Wharfedale Glendale XP2 is a 3-way bookshelf model with 10 inch woofer, of sealed box air suspension.  Heavy to post they're usually 'pick up only' fetching very low prices: $5-? for two boxes, not pairs, only the 'mirror image' is a real speaker pair with tweeter and mid range on opposite sides of the baffle to make a true pair, as in a pair of shoes, each tweeter of the left and right channel is on the outside - get the idea?  The Wharfedale 'Baker Effect' speaker design would be more omni-directional, but this side by side HF driver fashion is obsolete as the drivers cancel each other out - again in theory!  Real wood teak veneer is usually poorly, the cabinet is large and awkward, but made a good record shop speaker in multiples. 

XP2 Sound better with the grilles off but are not the easiest to remove

The grilles on Wharfedales were one of the most acoustically transparent - not as good as the HACKER radio cloth grilles.  They were very hard to remove as the soft dome and other phase domes were vulnerable to being squashed usually by children at home or in-store.  This does affect the sound, how often we hear the Ebay seller claim that squashed domes don't affect the sound?  They're phase domes and they affect the way the sound travels in 2-way or 3-way etc, on front of baffle speaker systems.  With the E.M.I. 319 below the tweeter is co-axial on the Bass/Mid Twin Cone driver, even though in the 319 the mid range cone radiator is not out in front of the bass cone, as in other older Tri-axial speakers.  So these E.M.I. 319 don't need phase domes as the sound travels as one form, they have the older 'dust cap' type cone center.

E.M.I. 13 x 8 beside Wharfedale Glendale XP2

By the late 1970s when Wharfedale Glendales were felt so desirable, the E.M.I. 13 x 8 were regarded as curious.  Where did those bargain E.M.I.s come from? - nobody seemed to know!  The ancient E.M.I. 319 is a better speaker mounted on the front of the baffle but so many are behind the baffle, meaning you must be in a straight line from the center of the speaker grille and sit stock still!  The Wharfedale soft dome allows the listener more bodily movement as the dome tweeter has a wider dispersion.  German studio speakers from this time, also have the mid and treble side by side, instead of as nowadays, mostly in a plumb line for a better or 'mirror' stereo image.  Goodmans later made their offset drivers on opposite sides of enclosures so they were mirror opposites in stereo pairs, but like KEF for most of the 1970s, offset drivers were not in mirror image pairs and so offset are not best for stereo!  Differences in Wharfedale dome tweeters show the black dome as near wall tolerant and the white dome as not wall tolerant, details will be lost if the white dome Glendale is moved near a wall or room corner.  The AR 18 is a good near wall speaker, it's designed to back onto a wall, don't play AR 18s out away from walls on stands!  If you do, they'll lack bass and go cheap!  The trouble with the AR 18 is foam rot, the Glendale doesn't foam rot, but near a heat source, the plastic surround suspension will lose its shape and become flat, or the glue will fail first of all, giving the speakers a rasping sound.  If left for many years in a hot place without playing, the surround will be found to have uncurled and flattened straight out, at that point you need an Ebay donor woofer and they are there. 

Black Dome tweeter helps bass but White Dome offers much better efficiency

WHY A SOFT DOME TWEETER?  These Wharfedale Blue are not real 'soft dome' tweeters, they use the purple 'fried egg' plastic of a famous older style Wharfedale tweeter.  The soft dome is a lot less sensitive than the cone tweeter but its dispersion is very wide like a horn, its other main advantage is its bigger voice coil, for the circular edge of the dome sits on the voice coil and that's a lot bigger than the voice coil in a cone tweeter or the hard dome horn drivers in some, though not all compression horn throat drivers.  The lower distortion gives you relaxed listening, more power handling and clearer audio details, but the soft dome is a lot less sensitive than the cone tweeter or horn.  Many folks prefer the soft dome tweeter but Wharfedale Blue are perhaps the world's most fragile tweeter and soft domes are fragile - they're vulnerable to getting squashed in!  The old ones have a thin single wire at each side of the dome and this often gets broken, the glue holding these wires often comes loose and causes noisy tweeter sound.  The Laser 80 type does not have these old Celestion type, dome-side wires. 

Silver back panel may betray smoker owners by appearing yellow

These back labels let customers know what the specifications of the speakers were, cause by this time, stores had speakers on display that customers could man handle and make informed choices - without getting to hear the speakers on sale!  You had to buy them!  Wharfedale of this vintage suit Sansui D.C. Servo amplifiers and Rank Hi-Fi brands like Leak.  Look out for the Wharfedale E series - E for Efficiency.  Some folks say these had a good bass, the E90 was even made for Disco use!  But although the cone of the E70 moved a great deal with a 3900 amplifier, it didn't seem to make much noise for all that.  But Wharfedale E were a real stylish unit, in the days when that mattered cause they were still promoting stereo in fashion magazine adverts back then.  Hi-End Audio is not Wharfedale, they're a brand for value.  One of the favorite Rank-Leak amplifiers of this vintage are the 3900 and 3900A.  The 3900 is a twin-powered amplifier with two silver-top fully-shrouded transformers, of the tube-audio style but Solid State.  The 3900A is single powered with black fully-shrouded transformer of the REALISTIC STA-2000 style.  So 3900/A of 1978 are a cool tuner/amplifier combination, provided you live in a huge room as they're giant units!

