Audiophile Performance and Build for a Budget Price: Featuring 6 1/2-Inch Woven Kevlar Cone Bass Drivers, the Wharfedale Diamond 225 Bookshelf Loudspeakers Sound Powerful, Big, and Dynamic

The dual Stereophile and Absolute Sound Product of the Year Award-winning Wharfedale Diamond 225 bookshelf loudspeaker is evidence that size does indeed matter – specially, when that size applies to a high-quality 6 1/2-inch woofer. While sharing many aspects in common with the award-winning Diamond 220, Diamond 225 boasts a larger woven Kevlar cone bass driver and more cabinet volume than its closest sibling, resulting in seriously significant sonic improvements that extend from better bass extension to enhanced frequency response. The two-way Diamond 225 reaches to 40Hz and touts a range of 45Hz to 20kHz all the while adding only 1.5 inches to its height, .87 inches to the width, and less than 1.4 inches to its depth when compared to Diamond 220. Better still, Diamond 225 touts all the characteristics that has made the Diamond Series one of the greatest values in audio. We're talking balanced dispersion, stellar proportionality, and see-through transparency – and sound that is much, much bigger and more powerful than its compact size would otherwise indicate.

How does Diamond 225 deliver such unstinting performance for such a nominal cost? For starters, upgraded construction materials, fine-tuned crossovers, a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter, and a slot-loaded port that allows Diamond 225 to be placed as close as two feet from a wall and continue to operate at optimal potential. Most speakers can't offer this flexibility and fizzle at such a distance. Able to mate with practically any mid- and high-powered amplifier, Diamond 225 plays with wonderful openness, rapturous accuracy, assu