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Re: Help Appraising Old Wharfedale Drivers....

Posted by Gerry E. on May 30, 2001 at 13:53:06

In Reply to: Re: Help Appraising Old Wharfedale Drivers.... posted by Bald Iggle on May 29, 2001 at 18:58:00:

Blunted-One:

Having played around with quite a few vintage Wharfedales recently, I can give you some insights. The Super 12 series probably started in the early 1950s. By 1955, the Super 12/CS/AL was a very popular speaker and Wharfedales best. BTW, the "CS" designation is for CLOTH SURROUND. "FS" is for FOAM SURROUND and I would assume "RS" is for ROLLED SURROUND.

The Super 12/FS/AL came out around 1959 and replaced the "CS" version as an "improvement". The "RS" version probably replaced the "FS" version sometime in the early 60s. It is the original cloth surround ("CS") version that is considered the best and has the most collector interest/value. Having just sent three of them to Taiwan (and also a single "FS"), I know this to be true.

Wharfedale quality and performance of their mid 1960s drivers (and later) are not nearly as good as the earlier ones (at least that is the perception) and therefore your 12/RS/DD does not have much value. Of course you never know what something might fetch on eBay. BTW, your speaker and your friends "Super" version, may be the same. Wharfedale played a lot of games with their model names (ex. two of the same exact speakers might have a slightly different names depending on if it was sold as a driver or used in one of Wharfedales speaker systems). Wharfedale also changed their cones over different production runs, so even if yours doesn't look exactly like your friends, it still may be basically the same model.

NOTE TO Bald Iggle:

I have another pair of the Super 12/FS/ALs. One was re-coned and the other needs a re-cone. If you are interested, you can have them for free, but you would either have to pick them up (I'm in the NY Metro area) or I will drop them off at a Mail Boxes Etc. and you would have to pay all packing and shipping costs. As you already know, they have those HUGE ALNICO magnets and it would be a shame for them to go to waste. They could both be re-coned and you would have a matching set. Please send me an e-mail if you are interested. Someone like yourself, who knows what an ABLE cabinet is, deserves these! BTW, I was experimenting with these various Wharfedales in an Able cabinet myself.

Gerry

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