening at local hifi shops and reading reviews from London to Tokyo. After all is said and done, I think these beauties sound as well as any midsize (large bookshelf) speaker I heard. They are also an incredible bargain! I paid [price] + shipping from [store]. Beside the incredible sound the diamond 8.2's are very attractive. I have decided to save up for the larger 8.4's speakers and use the 8.2's for rear surround in my home theater system. If you are looking for rich sounding speakers that are still affordable, then consider these.

p.s.
at the minimum bywire these speakers to boost tonal quality. The speakers come with directions on what to do, its worth it.

These remarkable and inexpensive speakers have an innate ability to sound "right" playing jazz (vocal and instrumental), popular music, as well as a wide range of classical music. In particular, I enjoy the degree of truth these speakers convey when reproducing the sound of a well-recorded piano. Great depth and presence with a rather narrowly-focused soundfield. These speakers offer terrific value-- another example of what British design and Chinese manufacture can achieve.

These are great little speakers. The wife didn't want the tower speakers so I "settled" with these little gems. I am not an audiophile, but I really do enjoy the sound of these speakers. For the size, they really do produce a great sound. Highly recommended.