Loudspeakers

It's refreshing to come across examples of what used to be called 'conservative specification'. Wharfedale claims 88dB sensitivity for its D330 but our pink noise figure of 89.8dB and 'music' figure of 89.0dB suggest that at least 89dB is merited. This high figure for what is a compact floorstander isn't bought using low impedance. Our measured minimum modulus of 3.9ohm may be 0.2ohm less than Wharfedale states but is consistent with the 4ohm nominal specification. And because the LF impedance phase angles are well controlled, the EPDR (equivalent peak dissipation resistance) falls no lower than 2.2ohm at 45Hz. Still, the D330 isn't quite as amplifier friendly as this suggests due to further EPDR dips to 2.3ohm at 20Hz, and to 2.5ohm at both 140Hz and 358Hz.

The forward frequency responses, measured at 1m on the tweeter axis, show a trend that's flat up to about 9kHz beyond which there is a hump in extreme treble output [see Graph 1, above]. This increases the response errors to ±4.6dB and ±4.7dB respectively, but listening a little off-axis should improve this. Pair matching over the same 200Hz-20kHz frequency range is very good at ±0.6dB. High sensitivity from a compact enclosure has its corollary in the poor bass extension figure (–6dB at 87Hz re. 200Hz) but the diffraction-corrected nearfield measurement reveals a more nuanced picture. Output declines gently below 200Hz before becoming fourth-order below 40Hz, so careful placement of the D330 with respect to the wall behind will significantly improve matters in-room. The CSD waterfall [Graph 2, above] is clean in the high treble but shows resonances associated with the 1.3kHz response peak and 2.9kHz dip. KH