Wharfedale speakers give you more!

Wharfedale is known as a legend in the Hi-Fi industry for its loudspeakers. Some well-known series of Wharfedale are the Wharfedale diamond series, Wharfedale evo series or the Wharfedale linton series. Audio that's taken care of down to the last detail. Quality in combination with the unique design makes Wharfedale unique. The design of every new speaker is a sound engineer's dream. Instead of using ready-made components from a catalog, like most other alleged 'hi-fi companies', we are able to build a complete vision - to engineer each individual component from scratch and so on. achieve harmony in performance and balance.

 

Where is Wharfedale from?

The traditionally British brand has the excellence of producing great products with over 85 years of experience. Wharfedale is one of the top British audio brands. Wharfedale is known in the hi-fi world for its innovative speakers with technological highlights. In the early 30s, Gilbert Briggs made his first speaker in the basement of his house near the River Wharfe, today the region is known as Wharfedale. Soon Briggs set up a factory and sold many radios and loudspeakers. Thus, Britain's most famous in the field of speakers was born. Since then, Wharfedale has won many awards for its famous bookshelf and floorstanding speakers. Thanks to Wharfedale's excellent R&D department and strict quality control, it still produces high-quality speakers today.

 

History

Wharfedale has a rich history of events that ultimately makes Wharfedale Wharfedale. A brand that pursues its passion and annually comes up with unique top quality products. For the interested among us, we have briefly described history in highlights.

 

1932

Gilbert Briggs built his very first loudspeaker in the basement of his home in Ilkley, Yorkshire. This sleepy little market town lay in the valley of the River "Wharfe" - an area known to this day as "Wharfedale". This unlikely location would create a brand that would be recognized around the world, synonymous with quality in high-fidelity reproduction.

Gilbert Briggs is still admired and respected worldwide for his pioneering work in hi-fi reproduction and his endless pursuit of better sound quality - driven by his love of live music.

 

 

1933

Gilbert has set up a small factory near Bradford to build his new loudspeaker drives. Radio was an exciting technology and word of the new transducers had quickly spread across the area. Demand grew rapidly. Initially, the true spirit of the cottage industry, his wife, Doris Edna Briggs, was the manufacturing division, who spent many late nights soldering wires and winding coils.

That same year, he entered the Bradford Radio Society's annual competition and won first and second place, earning the company its first major order. From this point on, the Wharfedale Wireless Works has never looked back, strength to strength, producing up to 9000 units per year until the outbreak of World War II.

 

 

1936

Gilbert's company had outgrown their small premises and moved to a larger factory, again in Bradford. When the war came, the factory moved on. In the second half of the war, Wharfedale Wireless Works was commissioned to make transformers for Marconi. Some 40.000 units were completed by an expert team of just 20 personnel before the war finally came to an end.

 

 

1945

In America a trend developed to increasingly search for a better music reproduction. Well positioned to meet the growing demand for quality loudspeakers, Wharfedale developed the first two-way loudspeaker - the prototype of the modern loudspeaker. The device would look odd by modern standards with a 10" tweeter and crossover that it took two grown men to lift, but it set the standard for the entire industry.

 

1962

The first four years of the Ranking Era saw two major breakthroughs. Wharfedale pioneered the use of the now famous 'roll surround' on cones and launched its first ever speakers with ceramic magnets. In the XNUMXs, the company moved into electronics manufacturing, launching a number of tuners, amplifiers, and even turntables. Growth was rapid as the quality and styling of these devices strongly appealed to the newly liberated youth market.

 

60s/70s

Throughout this period, fashion played an important role in hi-fi design. Teak vinyl and state-of-the-art plastics were introduced to an eager and enthusiastic audience. Enthusiasts began to show off their newly acquired systems. Design played an increasingly important role.

Demand for Wharfedale products continued to grow at an accelerating pace and the existing factory in Bradford Road limited growth. In 1967 it was decided to develop a new, more efficient factory on a green site in Highfield Road, Bradford, just over a mile away. The factory took about seven years to complete. When completed, it covered more than 170.000 m² of production with additional office space and large-scale research and development facilities.

 

80s

Investments in advanced equipment have led to the development of Laser Holography processes - Scanned Laser Probe (SCALP) and Frequency Slice Plot (FRESP) techniques - which have led to a better understanding of the physics of loudspeaker technology and further advancement of the industry. These instruments introduced hi-fi to the study of materials science and have proven to define loudspeakers in the XNUMXs. As the movement of diaphragms could be more accurately analyzed, we were able to develop materials that could better meet the demands of a loudspeaker.

 

 

90s

Wharfedale was reunited with some of his friends. After Rank decided to focus on the film and leisure business, Wharfedale was sold to a large group of companies called 'Verity Group PLC'.

The Verity Group also owned Quad and Leak. The famous three were back together. Who would have thought that the relationship between the largest hi-fi companies of the time, which started with the 'live vs. recorded' concerts in 1955, would come into common ownership.

 

From 2000

Four years after its re-established independence, Wharfedale launched the Diamond 8 Series. The culmination of years of research into materials science and massive investments in new production facilities, it was the product that once again catapulted Wharfedale and the International Audio Group to the forefront of domestic hi-fi. The Diamond Tent has always been immensely popular, but this clearly announced the intentions and ambitions IAG had for Wharfedale in the new millennium.

The launch of the Diamond 9 series took Wharfedale's achievements in the hi-fi industry to even greater heights. Three years after their introduction, they are still winning awards and accolades. They are quite simply the most important loudspeaker of their time and today they are a worthy product to celebrate more than 75 years of outstanding achievements in audio. Currently the Linton series is Wharfedale's showpiece!

 

 

Watch 2 videos about the history of Wharfedale