New 5.1 home cinema package from world-renowned speaker specialist is stylish, compact and delivers engrossing surround sound, yet costs less than £400!
Huntingdon, England — High-quality home cinema can be costly, both financially and in terms of the amount of space it consumes in your living room. For those seeking a more discreet, stylish and affordable solution for genuine surround sound, the DX-1SE 5.1 speaker system from Wharfedale is ideal.
The DX-1SE consists of four satellite speakers for the front and rear, plus a similarly diminutive centre speaker and a compact active subwoofer. The speakers take their design cues from the multi-award-winning Diamond standmount speakers, albeit shrunk to a much smaller size – the satellites are just 19cm high.
The DX-1SE replaces the DX-1 HCP, a similarly diminutive speaker package that was universally praised for its excellent ‘sound-per-pound’ performance, earning five-star reviews in What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision and Home Cinema Choice magazines and scoring 9/10 on the Trusted Reviews website.
The new package sports a number of improvements, including fine-tuned drivers, increased efficiency and redesigned cabinets with larger internal volumes. The result is improved bass response, more detail and greater sonic scale.
Each DX-1SE Satellite sports a 19mm silk dome tweeter and 75mm mid/bass driver with a woven polypropylene cone – woven polypropylene is used for its ideal combination of lightness, strength and rigidity. The enclosure is an infinite baffle (closed-box) design, which aids the speakers’ ability to be sited in close proximity to a wall without adversely affecting their performance.
The DX-1 Centre incorporates the same silk dome tweeter flanked by two 75mm mid/bass drivers. Its design includes a sophisticated aperiodic loading system consisting of a vent that is filled with resistive porous foam to control airflow. This aids bass response and contributes to a rich and detailed centre channel performance, a critical part of the surround sound experience.
The matching WH-D8 active subwoofer combines a 200mm long-throw bass cone with a 120W amplifier to deliver bass that’s fast, deep and well-defined from an extremely compact unit – just 328x268x322mm (HxWxD). The quality of the subwoofer’s design ensures it integrates superbly with the other speakers in the package, without any hint of bass bloating or overhang. It also sports an ‘auto-power’ facility, automatically switching out of standby when a signal is sensed and back again when it stops.
Available in high-gloss black or high-gloss white, the DX-1SE 5.1 speaker package delivers smart, spacesaving contemporary style and exhilarating sound for both movies and music – fast, punchy and detailed, with a sense of scale that belies the diminutive size of the speakers. It’s the perfect way to enjoy authentic and engaging surround sound at a price more akin to a soundbar than a high-quality 5.1 speaker package.
“In the UK and around the world, there is high demand for compact 5.1 speaker systems that combine crisp, modern aesthetics with high-quality sound,” says Peter Comeau, Director of Acoustic Design for Wharfedale’s parent company IAG. “In the DX-1SE we have incorporated elements from Wharfedale’s award-winning Diamond speakers to deliver a high-value package that is not only a delight in the home, but also extremely enjoyable to listen to. Modern movie soundtracks are exceptionally demanding, but we’ve made sure that this package is tailor-made for the job.”
The Wharfedale DX-1SE 5.1 home cinema speaker package is available from December at an RRP of £399.95. An optional satellite expansion pack is also coming soon, ideal for those seeking to expand the 5.1 package to a 7.1 configuration.
