A: This is probably the hardest question of all to answer. There are as many different speaker technologies, types and sizes as you could possibly imagine. Wharfedale manufactures a complete range, from small satellite speakers to large format floorstanders. The fundamental differences are: The size and therefore the frequency range they cover. Big speakers as a rule have a deeper bass response, but are often not practical, especially in a home cinema system. A compromise usually has to be made and the question is essentially one of practicality.

The sound quality. This is a function of the materials used and hence the lack of distortion in the finished loudspeaker. All speakers distort a little, but as materials science and our understanding of acoustics have advanced, we have been able to control many of the unwanted artefacts and hence make better speakers. The bandwidth. Many of our speakers have a very wide bandwidth. This is the frequency range at which they can produce a useful output. In some cases this could be well beyond the boundaries of human hearing (about 18 kHz in most circumstances), however there is growing evidence to suggest that these supersonic frequencies to have an influence over our perception and can dramatically improve the sound quality. What they are being used for. Not everyone has similar tastes. If you like to party a lot or listen mostly to loud music, then we have special ranges, which can produce high outputs with little effort. If your tastes are a little more relaxed and you enjoy critical listening, then one of our audiophile hi-fi ranges will be more suitable Positioning is also a factor. If the speaker needs to be placed close to a wall, then a front ported model will be preferable.

A: Wharfedale speakers offer unparalleled value for money in every class. This is largely as a result of the complete vertical integration of our design and manufacturing. We have over 1 million square feet of manufacturing with all processes and sub assemblies built entirely within our factory - even to the extent that we produce our own packaging. Because we make every part of every loudspeaker ourselves, there are no compromises. Most other manufacturers buy drive units or cabinets from other factories and put them together, correcting for any miss-match in the crossover. It is this crossover correction that can cause the biggest problems, affecting the mid-range negatively. Wharfedale speakers are different - everything is designed from scratch and for the specific purpose for which it is intended. This means we can offer better products at a much lower price and importantly, it means we have complete control over quality.

A: Usually somewhere that's convenient to rest your drink on. Floor standing models should usually be positioned at least 200mm from the rear walls and 700mm from the side walls, facing slightly inwards. Smaller models should ideally be stand or wall mounted though they may be placed on a rigid shelf. The bass extension will improve if these speakers are operated closer to the rear walls. A useful rule of thumb is that the listener should be as far from the loudspeakers as they are from each other. If the loudspeakers are placed too close to the walls the bass will increase but may be boomy and indistinct. If the loudspeakers are placed further away from the walls, the inward angle may be increased by up to 40%, although this may restrict the width of the optimum listening position. The speakers should ideally be positioned so that the treble units are roughly at ear level to a seated listener. As personal taste plays a large role, experiment with different configurations and play a wide range of programmes before finalising the position of your speakers.

If you wish to place the speakers next to a conventional CRT television, please ensure your speakers use screened drive units and may be placed close to a TV screen without ill-effects. Conventional loudspeakers should not be operated within 50cm of a TV screen as the drive unit magnets may interfere with the picture and cause colour distortion.

A: A good pair of loudspeaker stands will improve the bass performance of all bookshelf and standmount speakers. They should elevate the speaker to the approximate height of the listener's ears, and will provide better mechanical isolation if they are spiked at both ends; alternatively, blu-tack can be used on the top of the stands if you don't wish to mark your loudspeakers.

A good stand is one which provides good isolation from vibration. It should be heavy and robust, with the strongest possible joints between the strut and the top and bottom plates. If it is mass-fillable, then filling the stand with either sand or lead shot will significantly improve its performance.

A: Home cinema systems present a number of issues in terms of placement. Firstly the ideal configuration should be considered, then the practicality of the situation needs to be addressed. It should be stated though that only the most basic guidance can be given here. This is a complex subject and there is much debate as to the ideal configuration for optimum performance. Front left and right loudspeakers floor standing models should usually be positioned at least 200mm from the rear walls and 700mm from the side walls, facing slightly inwards. Smaller models should ideally be stand or wall mounted though they may be placed on a rigid shelf. The bass extension will improve if these speakers are operated closer to the rear walls. A useful rule of thumb is that the listener should be as far from the loudspeakers as they are from each other. If the loudspeakers are placed too close to the walls the bass will increase but may be boomy and indistinct. If the loudspeakers are placed further away from the walls, the inward angle may be increased by up to 40%, although this may restrict the width of the optimum listening position. The speakers should ideally be positioned so that the treble units are roughly at ear level to a seated listener. As personal taste plays a large role, experiment with different configurations and play a wide range of programmes before finalising the position of your speakers.

