Wharfedale Achromatic W60E info?

I just picked up these heavy, nice looking speakers today. I can't find out much on Google about these. I hooked them up to my Marantz 2245 for about an hour and they sound pretty nice but seem to have a surplus of bass. I turned the bass way below center to sound flat. They say made in England and have removable speaker grilles held on with magnets around the sides and with a horizontal wood strip across the grille. Anyone know the years and power rating for these? Thanks in advance.

i have some W-60D's that date from 68. i was not impressed with an initial listen. the following day i toyed with speaker placement and they began to come alive. with near daily use over the past couple of months (on a Yamaha CR-420 receiver) they are sounding pretty sweet, the highs have really come out nicely and the bass is smooth and detailed with plenty of depth. i couldnt find anything on what mine are rated either, but they didnt have any problem handling my Luxman at 165wpc.

Hi Rock-ola,
I just scored on some Wharfedale W90's and they are impressing me. In fact, I was just commenting on the fact that they keep sounding better as I play them. Some speculation on reforming caps, baskets breaking in, etc., Those are probably true. But keep on playing them is all that I can say. I'm in the SF area and space is at a premium in my house too. I'm speculating on removing a coffee table to keep them. We'll see. I'm new to vintage speakers and amps and keep getting impressed by them. I wish that there were vintage home theatre systems!

My W-60-E's sound better to me when raised off the floor. Even just tilting them back seems to help a lot. If you find any info, please post. I've not found much either.
[edit] Just remembered, you may find a date hand written on the woofer's cone. I can't make out the writing on mine, but have seen pics of others that were more legible.

Wharfedale Update

Thanks for the input guys. Low and behold, I found an old copy of Audio magazine from September 1970 which features the 1971 Hi-Fi Preview Directory.
It has a full page ad by Wharfedale describing all their speakers for 1971. There are 6 different models pictured and described. From smallest to largest they are; W25, W35, W45, W60E, W70E, and W80A. All are "Achromatic" except the W80A which is called Variflex. The 3-Way W60E speaker contains; Woofer: Heavy duty 12 and 1/2 inch, 9 and 1/2 pound magnet assembly, distortion-free bass; mid-range: Acoustically isolated 5 inch; super tweeter: 3 inch omnidirectional mylar dome and phase compensating diffuser for clean high response. Individual variable controls for mid-range and treble. Minimun power required: 10 watts per channel IHF. Impedance: 4 to 8 ohms; weight: 56 pounds; price: $153.00 each. In the magazine speaker directory of this issue the W60E is rated for 50 watts power handling capacity(RMS continuous). This issue of Audio has the speaker directory for many of the best speakers from this period.

Thanks Rock-Ola, your post made my day.

I know this is an old thread, but there's some good information here. I just finished rotating the 12.5" woofer 180 degrees on one of my cabs (I did it in the other cabinet about 2 weeks ago, but I didn't get around to doing the second one until tonight). Another AK member suggested doing this so the magnets would be rotated. I don't fully-understand the reason for doing this, but it seems important (Something to do with the magnets sitting like that for all those years and settling - I guess it somehow affects the performance of the woofer - I don't know).

I like that ad info a few posts back - very-helpful to have it all in one post like that. The E series "Achromatic" speaker line is definitely a different animal than the earlier W60 and W70 models from the mid '60's, although I do think that the W60D and W70D models are of the same acoustic-suspension design as the E series. Whether they are technically a part of the "Achromatic" line or not, I don't know, but they seem to be a similar design (If the D models are front-loaded like the E's, then I would think they're basically the same).

I understand the W90 did not survive long enough to become a part of the acoustic-suspension "Achromatic" line of speakers. Different design - ported, I believe. As are the mid '60's W70, W60, and others from that era. As far as I know, these are models that were meant to be driven by low-powered tube amps, and they cannot handle anywhere near as much power as the acoustic-suspension models. Try and power those with a 150w receiver, and you will fry the tweeter in a heartbeat.

