Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale

LOUDSPEAKER

- JOHN ATKINSON

When I first got interested in audio in the UK, in the 1960s, four English brands dominated the domestic loudspeaker scene: Goodmans (founded in 1923), Celestion (whose first loudspeaker was launched in early 1925), Tannoy (which started making loudspeakers in 1928), and Wharfedale. Wharfedale was the youngest of these brands, founded in 1932 in Yorkshire the land of the Dales-by Gilbert Briggs.

In 1968, following some failed experiments with home-brewed speakers, I was looking to buy a pair of "real" loudspeakers. I was attracted to the large Wharfedale Dovedale, with its 12" woofer, but ended up with a pair of Wharfedale's Super Lintons, the two-way model with the "purple jellyfish" tweeter. I was able to afford the smaller Wharfedales, and they fit on bookshelves in my parents' living room. I subsequently installed the speakers on shelves in my first apartment, then again on shelves in my first house's living room. I used the Super Lintons for several years, until I joined the staff of British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review in 1976. But I always wondered if I should have borrowed enough money to buy those original Dovedales.