WHARFEDALE DOVEDALE Heritage Series 90th Anniversary loudspeaker > Stereophile review

The new Dovedale is the first Wharfedale loudspeaker to be manufactured in IAG's new, 9000ft2 UK production facility in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. It was designed by IAG Acoustic Director Peter Comeau. In an interview at the 2022 Munich show (footnote 1), Comeau outlined the new Dovedale's design philosophy, recalling that as a teenager he built a pair of Dovedales from a Wharfedale "Unit 5" driver/crossover kit.

The Dovedale's price includes a pair of substantial, rectangular open-frame stands made of carbon steel. Standing 13" high on its four large stainless steel spikes, the stand has black glass inserts at the top and bottom. Three of the four uprights are filled with damping material. The fourth is hollow so that speaker cables can be threaded through it.

Listening
Loudspeakers that offer extended, powerful-sounding bass often sacrifice low-frequency clarity. But Ray Brown's double bass on "Limehouse Blues," from André Previn's jazz trio album After Hours (16/44.1 FLAC, Telarc/Qobuz), and Jerome Harris soloing on a Taylor acoustic bass guitar on "Sway Low," from Rendezvous (16/44.1 ALAC file, STPH013-2; footnote 3), were reproduced by the Dovedales with excellent upper-bass articulation. I didn't feel any need to block any of the Dovedale's ports.

The Dovedale's midrange did justice to recorded voices. Minnesota's male-voice choral group Cantus sounded natural and uncolored singing Eric Whitacre's "Lux Aurumque" on my recording of While You Are Alive.
I was intrigued by how such large speakers could completely disappear, leaving a wide, deep soundstage, but disappear they did.
Johnathan Blake's drums stably stretched from far left to far right on the stage and were set a little way behind the images of the other three instruments. His cymbals sounded natural, without any exaggeration of their high-frequency "swish."

Conclusion
I wasn't sure what to expect from the Wharfedale Dovedale. With its wide baffle and its resemblance to the old-fashioned "big-box" speakers from the 1960s, I was anticipating an old-fashioned sound. That's not what I got—at all. While the Dovedale's mid-treble could sound a little too forward with some recordings, this for me was outweighed by the speaker's powerful, extended low frequencies, natural-sounding midrange, and generally clean high frequencies. Recommended.
- John Atkinson, Stereophile, March 2024

Wharfedale Dovedale
Stereophile