Hey Doug I would swear I read a review where you bought the pair for reference? are these replacements or personal enjoyment?
Welcome Back!
Not you, the speakers! ;)
Ok, welcome to you as well.
I anguished about the Wharfedale Opus 2-M2 Speakers when I reviewed them. They were so good, with their svelte 3" soft dome midrange, but I just couldn't spend the money all those years ago.
They're back! I watched for years for a used pair, and now they are in my room. My memory was intact, as they sound as good to my ear as I recalled. I wanted that 3" soft dome mid again. I do enjoy the precision of the PMC and ATC speakers I have heard, but not going to spend that kind of money for a side project. Wharfedale is fine, not a slouch company, good enough for this project.
Very nice result with subs; first run is with the active bass module of the Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L1 preproduction model (L1 production model will receive owner's review at Dagogo.com in due time). I also have the Legacy Audio XTREME XD Sub (reviewed, own) to work with.
I don't often chase after something from the past, but in this instance, especially at the cost, it was a good return.
Every technology has their fans; dipole, omni, horn, etc. The 3" soft dome mid, too, is worthwhile to garnish its fans. It's a more in your face, brisk sound, but that's somewhat adjustable with the rig. Already, after two days, I can see this was a good move. Imo, the 3" soft midrange is an under appreciated driver. :)
Also, LOVING the fact that the 2-M2 is bi-wirable/bi-ampable! I am going to do good things with this speaker. Already commendable, but another trick or two yet to pull off.
Ok, welcome to you as well.
I anguished about the Wharfedale Opus 2-M2 Speakers when I reviewed them. They were so good, with their svelte 3" soft dome midrange, but I just couldn't spend the money all those years ago.
They're back! I watched for years for a used pair, and now they are in my room. My memory was intact, as they sound as good to my ear as I recalled. I wanted that 3" soft dome mid again. I do enjoy the precision of the PMC and ATC speakers I have heard, but not going to spend that kind of money for a side project. Wharfedale is fine, not a slouch company, good enough for this project.
Very nice result with subs; first run is with the active bass module of the Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L1 preproduction model (L1 production model will receive owner's review at Dagogo.com in due time). I also have the Legacy Audio XTREME XD Sub (reviewed, own) to work with.
I don't often chase after something from the past, but in this instance, especially at the cost, it was a good return.
Every technology has their fans; dipole, omni, horn, etc. The 3" soft dome mid, too, is worthwhile to garnish its fans. It's a more in your face, brisk sound, but that's somewhat adjustable with the rig. Already, after two days, I can see this was a good move. Imo, the 3" soft midrange is an under appreciated driver. :)
Also, LOVING the fact that the 2-M2 is bi-wirable/bi-ampable! I am going to do good things with this speaker. Already commendable, but another trick or two yet to pull off.
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Hey Doug, congrats on scoring another pair! I know most of us have our own tale of “the one that got away” so nice to hear a success story. Curious if during your wait for the Opus 2 if you were ever tempted to try their Evo 4.2? Obviously a pretty different speaker what with the AMT and 2” dome mid and prob a bit cheaper build, but still I’d think a little tempting, no? Anyway, enjoy! |
Most dome drivers have a problem in that they wobble vertically due to usually only having one support, the spider. And I suspect the bigger the dome the more the problem which is probably why there are so few mid range domes. Both ATC and PMC minimize this by using two spiders (ATC even uses two on their 1 inch dome tweeter). Do yu know if Wharfedale uses double spiders. By the way for me the most interesting large dome driver was one designed in the 70s I believe. It had double spiders and a large hole through the magnet structure. They attached a long rubber tube to the back filled with long hair wool, a transmission line dome mid. I don't think they produced it, unfortunately. John Crabbe, the great editor of Hi Fi News then held up finishing his built large horn system waiting for it and finally gave up and used a variation of the IMF Monitor mid/tweeters instead. |
I do think that there is something special and different in the way dome midrange drivers present music from having heard ATC speakers on several occasions as well as having owned a pair of Nestorovic 5as. That speaker used a dome that was about 3 inches I think made by Phillips as I recall. A few years back, Gershman Acoustics made a mid price floorstander with a dome midrange driver that was well praised. I can't recall the name of it at the moment. |
I'm an ATC owner and fan of the 3" mid dome. Must be doing something right as it's been used, with various refinements, in ATC's 3-way speakers for the past 45 years! Volt speakers make a superficially similar 3" dome though the flange profile (and likely many other details) are quite different. Does have a similar heavy magnet structure at 8Kg (ATC is 9Kg for their SL model!). Yamaha is another company that used/uses even larger dome midranges - according to the specs 88mm in the NS-1000 and 80mm in the NS-5000. |
I don't own ATC speakers but listened several times and are really good. The vintage speakers I own are ADS L2030 that came with 2" midrange silk domes ( magnetic flux 1.7 Teslas. ), the speakers has efficiency 95db and I love that to real and natural color midrange. Sure way different design to the Wharferdale and I posted because the dome topic. Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
I issued to sell a bunch of the ADS (A/D/S) which was a US distributed Braun. Nicely build home audio towers, with silk dome mids and tweets. These were really great sounding speaks. The ADS mobile stuff was the bomb. I had a tri-amped system ADS speakers, ADS “powerplate” amps and a Nakamichi 8” driver in my own DIY box. Stunning. Just chiming in as I loves the domes for mid and high. |
Some associated thoughts, I do recall Morel speakers and my recollection is that they were quite good. What I am hearing from this passive setup brings to mind what I remember of actives with such domes at shows. What I hear now I consider at least as good as the show demos.. Two thoughts; direct comparison is not possible and such conclusions need to be held with reservation. Also, I wonder if much of the love for actives is due to the large soft dome and not so much the amplification scheme. I had discussed with one importer doing a comparison review of active versus passive models, but the company's demand for me to sign a document of unfavorable personal liability caused me to abandon it. I get it, though. Now, I'm content that I did not spend the many hours on it. I think it would have been a nice article for the community on the topic of active vs passive, but I'm loving the outcome with the Legacy Audio i.V4 Ultra Amplifier and the Opus 2-M2. There is quite a good possibility that were I to have a comparably sized active with 3" soft dome, I would be able to outperform it withe the Opus and i.V with certain cabling setups and with various components. Perhaps this Opus setup would perform so closely as to make an active at 5-10x the price not worth it. That is speculation and no one can say either way. Now I would not spend all the time on it, as I don’t consider it to be enough of a benefit. The soft dome 3" was my biggest motivation and now I have it. :) |
