Wharfedale DX-3 Bookshelf Speakers Black (Pair)

The Wharfedale DX-3 is a compact two-way closed-box bookshelf speaker drawn from Wharfedale’s home cinema-focused DX-3 series. Inheriting performance and styling cues from the Diamond 12 range, the DX-3 satellite distils Wharfedale’s driver and cabinet engineering into a diminutive enclosure measuring just 190 × 120 × 122mm — small enough to sit on a shelf, mount on a wall, or tuck beside a display without visual intrusion. Sold here as a stereo pair, the DX-3 satellites are equally at home in a dedicated two-channel desktop system or as the foundation of a larger surround-sound arrangement using Wharfedale’s matching DX-3 centre speaker and subwoofer.

Driver Complement

Each DX-3 satellite pairs a 75mm (3″) woven polypropylene bass/midrange driver with a 19mm (¾″) silk dome tweeter, crossing over at 2.8kHz. The polypropylene cone is fashioned from a woven matrix rather than a plain pressed sheet, a construction shared with drivers in the Diamond 12 series that improves stiffness-to-mass ratio and helps maintain pistonic behaviour across the operating band. The silk dome tweeter provides a smooth, extended high-frequency response reaching 22kHz.

Cabinet Design

The sealed (closed-box) enclosure eliminates port noise and boundary-proximity tuning issues, making the DX-3 well suited to placement hard against a rear wall or on a shelf — positions where a ported design would typically suffer from bass bloat. The cabinet has been redesigned with enhanced resonant control to minimise panel vibration and colouration. At just 2kg per speaker, the DX-3 is light enough for wall mounting yet solidly built for its size.

Performance

With a frequency response of 100Hz–22kHz (±3dB) and 86dB sensitivity, the DX-3 is designed to work with amplifiers rated between 25W and 100W into its 4Ω nominal impedance (3.6Ω minimum). The closed-box alignment delivers a controlled, predictable bass roll-off at 100Hz (−6dB), below which a subwoofer can seamlessly extend the low-frequency range. In a stereo desktop or near-field context, the natural roll-off keeps the bass tight and well-defined without room-mode excitation.

What the Press Says

• What Hi-Fi? ★★★★★ — awarded to the DX-3 HCP 5.1 system, of which these satellites form the core
• What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025 winner — DX-3 HCP