Wharfedale Dovedale

From when Gilbert A. Briggs still was at the helm of Wharfedale, but after the 1958 sale of the latter to the ubiquitous RANK organization.

Rank however waited for Briggs to retire in 1965 to change the name of its subsidiary : from
Wharfedale Wireless Works Ltd. to
RANK Wharfedale Wireless Works Ltd..
Such politesse and good manners aren't seen too often nowadays !


The Dovedale is an evolution of the successful W2 and its replacement.

Bigger in everyhting than the original Linton, the Dovedale's 30cm bass driver saw the use of the "roll surround" suspension, done in Flexiprene - something which may not age too well...
That driver is a modded evolution of the WLS/12, with a low resonance of 20 cycles/second - Flexiprene being mainly responsible for that.

The tweeter is a version of the Super 5 treble speaker, and is enclosed in its own acoustic dome to keep it immune from the bass vibrations.

Nice design of the front, too, with what Wharfedale called "floating front" : the grille doesn't extend to the borders of the enclosure.

The Linton's enclosure was assembled from real wood ("man-made timber" - gone by days !) and designed with the co-operation of Consultant Designer Robert Gutmann F.S.I.A..


The original Dovedale is a bit forgotten today but nevertheless gave way to many versions throughout the the 1970s : Dovedale 2, Dovedale 3, Dovedale 3XP - how many doves can you display in your (sunny) dale ?



A thread related to the (versions of the -) Dovedale's bass drivers here.

And a detailed history of Wharfedale at... Wharfedale's