Many Wharfedale speakers are magnetically shielded, so they can be used in close proximity to a television. Other conventional loudspeakers should not be operated within 50cm of a TV screen as the drive unit magnets may interfere with the picture and cause colour distortion. Please check individual product specifications for further guidance.

Centre channel loudspeakers

The loudspeaker should be positioned centrally between the loudspeakers close to the television and mounted either above or below the screen. The loudspeaker should be located on a stable flat surface to avoid any danger of the cabinet moving when it is vibrated by high sound levels. If you mount the unit on top of the television, move it forward so that the front grilles are level with or slightly in front of the screen. This will reduce reflections from the screen and the top of the cabinet. Although you can place the centre channel loudspeaker under the TV monitor, this should always be regarded as second best. The preferred position is always above the monitor, as shown.

All Wharfedale centre channel speakers use screened drive units and may be placed close to a TV screen without ill-effects.

Rear speakers (for a 5.1 system)

The basic home cinema configuration today is a 5.1 system. This is front left, front right, a centre channel and two speakers as rear channels. This system will provide a good basic level of performance and is more than adequate for most needs. The vast majority of DVD software on the market is mastered in 5.1, and even on discs that contain 6.1 or 7.1 mixes, they will most likely have a 5.1 option as well.

Rear speakers come in three flavours - conventional speakers, bi-polar, or di-polar.

The simplest of these is the conventional speaker. The vast majority of home cinema systems will use these and will give an excellent standard of performance. In a 5.1 system, these can be positioned either on a rear wall, or a side wall; slightly behind the listening position. In both cases the speakers should be elevated slightly above head height; usually mounted on brackets.

Bi-polar speakers have a triangular cross-section, with two sets of drive units that fire 'in-phase' - i.e. they both move out at the same time and in at the same time. This type of surround speaker will provide a much more disperse sound field, yet retains the ability to create a rear stereo field as there is still a direct path from the drive unit to ear. These again can be mounted on either a rear wall or a side wall, slightly behind the listener and again, raised above the listening position. These are the surround speakers we recommend.

Di-polar speakers look much the same as bi-polar speakers. The only difference in operation being that they work with the drivers out of phase - i.e. in a push-pull configuration. These should be positioned on a side wall exactly perpendicular to the listener's ear. With di-pole speakers, there is no direct path to the listener, so they do not provide the ability to localise sounds, but they do produce the most diffuse and ambient rear sound field.

A: Most loudspeakers will sound fairly dreadful out of the box. The sound quality will continue to improve for the first 50 hours of use.

The reason for this is that the moving-coil loudspeaker is a mechanical device. As manufactured, many of the parts have a certain rigidity or tension, that only begins to relax after the loudspeaker has been played for some time.

We design our loudspeakers with this in mind. Their optimum performance is their relaxed state - but in order to achieve this, they will necessarily sound fairly bad to begin with.

So to run in your new speakers we suggest playing music at a moderate (not loud) level continuously for 50 hours.

If you are in a noise sensitive environment, the way to achieve this with minimum disruption, is to stand the loudspeakers on the floor, directly facing each other. Then wire one of the speakers out of phase (i.e. red to black and black to red). Their bass drivers will cancel each other out and the sound will be much quieter. After 50 hours, return them to the ideal listening position, REMEMBER to correct the wiring phase on the speakers, and enjoy the music.

A: Bi-amping is the technique whereby two power amplifiers are used to improve the sound quality of a loudspeaker that can be bi-amped. This includes many of the Wharfedale models.

Monoblocs

The simplest form of bi-amping is to use two monobloc amplifiers, one for the left channel and one for the right channel. Most mono amplifiers will have higher power outputs per channel than their stereo equivalent. This has the benefit of having more power on tap than by using one stereo amplifier, as well as reducing the "cross-talk"; that occurs when both left and right channels are housed in the same box.

Vertical stereo bi-amping

Our preferred method of bi-amping is vertical stereo bi-amping. This is when two identical stereo power amplifiers are used, one for the left speaker and one for the right speaker.

