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Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversity speaker: Best stand height for them and brand??

I just purchased a used/mint pair of Wharfedale Denton speakers as an alternative to my Golden Ear Technology 7's .  They are what many testimonials claim: an outstanding speaker which does almost every thing right, and is also musical.  The manual  is not very specific about the height of speaker stands, or distance from back and side walls.

In an 12.5X15 ft room, what might be the best height for them??; I have them on a 21.5 inch stand, and they sound very good. However, instinct tells me they should be placed on a 25 or 26 inch stand so as to elevate tweeters to ear level and possibly reduce low end or lower mids thud.  I sit on a low  couch. 

Without a doubt the Dentons are remarkable speakers, though I have detected on certain CD's a tad of tinny sparkle when they go loud. I am sure they are broken in or close to it, but would like to optimize the performance of this unbelievable speaker that is very difficult to turn off, and go to sleep.  Comments, advice, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

*****BTW, they can be bi-wired. Does it make a difference in sound quality with this particular speaker. .  Thanks, Jim. 

  

sunnyjim
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
2,678 posts
 
BTW: Before you decide on the height,you can stack some books under the 21" stands to find out which height you prefer. That's the way I do it!
sunnyjim OP
884 posts
 

First, thanks to all who have responded.

To Yogiboy,  useful advice, but also a bit risky because unless you have duplicates of the same books used, there will be a chance that the speaker will be lopsided and unsteady,and fall over. I did this once with a pair of Music Hall Marimba's resulting in a crushed.corner 

The speaker was a turkey  but I was able to sell them, but got beat-up on the price because of the damage to the corner.  However, I might give it a try with one large dictionary per stand. 

The measurements seems the way to go, so I will try that first, I really don't want to buy another pair of speaker stands, and several offered on e-bay by Sanus or Target, Bush are crap.  I lucked out with my current stands which look like a prop from a Woody Allen laugher, called "Sleeper" where he is wakes up in a futuristic world

Unfortunately, the stands are only 21 inches high. Regardless, the Dentons are outstanding speakers which I have only minor quibbles.   HAS ANYONE BIWIRED THEM TO SEE IF THE SOUND IS FURTHER IMPROVED??        

meerzistar
232 posts
 
As with toeing in or pointing speakers straight out height is something I play around with to find what works best with a particular set up. Room acoustics, speaker design, mostly so baffle shape size along with driver size and placement along with other variables will all play a part in the best placement of monitors. While some will sound best with ear level meeting tweeter height others having ears at mid point between tweeters and mid range. I find there is no hard rule that applies to speakers height. 
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
444 posts
 
Sunnyjim, a word about biwiring.... I had them bi-wired for the first 200hrs or so using the canare 4s11, and the switched to belden 10awg single-wired, and then the canare 4s8 single-wired.  
Out of those three combinations, i find the 4s11 to be the least dynamic and darker sounding.  The belden seems to clean up bass, midrange and up, but leaves a bump in the upper-bass.  The 4s8 is for me the best of all three, clean, balanced, with an impression of extended treble.
In my experience,  bi-wiring only benefits speakers with large drivers and/or three way speakers with bass drive separate from midrange/tweeter (i.e. Vandersteen 2 and up).  Also larger gauge does not mean better with lengths less than 10ft.
these are my impressions, i have left speakers in their positions between swaps and repeated trials.
i also have swapped the jumpers with 16gauge copper wires, not that i was expected anything but out of reading posts on that subject,  and i could not hear any difference.  The jumpers have good enough conductivity on such short distance to show 0 resistance, just like any other copper wire.
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
444 posts
 
Ah also, i have mine on 24in dayton stands.  They look almost identical to the ones used during denton photoshoot.

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