Bose Soundlink Air vs. Wharfedale 9.1

Dan Gruhn

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Jun 20, 2016
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I currently own a Bose Soundlink Air and have purchased the Wharfedale 9.1's (won't hear them until mid-August). I will be using a AudioMonitor A100 to power the speakers. Would one hear a dramatic musical difference between the two (over and above stereo seperation)? I listened to India Arie's, "Acoustic Soul" on the Bose today and the bass overpowers the sound (voice, treble), making it sound "muddy". Will I run into that with the 9.1's? Thank you for your time and response, Dan Gruhn
 

matthewpiano

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The Diamond 9.1s remain excellent affordable speakers, and will comfortably out-perform the Bose.

The main qualities of the 9.1s are excellent integration between the drive units and a sound that is surprisingly well balanced for a speaker of its price. It is quite hard to make them boom in the bass. I can't comment on how they will partner with the A100 as I haven't heard it. It has had good reviews, but I have read comments that it doesn't quite control the bass as well as some amplifiers.

To get the best out of the 9.1s you will need to position them on solid stands, putting the tweeters around ear level when in your listening position, and you will need to experiment with positioning ie. distance from rear and side walls, and the amount of toe-in (angling of the speakers towards the listening position).

The 9.1s do also take a while to run in. You will notice the sound change/open out over the first 50-100 hours of listening.
 

stereoman

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Mar 22, 2016
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...an audiophile company. They look great and make initial impression with their sound mark. But after a longer listen one can easily hear lack of especially high notes or treble so to speak. The most critical frequency or midrange will sound muddy and for years they have learned how to emphasise certain frequencies to compromise others. So they can easily trick the listeners into the full range which in fact is not. WHF was spot on to degrade the rating of Soundlink because it unfortunately does not live up to what it should offer. Sony SRS series for example are much better if not the best bluetooth speakers on the market. Bose is a typical company for someone who does not pay attention to sound details and listens music rather sporadically with extra boom and for this purpose they are indeed excellent.
 

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