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Wharfedale Jade 3 aluminium tweeter problem

Just bought a pair of Wharfedale Jade 3 standmount speakers, it looks very big, excellent craftsmanship in piano black finish, have been running them for 1 week, overall comment on sound:

Bass: I can't comment much on this, still think in the progress of write in, though I feel that no sense of strain, but I have problems playing some aggressive bass movement tracks, it seem the woofer hit the plastic surround...

Mid: Just fine, no problem

High: Though I will not say it's harsh, but it has too much sparkling and unwanted details, it seem no filter has been done, it makes a lot of tracks not listenable, it just sound not so comfortable bringing out some background noise, or piercing instrument too much

So far, this is my most disappointment in purchase Hifi speakers, I starting to wonder is this amp problem? I don't think so, I got several other speakers play just fine, include Wharfedale Diamond 122, Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary, Wharfedale Diamond 9.1. If let say power is not enough, I don't think so I can play track like Tutti! - Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird - Finale, with enough powerful omph without distortions, and most state of the art recording without problems, what's wrong here? The Jade 3 just does not work so forgiving in playing music?
128x128wim1983
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Assuming the speakers are fully broken in, this it the type of thing that happens when you don't take the time to match your components. When dealing with a speaker that is capable of revealing a lot of detail, especially when metal drivers are involved, its not good enough to just have enough power. You need to experiment and try different combinations of components to be sure that you know what you are getting into. Since you already have the speakers, I would see if you have some friends that can lend you some different equipment to try. Anything to see if you can move the sound in the right direction. I would definitely not buy anything new until you figure out what the problem is.

Also, you may want to list your system. Maybe you have an obvious bad match that someone may pick up on.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
Hopefully they'll get better with more break in. I had a pair of Paradigm speakers years ago that sounded so bad I seriously wanted to return them to the dealer. My complaint was similar to yours, the high frequencies were rough and ragged. It took three or four weeks for them to break in and become listenable. Good luck with yours.
wim1983's avatar
wim1983 OP
221 posts
 
Zd542: I got this feel it sound a little bit thin on mid, the bass is still shy to me, but no resonance, just not so excited compare to my ported Denton, the biggest problem is high, a lot of crushing sound came out, I'm using JDS Labs ODAC and Class D Audio 400C power amp, is this a transparent setup like 3X transparent? DAC + amp + speakers? Neutral sound? so if I need a light taste of warm color, what preamp should I use then? Arghhh, those prices just too much for me...

Timrhu: I'm interested to know more, for example, I have some poor/not so perfect live recordings with excellent musical feel, the background noise just bringing out too forward to be listenable, was that your problem that happened too?
mechans
3,048 posts
 
There may be more break in needed with an aluminum tweeter and overall most speakers continue to mature and evolve over the first year or so.
If your using class D power this kind of sound is not that unusual. An expensive approach albeit hard to swallow is to seriously think about a class A power. That isn't cheap but there are some amps that have a bias that produces mainly class A. An even more wild switch and I hope not annoying is to use tube power amps. You may find your audio nirvana that way -honestly it made me stop thinking about any other amps. (well I could be tempted to try some others but...)
Finally if you don't mind using cables as tone controls and I think it is perfectly fine to do so, get warm cables made of copper. I think Cardas has been the best, but the older "golden" this or that were the best at providing full rich sound, don't know the current stuff. I also like Jena labs cables but she's expensive, so I bought used.
Good luck but if you really hate them, just take them back and get the best deal you can for a better speaker for you.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,002 posts
 
Zd and Tim both make Good points. As Zd says, matching is very important, but I also agree with Tim in thinking that they are probably far from broken in yet.
Others speak well of this speaker, so it's not likely that it is as bad as it's sounding to you now.
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