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Many hi-fi fans will have started out with a pair of Wharfedale speakers, and if your passion began in the eighties then you're likely to be familiar with the Huntingdon brand's popular Diamond speaker. As its most famous design from that era, the Diamond started off as one product and grew into a whole family. It still continues today, of course, with the Diamond 200 Series – see our Diamond 230 and 220 loudspeaker reviews in issues 395 and 402 respectively – and has evolved through many incarnations with a number of significant improvements.    

Why all the talk of the Diamond Series we hear you cry, well Wharfedale engineers have been hard at work on the new five-strong Reva Series, which borrows many of the design principles that are used in the latest Diamond series, but raises the bar both sonically and aesthetically. The new range consists of the Reva-1 and Reva-2 standmount models
and Reva-3 and Reva-4 floorstanders as well as the Reva-C centre speaker (£400) for multi-channel setups, if that's your thing. All of the models throughout the Reva Series employ the same 25mm textile dome tweeter with one or more woven glass fibre mid/bass drivers engineered to match the acoustic properties of the multi-layer wood cabinets fitted with a slot-loaded distributed port at the base of the cabinet. 

The compact Reva-1 (£450) incorporates a 115mm mid/bass driver, while the Reva-2 (£600, above) uses a larger 125mm unit – both are rated at 86dB sensitivity. The two floorstanding models sport 2.5-way configurations with 88dB sensitivity, and combine a 115mm midrange driver with two 125mm mid/bass drivers in the Reva-3 (£1,000) and a pair of 150mm mid/bass drivers in the Reva-4 (£1,300). 

The curved, one-piece cabinets are hand-finished with multiple layers of piano lacquer, each polished to a high shine before the next is applied for a luxury finish. The look is further embellished with aluminium driver surrounds with a soft matt finish. The Reva Series is currently available in high-gloss back and white and rosewood finishes, with a walnut finish that we're told is set to come to market later in the summer. Click here for more details.