Wharfedale speakers

I had previously bought some off of uBid. mine were the Wharfedale Emerald 97 model about 15 months ago. I think I paid about $250/pair with overnight FedEx shipping (the first pair was badly damaged by UPS ground). I think I paid about what they were worth (compare to $900 on amazon or $1800 retail - yeah right. They're "OK" but not that great. I've long since sold them, but they were fun for a while.

But you are right there are lots of speaker deals on uBid from time to time. that were the guys on Audio Asylum buying last year? The Michaura (?) M55? or were they Axioms? I remember they were getting those for like $20 too.

michaura m55's, i still have mine(2pr)also had the emerald 97 wharfedale-michaura is a much better speaker if you have a sub, the 97 is a ok i got my money back when i sold them,they are a better speaker than most bb or cc speakers.
ubid has gone down hill alot in last few months,hardly any stock anymore

its just marketing....they are just radio shack speakers with a super high retail price that make people feel like they got a great deal when they get a 1500$ MSRP speaker for 80$ *LOL*
dont kid yourself on the value your getting

Don't misunderstand me, I agree about the marketing crap about these speakers. But they do on occasion sell here at AG. My posting is to advise as to why pay a middle man for these speakers? If someone is looking to spend next to nothing for a pair of speakers on a limited budget. I am recommending they go straight to UBID and get them. If you buy them here you are getting them at a cost of which includes a middle man. It has taken me many years to be able to afford the system that I have now. Not everyone is as fortunate.

I haven't seen many Wharfedale speakers on ubid in quite a while. I have been very pleased with what I have heard from Wharfedale considering the low prices, though the list prices are pretty optimistic. The only ones I really didn't like were the Valdus series speakers. The Emeralds were very good considering the price. I bought a pair of Emerald 97s for about $300 and lived happily with them for about a year and then sold them on eBay for $12 more than I paid for them. The MFM 5s sounded just as good but they didn't have the nice wood cabinets that the Emeralds had. The Diamond Anniversary bookshelf speakers were also a great deal at less than $100 a pair shipped. I ended up buying about 5 pairs for friends and an office system. The new EVO speakers seem to be a step above all of the other recent offerings and the retail prices are more in line with the performance.
I am not sure why Wharfedale re-entered the US market in the way they did, but the inexpensive models can be a pretty good deal if you don't pay attention to the inflated retail prices and just look at them as an inexpensive pair of speakers with some decent parts (tweeters and crossovers, namely) in a standard black box cabinet.