I've had a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelf speakers for several years now and generally use them at least once a day when at home. The speakers are part of my first 'real' hifi I have owned myself and are connected to a Marantz PM4001OSE amplifier. The speakers are connected to the amplifier using what looks to be about 2 metres of speaker cable at no less than 1mm2 of copper conductor. The speakers are stood on floor stands to raise the top of them to just below waist height. The stands are separated by about 1.5 metres. They have taken several gentle knocks from time to time and still seem to be working and the looking just like when I bought them. For this reason I can only assume they are a reliable and well built speaker. I'm not going to dwell on features or specifications of the speakers as if you're reading this you most likely know anyway.

I'm by no means an audio expert, just somebody who mainly listens to rock and pop music at low to moderate volume on a regular basis. I bought the setup since I felt I could benefit from a setup slightly above the typical hifi in a box. I initially bought the speakers based on recommendation in shops that I'd been in. At the limited budget I was operating on these speakers are very pleasing wherever I'm listening in the room. The speakers provide a very clear sound but initially I was disappointed with the depth to the bass. I felt when listening to rock music (whether it was Rainbow or Paramore) that the kick drum and bass weren't quite as powerful as what I'd hoped for. Going back I'd have probably looked more closely at the possibility of floor standing speakers in the hope of getting a deeper bass response. When listening to lighter pop the sound is much more what I expected. Films really come to life when listening through the speakers but once again it feels I am missing out on some of the lower frequencies. One thing that was very obvious with films is how well defined the sounds are in the stereo image. You can hear the sounds move clearly across the stereo image.

I've recently added the matching SW150 subwoofer to the system and this really fills in the system's low-end whilst adding a whole new dimension to films. It seamlessly extends the depth of the speakers and for me really completes the system.

When rating the speakers I have rated them against how I expected them to perform. If they performed as well as or better than expected they score 5. The only lost point was for slightly weaker bass than expected.

Overall I feel the sound is very sharp and focused and really adds to my enjoyment of listening to music. The longer I've had the system the more I seem to appreciate it and less the lack of bass has bothered me. I would definitely recommend the speakers to a friend although I would suggest that they carefully listen to the speakers to check they provide the desired depth to the bass.