Wharfedale Dovedale review

• TEST LAB
• Specs
• CONCLUSION

The great Peter Comeau allows himself a moment of sentimentality. Peter has been the head of speaker development at Wharfedale for decades; with his knowledge, he practically dominates the IAG Group, including brands like Mission. “Director of Acoustics” is a fitting honorary title for the white-haired Briton. In his youth, he fell in love with speaker building—especially through the Dovedale, which is now being revived by Wharfedale as the flagship in the Heritage Series. Peter Comeau did not have it delivered as a whole in the 1970s, but as a kit. That was still a business model for Wharfedale, unthinkable today. Naturally, Peter tinkered, refined, and in particular crafted his own enclosure. So we can be sure that the old master knows this speaker from all angles and all developments through time.

Now the comeback. Of course, Comeau pays homage to tradition, but he gets to work. So the current Dovedale is “a bit bigger.” Officially, it is designated as a bookshelf speaker. But that’s not really true. This is a large-format three-way speaker, which is delivered as a set with the matching stands, so rather a floor-standing speaker. Cleverly, Wharfedale also tweaks the price. We are at a set price of $7,150. This is intended to clearly set the maximum of the Heritage Series. The super seller, the Linton, in comparison, is at $1,375 plus the stands at $440 extra. A fetish since its appearance, the German IAD GmbH can hardly keep up with orders.

Does the Dovedale have the potential for the ultimate upgrade? The design language is similar, but here 18 kilograms stand against a mighty 26 kilograms. The smell of old times is identical though. This looks exactly like a three-way speaker from our youth, which is of course intended. The walnut veneer also works in today’s living rooms and has the charm of the old days. But with the black stands, it becomes a fashion item in industrial design. Immediately the question to Peter Comeau: Should we listen with or without the front grille? “Always with the grill on”—that’s how the master himself experienced and fine-tuned it.

In the 1970s, or rather the 1960s, the mids and lows were of course equipped with paper membranes. Comeau flirts with that: looks similar to back then, but today consists of black-dyed Kevlar. Ten inches for the basses, half that for the mids, and on top a 25-millimeter fabric dome. Wharfedale packs everything into high-tech, which cannot be seen from the outside of the box. There is a sub-enclosure inside made of special fabric, with an extra layer of damping foam added. Two bass reflex openings lead to the back.

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The terminal is, of course, designed for only two contacts. Demonstratively, the Brits show the Union Jack on the back—this speaker was manufactured in England, in a company that has existed since 1932. That’s exactly how the Dovedale sounds. Of course not like 1932, but deeply British. While the Linton sounds slim, the Dovedale lifts several cubic meters more. The British Sound works through a different focus. On the island, the mids are considered the measure; in other countries, developers build their sound image from the bass upwards—from bottom to top. Naturally, the BBC and the zeitgeist had their share in this. Funny that Peter Comeau still upholds these ideals.

Or can still uphold them—for that you need listening experience. We needed ten minutes to warm up. Magnificent this fullness, this opulence. As if it were a baroque king, at the same time the speed of a long-distance runner. Only the Brits can probably do that; sometimes you feel caressed on the belly, a beat later fat-free in the sprint. A great experience.

Where lies the magic? On the one hand, Comeau has tuned the drivers for harmony—it sounds without breaks, extremely linear, as the measurements also show. Would I operate the setup with a small tube amp? I tried it; the Dovedale became a bit too cozy. Better is a transistor amp. It doesn’t have to be powerful. The research can also be shortened. IAD has brands like Luxman, Quad, Leak, and Audiolab in its cornucopia.

Those who love the old-fashioned look of the Dovedale front could let modern times move in with an Audiolab Omnia, CD player, streamer, integrated amplifier—matching in price, performance, and sense of time. Brits among themselves, Brits on course to modern fetish.

TEST LAB

3-way speaker in bass reflex technology with crossover frequencies at 560 and 2900 Hz. Extremely linear and low-wave frequency response with a slightly declining tendency towards high frequencies (3 dB). Very homogeneous sound radiation; the angular frequency responses hardly differ from the behavior on-axis. Very deep-reaching: 36/26 Hz (-3/-6 dB). Below: Slightly elevated distortions from 95 dB_SPL, but bass resistant to high levels (105 dB_SPL). Clean time behavior with fairly fast decay. Electrically undemanding, impedance spread 3.5 to 13 Ω, power requirement (100 dB_SPL/maximum): 45/140 W. AUDIO Score 6.3