Wharfedale – Diamond 12.3 – Dual 5″ 2.5-Way Tower Speakers (Pair)

The more compact of the Wharfedale DIAMOND 12 series floorstanding options, the DIAMOND 12.3 loses none of the accuracy and musicality of the standmount (bookshelf) options. With enhanced presence and power, the DIAMOND 12.3 is refined and the perfect, affordable floorstanding speaker for 2-channel hi-fi systems, or as the front pair of a seriously impressive home theatre system.

Configured in a 2.5 way system with exception crossover technology, the DIAMOND 12.3 utilises dual 130mm (5”) Klarity™ drivers for impactful yet refined mid-range and bass frequencies, while the 25mm (1”) dome tweeter delivers open and smoothly extended high frequencies.

Klarity affords focus

NEW Klarity™ cone material, formulated from a blend of Polypropylene and mica adds stiffness to reduce ﬂexing, enabling a lightweight cone with high rigidity, low colouration and lightning-fast response. The Klarity™ cone is ﬁtted with a low-damping surround, thereby achieving both low colouration and expressive dynamics. By simulating many different cone shapes and adding ribs to provide further stiffening, a ﬂat response curve was achieved without resorting to a high-damping surround, thereby striking the ideal balance.

“Speakers at this level have to achieve a difficult balancing act. They have to be forgiving enough to work with microsystems, but still have the transparency to make the most of dedicated separate components. The Diamond 12.1s manage this task well…

…We’re hugely impressed that the Diamond 12.1s can live with the best at the price. They have a broad spread of abilities that will help them get the most from price-compatible electronics and deserve a place high on your shortlist.”

— What Hi-Fi? Oct 2020

A magnet of forces

A precision-made magnet system with an aluminium compensation ring to minimise the eﬀect of variations in inductance as the voice coil travels. This contributes to an absence of distortion and intermodulation generated by the ‘motor system’.

A voice coil beyond this class

The voice coil is wound on a high-power epoxy/glass ﬁbre bobbin highly unusual in speakers at this price level. This has the advantage of not adding eddy currents and delivering greater power handling than an aluminium bobbin, whilst also being much stiﬀer than the Kapton type associated with this price-class.

Diamond highs

The 25mm dome is made from a woven polyester ﬁlm with a high-loss coating to deliver open and smoothly extended high frequencies. The magnet system and the front plate have been optimised for wide dispersion and uncompressed behaviour. The front plate is ﬂat and exposes the dome as much as possible; only a very short duct on the front plate balances the acoustic load and improves the SPL (sound pressure level) measurement.

A crossover of style

The crossover network uses an acoustic LKR 24dB topology. This includes air-core inductors of the type more commonly found in high-end speakers, selected because they produce the lowest distortion of all inductor types. As the resistance of the coil is higher than a standard laminated steel or ferrite core inductor, the magnetic structure of the mid/bass driver has been modiﬁed to compensate, resulting in fast, clean bass with no distortion from the inductor.

Firm and fair

The DIAMOND 12.1 ’s rear-ported enclosure is precisely sized so that the internal volume works in harmony with the drive unit system to deliver the desired sonic result. A multi-layered sandwich design subdues the identiﬁable characteristics of the cabinet’s ‘sound’. Even the resonant properties of the glue between the layers was measured to determine the optimum combination.

Brace yourself

Inside the cabinet, Intelligent Spot Bracing connects opposite walls with a speciﬁc form of the wood brace to achieve an optimal reduction of cabinet resonance. These braces are precisely modelled by computer simulation to improve upon the commonplace ‘ﬁgure of eight’ brace, which may simply transfer resonance from one wall to another.