If we consider just the left speaker and amplifier, one channel is used to drive the high frequencies and one is used to drive the bass frequencies. The same, of course, applies to the right speaker and amplifier.

To analyse why this works so effectively, we need to appreciate that the load characteristics of the tweeter and woofer are very different. The woofer requires a large current and if driven with a single channel of power amplifier, a heavy bass transient can absorb all of the available current, causing the amplifier to clip and distort. By separating the current to the tweeter and woofer, we are apportioning the power with a more equitable split; thereby allowing the amplifier much more headroom.

Horizontal stereo bi-amping

This is when two stereo amplifiers are uses with one amplifier driving both left and right tweeters, the other driving both left and right woofers.

Whilst this configuration will offer a performance advantage over using just one stereo power amplifier, because of the increased total current available, the amplifier driving both woofer channels will be working much harder than the one driving both tweeter channels. This will mean the bass will bottom out faster under heavy transients than it would if a vertical orientation were used - also ' between amplifier channels is the same or worse than it would be with a single stereo amplifier.

A: Yes, is the short answer. Extended abuse of loudspeakers that are not designed for the high currents output by some powerful amplifiers can cause the thin wire in the voice-coil to melt, and the speaker to fail.

We use high performance voice coils - and some of our ultra-high performance models use an aluminium voice coil - capable of sustaining much higher temperatures before failing, but they can still be damaged - although it is extremely unlikely that they would ever be damaged by reasonable use.

It is important when choosing a loudspeaker to match the power output of the amplifier to the recommended power handling of the loudspeakers. We publish RMS (root mean squared) figures for power handling - which is a kind of average figure. Please be aware that some amplifier manufacturers exaggerate their power figures by quoting PMPO (peak music power output) or some similarly vague measure. RMS is the industry standard for measuring power and this should be the specification that is followed.

Some speaker ranges are specifically designed to produce higher outputs and some have "polyswitch" protection, which is a simple device that cuts out the tweeter before any lasting damage is done if the speaker is overloaded.

The best way to preserve your investment is to treat them with respect. That doesn't mean don't play them loud - your loudspeakers are capable of playing loud. It just means that turning your amp to its maximum power to see how loud your system will go is not a good idea.

A: Quite simply - it shouldn't. All Wharfedale loudspeakers are compatible with 8 ohm amplifier outputs - which is the industry standard. Although our nominal impedance figures may sometimes read 6ohm, this is an average figure and our loudspeakers are no more difficult to drive than the vast majority of modern loudspeakers.

The only time this advice would differ would be if you wanted a pair of loudspeakers to partner with a vintage amplifier, or you were trying to fit a replacement loudspeaker directly to a television or a mini or micro system. In this case, you should check that the amplifier or television in question is capable of handling loudspeakers with an impedance of 8ohms.

A: Bi-wiring is a technique using two lengths of 2-core loudspeaker cable to each speaker, which is said to improve the sound quality of loudspeakers.

It doesn't matter if the positive (red) and earth (black) cables are connected at the amplifier end (indeed, even if your amplifier has outputs for two sets of speakers, A and B, they are usually connected together inside the amplifier).

There are a number of possible reasons for the audible improvement, which cover a spectrum of subjects, such as separate earth paths, the possible intermodulation of drive units, and cable frequency response. Although it is a fascinating subject, it is not our task to give a definitive answer on how it works, merely to state that there is an audible improvement and that most of our loudspeakers are capable of being bi-wired.

As for whether it is a good idea - this will depend on the practicality of doing so. In a stereo system, we would recommend it whole-heartedly, but in a home cinema system the inconvenience of the length of cable required, and the cost would probably offset any benefit.

Notably, there are now a number of specialist, inexpensive bi-wire cables on the market, which can make this a far easier proposition.

A: Firstly, all Wharfedale Centre channel speakers are magnetically shielded, so are absolutely fine next to all kinds of display device, including conventional CRT televisions.

Please check with the other models to see if they are shielded or not. A shielded speaker will be fine, but an unshielded speaker needs to be around 50cm from the side of a conventional CRT television - all speakers are fine next to other displays, such as projectors, LCD and plasma televisions. These other sets are unaffected by magnetic fields.

Where you have placed an unshielded speaker next to a television, do not worry. This is not permanent and can be rectified easily by "de-gaussing" the television set. Most modern sets de-gauss automatically when switch on, however older sets may require de-gaussing by a service engineer.