Wharfedale’s Diamond series have been around for nearly 30 years and with this in mind Wharfedale are set to launch the all-new Diamond 10 Series.

First out from the British speakers manufacture is the new Diamond 10.1 which is set to retail for £199.95. This replace the hugely successful, multi-award winning Diamond 9.1. The new speaker measure 296 x 194 × 278 mm and is available in four high-quality cabinet finish options are available at launch – black, rosewood, cherry and walnut.

After the succes of the Diamond 9.1 speaker the challenge was to improve upon a design that has won more awards for sonic excellence around the world than any other speaker at its price point, whilst maintaining its predecessor’s highly competitive asking price. Wharfedale’s acoustic design team has enhanced the speaker in the following ways:

The concept of curved cabinet walls, for strength and the reduction of internal standing waves, has been retained from the Diamond 9 Series. The walls have been made stronger through a superior method of bonding and curving the panels, increasing rigidity and, aided by internal bracing, reducing the audible effects of panel resonance. The front baffle features a composite panel structure with a piano-black finish which also helps reduce the effects of vibration and provides a stable platform for the drive units.

Improvements to the mid/bass drive unit have been made with diamond pattern beening moulded into the surround of the Kevlar cone, this is more than just cosmetic as the pattern reduces and damps standing waves in the surround, yielding a cleaner high-frequency acoustic roll-off and enhancing the ability of the mid/bass unit and tweeter to work as a cohesive whole.

The speaker’s twin reflex ports have been moved to the rear of the cabinet, to reduce the effects of audible distortion. These ports extend the bass to below 45Hz, contributing to an impressive sense of sonic scale.

The tweeter has also had a make over with a soft-dome tweeter being covered by a metal diffusion grid which, as well as protecting the dome when the speaker is being used without its grille, also irons out high-frequency perturbations right up to 30kHz

The rest of the 10 series Diamond range has a new front grille has been improved to ensure it has no adverse effect on the speaker’s performance. In addition, it is now affixed without pegs, therefore eschewing the need for unsightly holes in the piano-black front baffle.

The full range – details of which will be announced shortly – includes two further standmount speakers and five floorstanding designs, plus three centre speakers, a dedicated surround speaker and three active subwoofers for home
cinema applications.

The Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 loudspeaker are available from July, with a suggested retail price of £199.95 per pair.