 

 

Pictures appear on the Internet with Laser 80 bass drive units in the Laser 60 box and Laser 60 bass drive units in the Laser 80 box!  The Laser 60 and Shelton both have similar 2-way 'blue cone' bass woofers seen in the Shelton picture below and the Laser 80 has a different light gray smaller version of the 3-way ten-inch cone bass driver in the Wharfedale Glendale XP2 photo above.  These are different drivers!  The Laser 60 and Shelton units are wildly punchy and being 2-ways, the plumb-line Laser 60 has quite a sound!  But the Laser 80 is different, it is not punchy and as a true light cone, air suspension unit, is fragile and easily crumpled if powered outside the Laser 80's cabinet air loading.  So be careful you know the units you buy are original, or known to be repaired units.  The Laser 80 can sound quite good provided it hasn't been opened and the drivers are in good condition.  But unlike the XP2, the Laser range driver plastic rim holders can make a buzzing sound with strong bass!  The XP2 units have rubber washers seen in the picture of the Shelton driver below, so don't buzz.  The Laser range has no gasket between the ring holder and drivers! 

 

 

Wharfedale Shelton with archetypal 1979 Blue XP2 Black Soft Dome tweeter

 

1.  Glendale XP2 may need run-in if left stored up for a while.

2.  Very fragile soft dome tweeters often intermittent recommend Ebay spares to be sought.

3. 6-ohm impedance suits many modern Home Cinema Receivers but is a single stereo speaker system.

4.  White Dome tweeter gives very good efficiency for quoted 86dB SPL!

5.  Black Dome tweeter gives very low efficiency for quoted 86dB SPL!

6.  The film capacitor network is far better than the aged electrolytic bipolar cap one, after 30 years!

7.  Glendale woofer rubbers often part from the cone and then 'buzz' occasionally, replace woofer!

8. 'Pairs' of XP2 often have an all film cap network on one channel and a film/bipolar mix on the other! 

XP2 electroplated drivers for kits Wharfedale used to offer in the late 1970s

The kits Wharefedale offered in the late 1970s, featured the above electro-plated speaker chassis in a presentation box, but the production drivers were plated too.  They were an attempt to compete in the more specialist audio market of the E.M.I. 13 x 8 and Goodmans Twin Axiom drivers!  Well the Twin Axiom drivers were just awesome value for money but where were they to be found for sale?  The Twin Axiom was not in quite the same category as some of the 1940-60s Axiom models, but it was superb.  Be real careful if you find a home built pair of speakers, that they're not hiding some of these awesome Goodmans Axiom drivers and be real careful with the domes or whizzer cones in these types of drivers - they're not car audio units, they're far better!  E.M.I. 13 x 8 were a little different, they were studio speakers and E.M.I.'s studio desk mixing equipment, amplifiers etc, were finished in the green later used for these oval speakers.  Studio speakers are different from Domestic Audio speakers, although the Wharfedale Glendale was used in some studios.  The studio speaker has a wider frequency response and higher sensitivity, the E.M.I. 319 makes a good N.F.M. or near field monitor but its light cone degrades with exposure to dampness.  The domestic audio speaker tends to have a poorer bass frequency response and lower sensitivity needing more audio power and giving a better sound in domestic rooms.  But, like the Russian POLJOT watches, the E.M.I. and other studio speakers have a certain 'specialist' appearance that people just must have! 

Later year Wharfedale Laser 80 3-way style bass driver lacks visual appeal

The drivers of the Wharfedale Laser series are pretty nasty.  The soft dome tweeter is not very good and often leaks ferrofluid, as a result of being squashed on display in the store.  The Laser 80 was highly respected in its day as the looks of the Technics and J.V.C. amplifiers it was offered with, were among the best styled of all time!  We're talking around 1982, with the smoke glass door Technics SU-V9 and its lesser cousins, each, just awesome as CD or vinyl disc amplifiers.  The squawker of the Laser 80 and 100 above is obviously a poor relation to the sandwich Leak / Rank / Wharfedale one.  The excuse was that Laser technology had allowed just as good performance to be developed with plastic at lower cost and so the black polypropylene squawker was offered in quite a few quality enclosures of the first Laser Series, including a plumb line driver array floor stander, continued into the Later post 1983 Laser range.  The later range however avoided 3-way speakers as it was claimed the brain knew they sounded more artificial than a 2-way design.  Such marketing ideas were more price-orientated than intended to question audio Hi-End.

XP2 all air core beside Laser range network

Audio Hi-End is known for some quite complicated networks, particularly active ones, as the back e.m.f of speakers can then be computed and wire lengths kept short to max out sound.  The air core coil in speakers is meant to improve the quality of bass sounds and the film capacitor to make more level the falling efficiency of electrolytic capacitors at high frequencies.  The after market film capacitor is quite popular on Ebay, particularly grouped in two or more to make up capacity and reduce electrical series resistance.  But networks are complicated and changing components in them is about as wise as changing tube audio brands and stock origins.  If messing around - be real careful to keep your original components, better yet buy another network from Ebay and use it for upgraded components, keeping your original handy to compare!