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Wharfedale W70 problem

CowboyDan

CowboyDan

New Member
I just picked up a pair of Wharfedale speakers off of CL. From what I’ve been able to figure out these were the kind sold in Hong Kong, there is a plaque on the back that says “The Radio People LTD.” I opened them up and the actual speakers all say Wharfedale and “Made in England”. Judging from the grills I think these are W70s but I’m not sure. The problem is that the crossover on the back is really strange. It doesn’t have binding posts or even the two small holes I have seen on some W70s. Does anybody have any idea what I could use to hook these things up?
 

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It looks sort of like this (car antenna connector). Hope this clears up the mystery! :)
 

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i have the w70d and the connector looks nothing like that. hopefully you get it figured out, or maybe install your own posts!
 
"The Radio People" were the Hong Kong dealers for Wharfedale. (And possibly other British brands) To save shipping costs they bought drivers and crossovers and the UK and had cabinets built locally. Some of the cabinets are gorgeous and quite collectible. Mystered is right about the connector ... it's a sort of DIN plug.
 
Yeah, the things look great, and are in pretty good shape. For $50 bucks I think I made out well. And man are they heavy! I just about broke my back getting them home. How hard would it be to install my own binding posts? I'm pretty new to the vintage stereo game.
 
The insides look like my W-70's, and so does the front! Mine had the 2 holes in the back, now have binding posts. Not a lot of work, just make sure the posts have enough depth to reach into the cab. They are heavy, it may be the sand in the cabinet walls... :)

Don't feed them too much juice, I think I recall they were 40 watt rated. If you like acoustic jazz, you'll love them! there is quite a bit of talk about them on here. Some of them came with a 4 legged, about 8" tall, stool to get them up off the floor. Mine did. Enjoy!

Oh, also, check this thread out! PDF of the spec sheets in the first post!
 
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W70's all right, and a car antenna plug will work (Radio Shack), but binding posts are the way to go. Stay in the cup on the back, the back is a sandwich filled with sand so don't go making holes elsewhere!
 
Thanks guys. I have managed to get some sound out of these speakers at least. A regular A/V plug loosely fits, but there is a second hole where the prong thing needs to go and the kind on an A/V plug doesn’t go all the way in. That antenna plug looks like it will do nicely. If I apply some downward pressure though, it makes contact and I get sound. All the drivers seem to work but the tweeter on the left one cuts in and out depending on how I adjust the treble knob on the back. I’m going to try and get to a Radio Shack soon and see what I can find. If I do decide to add my own posts, would it make sense to get new crossovers as well?
 
There isn't much to the crossover, and it certainly wouldn't hurt since you're in there with a soldering gun, those caps are 40 years old.
Sounds like you need to clean that control, too.
Deoxit is your friend!
 
From the looks of the "Radio people" label these appear to be early/mid 60's W70's assembled in Hong Kong for the entire Asian market, as they continued to do well into the 70's. The label's appearance changed in the 70's and the W70D came out with controls and regular terminals. The sand filled cab backs are some of the most serious ever !! As mentioned above--very nice for jazz, smooth vocals, classical--not good for rock !!! easy on the power !!
 
The W70 had 3 different terminal configurations depending on the market or where assembled. In the UK and US there were the dual instrument jacks that are smaller than the standard US banana jack. The US eventually converted to screw studs with nuts. In Asia, the Motorola jack that you describe was used. Not a bad choice as the jack has a large surface area, larger than most. Maybe because here we only see them on car radios, we reject them for other purposes. The jack was actually designed to compete with the RCA jack but it did not fly.

There is plenty of room to add 5-way banana jacks. BUT, do NOT drill through anything but the crossover board as the back is sand filled. When you do the rebuild, you can drill the top edge of the back panel and top it off with clean white sand and small lead shot as after all these years the original sand has settled and in some cases even leaked out. After filling, plug the holes.
 
Well, I went in there and soldered on some regular A/V jacks. Not ideal, and I do want to put in some normal binding posts eventually, but I live in a college dorm, and I don’t have to tools to do any drilling. I will say these things sound amazing. I was playing some Coltrane last night and my roommates kept stopping in and commenting on how good it sounds. Poor guys are all used to crappy computer speakers; they had no idea what they were missing :D.

