Wharfedale W60D-Homecoming

So the Wharfedale W60D speakers are home and here is what I have learned so far. These Wharfedale W60D speakers are serial numbers D07457 and D07477, not sequential but pretty close. They have lovely knurled metal speaker lugs that take a small spade lug and both speakers have their speaker badges on back (with someone’s Oregon drivers license inscribed thereon I think). The surrounds for both the woofer and mid-range speakers are fabric, the tweeter is the purple egg type.

After a bit of noise with volume turned all the way down, when I first turned on my garage receiver, one speaker played just fine, with no noise through the tweeter/mid attenuators when moved but not a lot of change either. The other speaker was dead quiet, no change when the attenuators were moved, silent.

In the pictures that follow the open speaker is the dead speaker, as always any suggestions on which model of W60D’s these are is welcome, as well as thoughts on why this speaker is dead.

These speakers have the nicest speaker grills I have ever found in a vintage speaker. This is the original grill cloth, a dark green with black thread (the flash turned it all to grey), with only the one slight mark on the cloth. The grill badge is brass (?) and very nice. Elements of craftsmanship are hidden in the construction of the speaker, including a drilled hole in the front baffle deep enough for the speaker badge bolt to fit into without rubbing and lovely locking routred corner joints in the MDF.

These cabinets are very different from the Wharfedale speaker cabinets on our W70 and Linton speakers in that they remind me of fine Danish Modern furniture. The top, middle and bottom wood pieces are beautifully shaped and curve inward. Thus the longer molding is straight up and down, but the shorter molding and the piece in the speaker grill, curves in from its edges something I have not seen in any other speaker cabinet (maybe on B & O speaker cabinets?).

So here's is what I found inside the non-working speaker. Thick felt (?) padding/sound deadening that has long ago lost its crush ability. This is about the nicest looking woofer magnet I have seen no rust at all. In trying to lift the plastic surround from the mid-range I discovered it is part of the mid-range, at least it all lifted off together and I wasn't ready to see if the surround and the mid-range could be separated. The cross over has two capacitors one is 8uf 50v and the other is 25uf 50v, both are Frako-Eiko Bipolar made in West Germany.

A final clue I hope. As was the case with our W70 and Linton speakers there is dating written on the woofer cone. While I cannot discern the first part of the writing the second part seems to be "10/4", which would seem to mean October, but is it 1964 or 1974? I do note that the mid-range speaker enclosure is a hard plastic with an aluminum rim, whereas in our earlier Linton speaker the tweeter was enclosed in a nicely made wooden enclosure, whereas the year or two later W70s had a fiber dome enclosure over the tweeter (both the Linton and W70 had markings on their cones to the early/mid 60s).

Last but not least I can see some crystals have formed on the surface of the attenuators, though nothing like the coated yellow on the Linton attenuator, given the risk of cadmium I will do an alcohol wipe with gloves and breathing mask to these surfaces, before proceeding further, bagging both after use.

Again, if there is something obvious that is causing this speaker to be dead, or, you can clue out which model, year it was made, please let me know. I am not electronically gifted so I have no test tools or knowledge of same. My thanks.

OK, sounds like you don't have a multimeter (cheap at home depot; get one!)

for now cheapo test technique someone else shared with me: use a receiver and use the speaker wire off one channel to test the drivers.

make sure you turn it down low to start; also use the tone controls to target the output to which driver you are testing (when testing a tweeter you cut the bass way back, etc).

you can touch the speaker wire to the leads on the driver and see if you get sound. driver should have a marking as to which terminal is pos and which is negative. (if you mix that up no big deal.)

if the drivers don't work then they are probably dead. if they do you can try to trace the wires through the crossover, touching the speaker wire from the receiver to the posts in the crossover.

see what you find out and report back!

Amazing looking speakers, I sure hope it's a solder joint and not two blown drivers. Get a DMM for sure! Super useful.

That's interesting. You said it's the EARLY purple tweeter, the one that looks like the cover's missing (like on a W60C)? I opened up one of mine (Haven't recapped them yet nor tested them... Haven't had a good opportunity here, due to mitigating circumstances), and the mid-isolator was more like a thick, cardboard thingy and NOT the black one like yours have. My cabs and grills look like yours. Same type and in beautiful shape (The company was still focusing on high-end models in the late '60's, and the W*0D series, while post-Briggs-era, was still firmly-entrenched in the manufacturing philosophies he embraced... In other words, the Ranksters hadn't been in control long enough to screw things up... Call it the transition period, like with the old Fender amps at that time). I was surprised at how nice the cabinets are. Beautiful veneers (I think B.I.C.'s cabinetry skills may have improved throughout the '60's rather than declined... I've seen some very-nice-looking W70D's).

Let me know how you make out with those two drivers. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. It looks like those were used horizontally, judging by the badge on that one. Think of them like a couple of air-conditioners, perched up high (Well, not THAT high).

