Wharfedale Diamond 8.4

The Wharfedale Diamond 8.1's are the only ones of the Diamond 8 series that will work reasonably well with near rear wall placement. The Diamond 8 series is a ported design and sounds at its best when out into the room a bit. At your budget, take a look at the NHT ST4 . Piano black gloss finish; acoustic suspension design; side mounted 8" sub-woofer; $1000 price tag; warm, musical, and detailed sounding.

Regards, Rich

Yes just recently.They where driven by a 'Mid-fi'surround reciever(wood floor)great performance to cost ratio,decent bass,musical,warm,bit lively in lower treble,tad rolled in the top-top,could be played reasonably loud,cleanly.
BTW Rich they are front ported.
But when moved close to the wall they became very boomy. Remember wood floor,budget reciever,so take it in consideration.Do a search on 'kevlar driver colorations'I've heard rumor that budget kevlar has a irritable sonic trait long term,can't remember what.

CL:

I owned the 8.1's for about a year, so I am aware that the 8 series Diamonds are front ported. Given that, I still found that the Wharfedales tended to sound their best when out in the room a bit. Even though you might categorize the B&K as a mid-fi and/or budget receiver, the B&K is still on par with the Wharfedales (mid-fi/budget speakers themselves) from a quality and matching perspective. For near rear wall placement, acoustic suspension speakers are still the way to go and the NHT's would fit that bill.

Regards, Rich