I have these paired with a Parasound sr245 amp right now, that puts out around 35 WPC. Is this too much power? I’ve been keeping the volume pretty moderate, but I really don’t want to mess these babies up. Would a different amp be a good idea? I can’t afford tubes at the moment, but I’ve been looking at some Marantz 22xx amps that I may be able to afford in a month or so. Any suggestions on what would pair best with these speakers?
 
W70s in a college dorm in 2012...that is way cool my friend...I have rather rag tag set in my mancave...the low end is fantastic even with my Jolida tube amp and the top end is crisp but I do not have the original tweeters...so it could be that. I am surprised at how these sound not at all like I was expecting...

This may be sacrilege but these remind me more of rock and roll speakers than the warm fuzzy east coast vibe you might get from say KLH or EPI ...they do sound good with everything ...try Dave Brubeck's Time Out on them....then try out something more modern like Coldplay or Tom Morello...you will see what I am talking about.
I think 35 watts are ok but be careful you may blow that tweeter since these speakers where made during the transisiton from tubes to solid state....I bet an early SS amp would make these sound really nice.
 
I think you are doing great for a dorm room set up-for now. A nice, early,lower power Marantz receiver would be nice and should be easy to find, try and find one that has already been cleaned up (check Barter Town here and you might place a WTB post there)--I agree with "icenine" above, 35W is probably fine but don't crank it up !!!I don't mean you have to listen at whisper levels--just don't use them to party !!!Enjoy-they are quality, classic speakers.
 
CLS500 said:
I think you are doing great for a dorm room set up-for now. A nice, early,lower power Marantz receiver would be nice and should be easy to find, try and find one that has already been cleaned up (check Barter Town here and you might place a WTB post there)--I agree with "icenine" above, 35W is probably fine but don't crank it up !!!I don't mean you have to listen at whisper levels--just don't use them to party !!!Enjoy-they are quality, classic speakers.
Click to expand...

I accidently play mine at 60 watts and absolutley reached 120 watt peaks for a half hour.
They survived fine and really opened up and sounded GREAT, but I don't recommend it.


Steve
 
I just picked up a pair of "Radio People" W70's at an estate sale for $75. The cabinets and grills are immaculate -- they were just too pretty to pass up. Mine also have the car antenna-like input. I simply unscrewed the two little screws to either side of the input and gently teased out the entire input unit an inch or two. I then hooked up my speaker wire to alligator clips and clipped them on the wire connections to the input. One has a red wire lead and the other is black wire. It works fine until I figure out a better, more permanent solution.

I was a little surprised how efficient they are. I played them through a 105 wpc McIntosh amp and almost blew the pictures of the wall. I think they're going to be perfect for a little Dynaco 40 wpc solid state amp and Dynaco tube pre-amp that have been sitting on my shelf since I got the Mac.

Though the cabinets are beautiful, the speakers have a very low wife acceptance factor. It doesn't help that Danish Modern has been out of style since 1962.
 
Pumping them at high spls is a good way to blow them. They were designed at a time when 10-15 watts was the norm. Treat them gently and with respect and they will well reward you. I have a set of W70s and with a RS power meter on the amp, about .25 watts average power is sufficient. A really nice 6bq5 amp such as a modded Maggie console pull, Sherwood S-1000 or Dyna SCA-35 makes them really sing. I did rry my Mc MC2105 with them and the meters never quivered and the amp was no better, even less, than my MC250.

I have them on my Sherwood S-9500c as the B speakers and they were made for each other.
 
frperdurabo said:
"The Radio People" were the Hong Kong dealers for Wharfedale. (And possibly other British brands) To save shipping costs they bought drivers and crossovers and the UK and had cabinets built locally. Some of the cabinets are gorgeous and quite collectible. Mystered is right about the connector ... it's a sort of DIN plug.
Click to expand...

Well, I've learned something today, thanks. I passed on a pair of huge "The Radio People" speakers at a thrift store, for several weeks until they were gone, because I didn't recognise the company and couldn't get at the drivers to ID them.

Oh well, I'll know for next time.
 
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