With an established experience in Research & Development, as a result of its freedom to design and vertically manufacture materials using advanced machineries and technology, as well as being RoHS and WEEE Certified, Wharfedale is now mainly focused in the development of its open-backed chassis design, curved cabinet construction, tweeter resolution, bi-directional KEVLAR weaves, tri-laminate cones, and neodymium magnets. By exploring the latest materials in technology, we were able to develop our products using new composite wood and aramid fibres. Using advanced cone materials to improve bandwidth and reduce distortion and a full spectrum of magnetic materials for numerous purposes.

We are, at present, manufacturing over 200 different drivers in-house.

	Bi-directional KEVLAR Driver: The woofer cone is made from a bi-directional KEVLAR weave - self-damping in nature, reducing resonant frequencies to virtually negligible levels. The impetus for rapid movement here is a dual layer, and has a vented voice coil which transmits the signal information with the highest levels of accuracy. The cone is mounted on a nitrile rubber 'Flexaural surround rim'. A profiled phase plug improves the off-axis performance to project an excellent stereo image across a wide listening area.
	Drive Unit Technology: Opus uses advanced neodymium and alnico magnets to produce intense and focused flux fields that provide a tight grip on drive unit movement. The soft dome midrange, the most advanced unit of its kind, provides tonal balancing throughout the range. The bass cone, a woven carbon fibre composite unit exhibits incredible linearity and control with a textbook response and rise time. Dynamics are dramatically harder and faster with no noticeable bass overhang.
	The 25mm Soft Dome Tweeter: The highest frequencies are handled by a soft dome driver. Our extensive research has proven these are a better choice than metallic based domes that typically add their own character to the treble. A feature of the tweeters, as with the mids, is wide dispersion and very low distortion, again typically less than 1% at 100dB in 1 metre. The unit features a high flux neodymium magnet structure, producing a typical efficiency of 93dB 1W@1m. This unit has a frequency response extending far beyond audible frequencies to around 45kHz.
	Tweeters: The tweeters use high power 'rare-earth' magnets for high resolution and accuracy.This provides the most linear and the fastest response possible response.
	The 50mm Soft Dome Midrange: Derived from our flagship 'Airedale Heritage' loudspeaker, we have designed a series of dome midrange units which are exclusively used in our high-end loudspeaker products. Although costly to produce, the benefits of using a dome midrange - particularly one with such a wide bandwidth as our own – are lower distortion through this region, better integration throughout the frequency spectrum and an extremely wide dispersion - all contributing to a very relaxed, natural presentation. Because each driver in a multi-way system covers a smaller bandwidth, dynamic range and transient response are hugely improved. This is often at the cost of frequency integration but when our unique dome technology is deployed, integration between upper and lower drive units is virtually seamless.
	UV Stabilised Woven Kevlar Drivers: Bi-directionally woven and bonded with a special UV screen as part of our resin compound, the cone is light, strong and durable. The midrange voice coils are double wound to exceptionally tight tolerances. The result is a speaker with improved accuracy and better dynamic expression.
	Cast Chassis: A special alloy, cast chassis design is incorporated across all diamond models to virtually eliminate rear wave reflections from the chassis legs. This allows air to move freely through the driver and have an even frequency response with much lower distortion.
	Advanced "Tri-Lam" cone: The new "Tri-Lam" cones introduced on all the SW-models are marvels of materials technology and application. Although huge, they remain completely controlled at all times.
	Curved & Multi-braced MDF Cabinet: The enclosure of your speaker is finished to a high-quality furniture standard. Real wood veneers are selected and carefully pattern-matched by hand. Over a period of several days a high quality hard lacquer finish is achieved. This involves the application of several coatings of lacquers, each being cut and polished before the next coat is applied. Only through this time-consuming and skilled technique, can we achieve the deep and lustrous finish that is the characteristic hallmark of Wharfedale premium loudspeakers.
	Piano Gloss Finish: All models are finished to a piano gloss standard, using selected hardwoods. Protected with 10 upward coats of varnish, each coat is cut and polished by hand after being naturally dried at atmospheric temperature. Only the highest standards of finish are deemed acceptable.
	Crossover:a simple crossover design can maintain phase coherency through the mid-range and hence eliminate the negative effects that are introduced where driver correction is needed.
	Oversized spike and Terminals:Oversized spikes are included with all floorstanding models to reduce to an absolute minimum the dissipation of energy through the floor. As well as being a nice aesthetic detail, these serve more to improve dynamic attack and more generally improve detail in the bass region. We used heavy duty, gold-plated and screened terminals which can accept 4mm banana plugs or bare wire, if preferred.
	'Bi-Polar' rear design: For a broad soundstage with a more enveloping sound, two long-throw, polypropylene bass/mid drivers are used in each of the surround and centre speakers for exceptional dynamics as well as good tonal integration. 28mm Ferrofluid-cooled, dome tweeters feature on both centre and surround for a tightly controlled high frequency response.
	'Tri-pole' rear design with 'horn-loaded tweeter': Utilizing the ‘bi-pole’ principle to reduce a full 180 degree sound dispersion pattern. The 4” polypropylene cone is both stiff and light. The ‘horn-loaded’ tweeters on both centre and surround produce both the stereo and ambient sound effects.
	Advanced subwoofer processing/filter system: All subs use an advanced microprocessor controlled analogue low-pass filter section for sonic performance with a low noise floor. It is possible to switch all filters off if used in a high quality AV system.
	Damping and extended voice-coil: Completely controlled even under extreme dynamics, the advanced voice coils allow the cone to travel to the full 24mm maximum excursion with a linear pistonic motion.
	Unique 'HCWPP' Cone Technology:The 'Hot Compacted Polypropylene Process' forms a material consisting of aligned polypropylene fibers in a matrix of thermoformed polypropylene. The cone material consists of approximately 80% molecularly aligned fibres in a matrix of 20% polypropylene resulting from melting and cooling the 'skins' of the fibres. The cone exhibits high strength, impact resistance , excellent self-damping properties, and yet is lightweight, affordable and recyclable.