If your listening room is better described as ‘spacious’ than ‘compact’, a floorstander is likely to be your best bet. Our winners…
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Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 £499
Hi-fi aficionados with long memories might well associate the name ‘Wharfedale Diamond’ with small but talented standmounters dating back to the early ’80s. Now, though, the Diamond range also includes floorstanders, and the 12.3 – the most compact and affordable of them – is extra special. Allow us to explain why.
Essentially, these speakers, which have a 2.5-way design, are masters at juggling the almost-contradictory demands of being forgiving with budget all-in-one electronics while at the same time having enough transparency to make the most of price-compatible separates. They are smooth, even-handed and wonderfully refined for the money.
Feed them a poor signal and they are skilled at revealing the shortcomings without shouting about them. They will round off rough edges and downplay unwanted aggression without sounding as if they are smothering the life out of the music. But given a good source and suitably capable amplification, they perform superbly. They resolve a large amount of information but also present it in an organised and controlled way. And all that talent is wrapped in a classy finish that belies the 12.3’s modest price.
At just short of 98cm tall, the 12.3s aren’t massive speakers, but they still perform best if given a little room to breathe. We find they work well if positioned at least 50cm from the rear wall; we settle on 90cm in our test room. Similarly, keep them at least 70cm away from the side walls if you want to maximise stereo imaging, sonic balance and clarity. A bit of angle towards the listening position helps to firm the stereo imaging, too.
Feed them Trance Frendz by Ólafur Arnalds and they deliver a lovely layered sound that is brimming with detail and dynamic nuance. These speakers capture the album’s laid-back rhythms in a pleasingly sure-footed manner and don’t get tripped up when things get complex.
As we move from Jay Z’s The Blueprint 3 to Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, we appreciate the 12.3s’ articulate and expressive midrange and the seamless integration between the drive units. We like how Wharfedale has avoided excess; there’s enough bass weight to satisfy but not so much that it spoils the balance of the presentation. The lows are agile, satisfyingly rich and textured with it.
They also sound good at lower volume. Too often we come across speakers that come