And speaking of tweeters, the E series models apparently used the same basic purple dome-tweeter as the earlier W60D (Made from mylar), but it looks a bit different on the W60E because there's less of the tweeter showing (different diffuser).

The 5" mid-woofer also looks different. I don't know much about it, except that it puts out some fantastic mids. Voices sound like voices and not RECORDED voices. And each instrument is represented very,very-naturally. I really think the mid-woofer is the strong link in the chain on the W60E. And the mid and hi attenuators on the back of the cabinet are extremely-helpful in dialing-in a great sound. These are very-versatile speakers, IMO. And with a 25w per-channel mid '70's receiver powering them, I can play anything from classical to jazz to classic rock/pop to heavy metal and even rap, and these things just keep on singing. I'm still going to try using 45w per side (with the RIGHT receiver), and see how they respond.

Like others have said, raising them helps A LOT. I have mine set up so that the mids and tweeters are aimed at my head when I'm sitting at my computer and they sound great. I wish I had more room to push them back. Corner placement is supposed to be optimum. RAISED corner placement would probably be better. And these speakers seem to sound their best when powered by a receiver or amp from the same approximate era (early to mid '70's). I tried using a more-"accurate"-sounding amp (an 45w per-channel NAD 3140 integrated amp- from '81-'83), and they sounded okay, but something wasn't right. When I switched to an early-mid '70's 25w per ch. receiver, the speakers just blossomed. Suddenly they had more-clarity, warmth, and liveliness. It's as if the speakers "woke up". There definitely seems to be a synergy happening.

Edit/11/01/09 - Right now, I'm listening to the "Rage Against The Machine" CD (S/T - debut) and the W60E's are handling things just fine. The drums and guitars sound especially-good, and the soundstage is perfect - very-deep sound to everything. It helps that this is one of the most-well-mastered CD's ever released, but these speakers do a great job with this kind of stuff. I try to avoid the super-low dub-type stuff, but for a speaker from the early '70's, the W60E can handle the rap quite well - The mid-woofer's exceptional vocal reproduction sees to that. Any new stuff that's well-mastered and not totally-brickwalled should be no problem, you get this with no ear-fatigue.

Holy crap! I haven't even been here 30 days yet?? Man, I thought I joined like 2 months ago! Long couple of weeks, if you ask me.

Been havin' too-much fun, I guess.

*ORIGINAL COMMENT DELETED DUE TO COMPLETE WRONGNESS*

I had said something about the W60D (or some W60Ds) having a different tweeter than the W60E, but that apparently isn't true. It's basically the same purple dome-tweeter that they used on the later W60E model, but the diffuser (or diffusor... diffussor?) looks a little different and leaves a bit more of the purple tweeter exposed than on the W60E, where all you see if the very-center of it (That's why I had mistaken the W60D's tweeter as being the "fried-egg=style").

Sorry... Don't want to be putting bad information out there...

One other thing... After I had posted this, I upgraded to a Sansui 2000x receiver (39w p/c) and spent some time with speaker-positioning, and suddenly the W60's opened right up. Sounding WAY, way-better now (Pretty-amazing actually... I've heard several $2000/pr speakers that don't thrill me the way these do). I also added a proper DAC (HRT MSII), and now the W60E's are sounding incredible (Great friggin' DAC by the way). There's an awful lot of potential in these speakers if you spend a little time on them. I have mine set up in a semi-equilateral triangle (speakers 8ft apart from each other, and my listening spot is about 9ft back from each speaker). This seems to work best in my apartment. I have them a good 3-4ft out from the walls and I cleared out the area around each one (They sound better if they have some room to breath... no clutter on the front/sides/rear). I also have each speaker sitting about 18" off the ground. And instead of having them directly-pointed at me, I tow them out a bit. Seems to help with tweeter-response. If you're having trouble getting them to sound good, give that a try.