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Wharfedale Emerald 97 - compare to?

I've read a lot of speaker reviews lately and found the Wharfedale Emerald 97 gets a fairly good review. Looking on Ebay I have seen many of these sell for under $300/pair new with claims of retail being $1000/pair for black ash to $1800/pair for walnut. They come with floor spikes too. I do not know of any plce in the area I live that carries any so I cannot go to listen for myself. Does anyone out there have a pair or heard them, and what is your opinion? What do they compare to? Good bass with 30-20000 response? Are they exagerating the retail price? Are they worth $300?
Also, as long as I am on here, I live west of the Minneapolis-St.Paul area about 75 miles so I don't get there often, can anyone tell me some places to go there to listen to different high end speakers?
Thanks
tgi
scottht
398 posts
 
First of all. Almost all of the ads for the Wharfedale speakers here and other places, these speakers are "B" stock. I would not reccomend these speakers to anyone.
You can do much better looking at any used speaker here at AG. If you wanted, I could point out many.
If you want my opinion. Don't buy them at any price.
lmkaz
2 posts
 
For around $300 new they are very good speakers. If you get the urge to try the Emerald 99s with the larger woofers, I would advise against that. For some reason the 8" drivers of the 99s don't blend as well with the tweeter as the 97s do (or 95s or 93s for that matter). If you can, go for any of the stained wood veneers instead of the black ash finish. They look very nice and sound much better than you would expect for the price. Disregard the list price but if you want a floorstanding, almost full-range speaker for around $300 then I don't know of anything better.
scottht
398 posts
 
There are at least 6 pairs of speakers under full range for sale that I saw quickly, just for the heck of it. All of them better in every way than the Wharfedale.
There are B&W's and Deftech's available.
But, To each his own. Don't come cryin here when you get them.
scottht
398 posts
 
You could also pick up a pair of used Thiel 1.2's for about $350.
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