By the way, I'm glad to hear those take the same caps as my W90's (Well, sorta... The W90's called for a 24uF, but I couldn't find any of the type I wanted in that size, so I substituted some really-nice 25uF's... Still well-within the limits and sounds amazing). I could try those with the oil caps if I feel like getting adventurous, although I may take an online soldering course (via YouTube) before I do. I should do that anyway, since I wanted to put some in these ultimately.

Wait, so ALL the drivers on one side are out? Oh, that's gotta' be something hinky in the crossover, right? Is the woofer working, or are you just referring to the midwoofer and tweeter?

Roger, thanks that's a great idea. We are buried with trick or treaters for the evening but I will try out your suggestion tomorrow testing each speaker and adjusting the treble and bass with very low volume.

Are there any tutorial post on AK in the use of a multimeter, or, youtube postings that I could refer to, as just getting the tool won't help me a lot, as I don't have any basic electrical knowledge other than what I have picked up from people like you here at AK.

Gang here is a picture from the front of the three speakers in the dead speaker cabinet.



I noticed that around the purple tweeter there is a discoloration, which when I touched it, it did not rub off. I am suspicious if this is the dreaded purple tweeter burn out, but it didn't act like an ash or smoke residue which should have come off on my fingers or the white cloth I used to touch it.

This is a non ported enclosure, though other posts have mentioned that the fabric surround is not coated so some air could pass through. The cone seems to be some form of fabric too, with a soft dust cap on the woofer that just needs some judicious suction to pull a small dimple out.

If you look close on the tweeter, I think you can zoom it a little, you can see the discoloration on the aluminum and under the purple egg part. I haven't taken the grill off the working speaker to see if its tweeter is similarly discolored, or, not.

tons of google/ youtube stuff on using multimeters

you will use ohm settings to test the speakers

Gang, yes, none of the speaker are working on the dead speaker. There was no sound coming through either the tweeter, mid-range or woofer, and no noise/sound when either the tweeter or mid-range attenuator were turned multiple times across their full range of adjustment. I too hope it is something in the cross over and not in the speakers as from the absence of any rust on the woofer magnet it would appear that these were always stored inside away from moisture and large changes in temperature.

Thanks Roger I will look them up and start learning, but in the mean time I will use your method to check the speakers tomorrow.

And yes, Blade Runner is one of my top 10 movies, as well as a great sound track, especially the opening theme.

In the epic words from Dirty Harry "I gots ta know!". So I carefully removed the grill from the working speaker and its purple tweeter has similar discoloration around it too. So unless the working speaker has its tweeter out the stain may not be an issue, I will listen to it again tomorrow listening for output from each speaker.

Unfortunately the working speakers tweeter center is partially dimpled in, so a careful bit of suction to try and pull it out, or, just leave it be if it works and don't risk cracking pretty old plastic?

Another small thing of craftsmanship. I noticed that the wooden piece that is on the speaker grill is held in place on the Masonite speaker grill not with staples, but with two flat head stainless steel wood screws, a very nice touch.

Ishmael said:

Gang here is a picture from the front of the three speakers in the dead speaker cabinet.

View attachment 550449

I noticed that around the purple tweeter there is a discoloration, which when I touched it, it did not rub off. I am suspicious if this is the dreaded purple tweeter burn out, but it didn't act like an ash or smoke residue which should have come off on my fingers or the white cloth I used to touch it.

This is a non ported enclosure, though other posts have mentioned that the fabric surround is not coated so some air could pass through. The cone seems to be some form of fabric too, with a soft dust cap on the woofer that just needs some judicious suction to pull a small dimple out.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's an early W60D (pre-MK II). The surrounds in the '60's were (their words) "moulded-resin-impregnated, rubber-damped", for whatever that's worth. The cone is some wool-based formula. Maybe wool/paper-pulp or something like that. The woofer-cone and surround on those W*0 models remained virtually-unchanged for a long time, starting with the W* models, which were introduced in 1959. The mids and tweets had a surround made of a treated wool formula, same as in my early W90's, if I remember correctly.

don't mess with the dimpled dust cap just yet. i killed a rare AR2AX tweeter trying to do that

just test it and see if it is working at all.

I agree Roger, as Gang noted while it may have once been of a rubbery nature it is much more firm now to my brief and gentle touch so I will just make sure it works and leave the dimple alone.

So Gang this is probably an early W60D? Would that be 64 as opposed to 74 as far as the "10/4" written on the woofer cone, October 1964 date of manufacture for the woofer?

Here's what one of mine looks like… By the way, the grill is held on with strong velcro on mine.


The W60D and W70D were apparently VERY-popular speakers (They may have been British, but the Rank Group must have been battling heavy for some of that Acoustic Research money by the late '60's... And being a Wharfedale dealer/salesman in those days must have been an easy job... These were the sort of speakers that sell themselves).