Wharfedale Elysian 2 - Piano Black - Bookshelf Speaker

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About the Wharfedale Elysian 2 - Piano Black - Bookshelf Speaker:

A true example of luxury audio, ELYSIAN offers indulgence in design, materials, aesthetics and performance. A thorough and uncompromising approach has led Wharfedale engineers to create a benchmark in affordable audiophile-quality luxury speakers. Advanced design and leading technology are combined to deliver musical reproduction that will proudly challenge the best speakers in the world.

From the piano lacquer-finished cabinet, crafted with details of genuine craftsmanship, to the AMT (Air Motion Transformer) high-frequency transducers and European-made bass drivers, ELYSIAN represents a new standard in the world of home audio experiences.

The resulting sound, from the finely balanced driver selection and expert crossover design, matches the pristine design with a level of natural transparency that will leave you breathless.

One for the connoisseur and one for the history books, ELYSIAN leaves you wondering, how can it be in this price range?

ELYSIAN is truly a work of audio engineering art.

Elysian AMT

The AMT (Air Motion Transformer) is a radically different way to move air. A large, folded, lightweight diaphragm is driven across its surface by rows of strategically placed metal strips immersed in a strong magnetic field. Under the influence of the musical drive, the folds in the diaphragm contract and expand, squeezing the air between them to form the desired waveform.

This is not only an efficient way to move air, but it is also very precise because the aperture is under precise control of the motor system at all times. In addition, the AMT is a velocity transducer rather than a pressure transducer, which is capable of producing sparklingly fast transients and dynamics. The result is a wide-bandwidth device that naturally achieves low distortion and delivers beautiful musical detail.

Midrange

In the spirit of Gilbert Briggs, who was known for his experiments with new driver materials, Wharfedale explored a range of options to match the sensitivity and accuracy of the AMT Treble unit.

The designers chose a patented woven fiberglass matrix formed into a 150-mm cone. This provides an excellent combination of low mass and high strength, with the addition of a high plasticity coating to control acoustic behavior. With such a low-mass cone, only a low-damping, foamed, rubbery material would fit the surround - again, coated for durability.

Drive energy for the cone comes from a 25 mm, 2-layer voice coil centered in a magnetic aperture fitted with an aluminum ring to control eddy currents, linearize inductance to increase bandwidth and reduce distortion. The assembly is mounted on a die-cast aluminum basket with large vent windows under the spider to improve transient response.

A central phase plug is specially shaped to linearize the output over a wide bandwidth, even off-axis, reinforcing a natural response to the music that can be heard anywhere the listener wants to sit.

This midrange driver enables the ELYSIAN speakers to reproduce voices and instruments with amazing realism. Vocalists seem present in the room with the listener - just close your eyes and listen to the tangible presence of singers in the acoustic space.

Bass of the Wharfedale Elysian 2 - Piano Black - Bookshelf Speaker

The midrange unit is combined with a fiberglass matrix cone for the base unit, in this case sealed with a highly flexible rubber surround and driven by a specially developed low-distortion motor system. Mounted on a die-cast aluminum chassis, the magnet system features an aluminum ring for eddy current control, immersing the 17.5-mm diameter 38-mm voice coil in high flux over a 12-mm linear excursion.

To probe the depths of the lowest frequencies in recorded music, the 220 mm bass units - one in the ELYSIAN 2, two in the ELYSIAN 4 are able to reach below 28 Hz in the chamber, revealing the full body and impact of percussion, string and wind instruments.

Cabinet

For ELYSIAN, we wanted to create a cabinet that improved the acoustic output of the drivers and was also a piece of furniture the owner can be justly proud of. Hand crafted, exotic veneers are mirrored by real piano lacquers, hand polished to six levels of depth to give a truly stunning finish.

Beneath the veneer, working unseen, is a sandwich of different woods designed to reduce panel resonance to below audibility. This multilayer construction, PROS (Panel Resonance Optimization System), has another advantage: it prevents the leakage of unwanted sound energy from the cabinet that would otherwise interfere with the forward output of the drive units.

Crossover

The base units are loaded through an advanced version of Wharfedale's signature slot-loaded port. Dubbed SLPP (Slot-Loaded Profiled Port), it ensures that the rear output of the base units is not wasted. Instead, the lowest frequency energy is dissipated into a slot at the bottom of the speaker, specially profiled to make the high internal pressure equal to the low pressure in the chamber.

This reduces the distortion typical of the bass-reflex system and increases port efficiency. In addition, because the air is evenly distributed in the room, the speakers are less fussy about placement.

Combined, the bass units and SLPP bass reflex system form the solid foundation on which the rest of the musical performance rests, allowing you to both feel and hear the full impact of thundering low-frequency information. The high overall system sensitivity, in the neighborhood of 92dB for 1 watt input, allows any amplifier to reveal the full dynamic range of the music fed to it, without strain or limitation.

Combining the outputs of the drivers is a sophisticated computer-modeled crossover developed over hundreds of hours of listening tests, finely tuned to ensure that the mix between drive units is seamless. Crossover slopes are modeled to the acoustic response of each individual driver, matched to Linkwitz-Riley characteristics, with crossover frequencies chosen to maximize the optimal, linear performance of each drive unit. Of particular importance is the phase consistency across the drive unit output, allowing a wide range of seating positions and encouraging the power response to be highly linear throughout your listening room.

Crossover components were chosen for their transparency, with silicon-iron-core coils for bass and mids with low DCR giving the amplifier excellent control over the drivers, plus air-core coils in the treble and low ESR, Polypropylene capacitors throughout the signal path, ensuring that you hear all the musical details without holding anything back.

You can hear the full body of instruments such as cello and bass guitar without straining to enjoy the full dynamics of the musical recital. Whether you are listening to solo piano, a full orchestra or a jazz trio or rock performance with multiple instruments, ELYSIAN is more than capable of bringing the tension and excitement of the performance into your listening room.

Technical specifications of the Wharfedale Elysian 2 - Piano Black - Bookshelf Speaker

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