Wharfedale Pacific Evo 10 Opinions


Has anyone heard the Wharfedale Pacific Evolution 10 speakers? I have Wharfedale's Emerald 93s, which I believe was their top-of-the-line bookshelf a few years ago. It has a nice open, detailed sound. I'm wondering how much of a step up the Evos are. I heard that the Pacific PI-10 suffered from weak mids, which made the treble too glaring. Hopefully this problem got corrected in the new line.

My speakers are hooked up to an NAD C370 integrated amp and a Sony C222ES CD/SACD player which I just sent to sacdmods.com.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Tony
socprof
Hi Tony, I can't help you directly with the Evo 10's since I have not heard them. I haven't even heard the PI-10's, but I would have to question what you heard about them having a glaring treble. The reason I say this is because the PI-10's use the exact same mid driver and tweeter as the PI-30 and PI-40, both of which I own. These speakers are polite, to put it politely. They have a very laid back, warm presentation with very good imaging/soundstage and above average detail. While it is possible that the extra bass driver in the PI-30's and 40's is responsible for the warmth of the presentation, I certainly wouldn't mind if the tweeters were a little bit hotter...and this is using a source and amp considered by most to be on the opposite side of warm with a neutral preamp. In case that sounds like a complaint, it's not. Digital music is infinitely more listenable through these speakers than most others I have heard on comparable solid state systems.

There are three changes to the PI-10 to make the Evo 10...curved cabinet, Monster internal wiring (US only), and tweeter no longer pod mounted on the Evo. In my opinion, only one of these was a good thing and that's the curved cabinet design. Loss of the tweeter pod really hurts this speaker's ability to be tailored to the listener's preference. If the tweeters are a little too glaring, turn them a touch off-axis...too warm, a little more on-axis. That can't be done with the Evo 10's. I think getting rid of the tweeter pods was a concession to those who thought they were strange or ugly, rather than a decision based on sound quality. Anyway, I realize your question concerned how much improvement to expect from the Emerald 93's to the the Evo-10's and apologize for not being able to help with that, but if your mind isn't firmly set on the Evo-10's I would suggest the PI-10's. These are the better of the two speakers, in my opinion, and as a bonus, can be had for considerably less since they aren't the newest model. Hope that helps.
Goinbroke,

Thanks for your input. I've seen two different reviews that mentioned the weak mids of the PI-10. One of the reviews covered the whole PI family and said that ONLY the PI-10 had this problem, so apparently it was a poorly designed cabinet.

As for some people thinking the pod tweeters look funny--I have the Wharfedale Modus Music One-Six with a similar tweeter. My girlfriend and I like to joke that it was designed by the Borg from Star Trek. When I saw them for $190 with shipping on Ubid.com, resistance really was futile. :-)

cheers,
Tony
Really? I've read reviews that say the Pi-10 has outstanding balance for the price. How weak would you say the mids are?