Wharfedale - Crystal CR 4.3 (Black)

These speakers are better than expected. Most importantly, the customer service was exceptional.

Good

I bought these based on an awesome review/shootout done by Joe N Tell on youtube (shout out to Joe well done!). These days not many brick and mortar stores exist so you can actually hear products before you buy them so we are stuck having to trust reviews and online opinions. These speakers were a good value at $398 for the pair. They produce clean and lively sound everything said in Joe's youtube review is accurate. However these speakers are only good for a small room environment like a bedroom. I would not suggest them for a living room. The reason why I give a low score is due to the fact that one of the woofers was making a knocking sound at mid moderate volumes. They were being pushed with a Yamaha TSR 7850 receiver set to small crossed over at 60-90 hz. Maybe I had a defective one I am not sure but it was disappointing. I returned them. I wanted to give Wharfedale another chance as the sound quality was good with the Crystal CR 4.3's. I attempted to do as much research as possible on Wharfedale Diamond 230's and bought them. They ended up putting out a better sound in the mid range than the Crystals however they were extremely power hungry and taxing on my receiver no matter the settings. All and all in the end I went to BestBuy to check out the Klipsch Reference sale and went home with 2 of the R820f's and 2 of the SW120 subs for $224 each item and was blown away at how effortless they reproduced high power and high quality sound. My receiver is happier. Neither pair of Wharfedale's could touch the quality and power of sound that I am getting from the Klipsch's. So my recommendation is if your looking for towers for a larger room Wharfedale cant perform They wont cut it. Check out Klipsch, BestBuy had them on the floor so you could actually listen to them. On a side note I went through a nightmare with musicdirect.com to get my full refund on the Crystal's. I would not recommend buying from them it took almost daily contact with Amazon and they fought for me to finally get my full refund.

A step up from Polk T-50, great looks, very good sound, and materials. Could be more efficient. Overall acceptable.First, I own the Polk T-50, and the Wharfdales have thicker walls, higher-quality drivers, and better damping material inside. After opening up the cabinet, I found the woofer to have a medium size motor, and not a monster magnet. The dampening material is thick, and is behind both the midrange driver, and runs along the side walls and bottom below the port. The woofer has its own cabinet and is sealed off from the top two drivers. They squeezed all the bass they could from this woofer. Combined with the port, damping material, and size of cabinet, I would describe the bass redponse as punchy, throbbing, or wooly, as apposed to "wet" depending on the song, without being boomy. I hear the 50hz frequency floor on these.The inside is clean, without any glue accidents, or messiness. All joints are solid and square, without any apps for anomalies. Crossover seems to be adequate, and the crossover points are seamless.The highs are clear and crisp, although I found myself dipping my 12 band dbx EQ around the 4000 Hertz frequency by 6db to relieve some harshness, and ear fatigue.The floor spikes are a nice touch, I bought some cutting boards to put them on since I have a ceramic tile floor.I would recommend buying at least a 100 watt per channel amp for these, though they don't fill a Stadium, they're more than enough for my small living room. I sit about 6-8 feet away.While I don't really use these for movies, they do sound very good. I have a separate sound bar for that because the sound signature needed for motion-pictures is different than for music.UPDATE: I'm now using it with the Sony SACS9 sub, with the 4.3s set to "small" on the Yamaha AVR. THIS is the sound I was looking for. Full bottom end, with a RICH top end.

I've owned these speakers for a few months and for the price they are very good. They produce a very balanced sound, do not take up much room and are not picky with placement. I have them set up in my home office, they are connected to a vintage Luxman receiver with basic speaker cables. I mostly play music from Tidal & Pandora and I have no complaints at this price.If you are looking for speakers that really rock the house, these are not for you. But if you are looking for a set to listen to for hours of enjoyment on a budget, these are good options.

GOOD FOR A HIFI SOUND ENTRY LEVEL...VALUE FOR THE BUCKS..