Wharfedale DOVEDALE

Celebrating 90 years of bringing the world's finest loudspeakers to the world of home audio, today Wharfedale engineers continue the dictum of utilising technology where it truly matters to develop loudspeakers that reveal the passion and excitement behind the musical performance.

We believe that a connoisseur of sound would find the merest flow intolerable, and with a connoisseur in mind, we have re-designed and built the new 'Dovedale'. If you are such a listener, you will recognise the significance of - and then insist on possessing - the control, performance and sheer quality reflected in this fine speaker. 

A True Classic

Dovedale has an unmistakable family resemblance. It is a three-way standmount model – a rarity in the modern era, retaining similar proportions to the classic Dovedale models of yesteryear. Its wood-veneered cabinet has a vintage look, yet the standard of finish is distinctly contemporary – a tribute to the skilled craftsmanship required to produce such a loudspeaker.

The original Dovedale models – dating back to the W2 in 1959, which was updated to the W2 / Dovedale in 1965 – were well known for their rich and natural sound quality. The new model retains these attributes but upgrades the performance in every department, with free-breathing dynamics and incredible definition across the bass and midrange.

A celebration of the Landmark goth anniversary of the Wharfedale brand. The Wharfedale Dovedale is more than just a reintroduction of a classic model. This is a speaker that exudes authenticity. Designed to appeal to the dedicated music-lover.

Made In The UK

Dovedale signifies the reintroduction of the class and quality of British manufacturing to the Wharfedale brand portfolio.

Dovedale is built in the home of British Hi-Fi at Wharfedale’s UK headquarters in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Incorporating key manufacturing, assembly and finishing processes for specially selected products in addition to the R&D function already located there. A 9,000ft2 production facility has been added to the existing building, including a new anechoic chamber, making a total of 25,000ft2 of office, lab and manufacturing space. It is here that Dovedale is manufactured by highly trained, vastly experienced loudspeaker experts.

More than a Reintroduction

Class lasts a lifetime! The Wharfedale Dovedale portrays the timeless design of a stunning Loudspeaker cabinet with an authentic Legacy. Traditional. simple, beautiful yet highly evolved and a thoroughly modern design.

Bang up to date – utilising a mixture of traditional and advanced technology, for optimum performance whilst staying true to the legacy.

Critical analysis of the performance of each cabinet has resulted in the application of precision shaped and positioned internal bracing. This ensures that cabinet resonances are controlled to well below the level of the music signal, allowing you to hear through to the recording without coloration intruding on your listening enjoyment.

Three-way to Perfection

A three-way speaker in the classic Wharfedale tradition – beautifully hand veneered with an inset front baffle and traditional cloth grille.

Both the midrange unit and treble unit are offset on the front baffle to scatter reflections from the cabinet edges and provide superior focus of the stereo image, and the speakers are provided in handed pairs so that sonic images in the stereo sound field are always accurately placed. The speakers have been fine-tuned acoustically through hundreds of hours of listening tests with all manner of music to ensure the cabinet, crossover and drive units work together coherently and seamlessly.

Dovedale Bass

Dovedale makes use of its wide baffle by incorporating a large (by modern standards) bass driver with a 260mm (10-inch) Kevlar® cone – mounted on a rigid die cast chassis, this combination delivers a rich, controlled bass output with superb dynamic performance.

Dovedale Midrange

The 10in (25cm) bass and 5in (13cm) midrange drivers incorporate cones made from woven Kevlar – an exceptionally strong and stiff synthetic fibre discovered in the same year as the original Dovedale’s release and not used for loudspeaker diaphragms until a decade later.

Dovedale Treble

The 25mm fabric-dome treble unit with a ceramic magnet, featured throughout Wharfedale’s Heritage Series, has been further improved by incorporating a rear chamber, damped to absorb the output from the back of the dome. This also has the advantage of reducing the resonant frequency of the treble unit to well below the crossover region, allowing full treble detail and harmonics to be revealed without affecting the smoothness of the high-frequency performance.

Listening Makes Perfect

The highly researched crossover has been subjected to 1000s of hours of listening tests to perfect the coherent, seamless musical output that is both thrilling and natural in its rendition of any source material.

Wharfedale’s Director of Acoustic Design, Peter Comeau, has worked tirelessly to ensure a seamless integration between the drive units, so the speaker behaves as one music making system.

Making a Stand

The Wharfedale Dovedale stand is custom designed in conjunction with Wharfedale’s Director of Acoustic Design, Peter Comeau. Every aspect is considered to create the perfect presentation of the Dovedale Heritage speaker.

Hand-made in the England, with robust British steel and a luxurious furniture-grade glass insert, the Dovedale stand reinforces the no-compromise approach in the ‘Made in the UK’ theme for the return of the Wharfedale Dovedale.The design is based upon open frame made of carbon steel and furniture-grade glass inserts at the top and bottom. All bar one of the uprights are filled with damping material – the other allows for cable management ­­­– with four large stainless-steel spikes at the base. The stand ensures each speaker is positioned at the correct height, as well as reducing bass/floor interactions and providing stable and torsionally rigid support. The package is completed by a set of stainless-steel spike seats and a pair of handling gloves.