I have mine paired with a A-S801... if the 500 retains a similar sound I'd recommend it. I assume the 500 was the previous iteration of the current A-S501? For my taste i think the Linton's do well with the mild leanness and (again) mild brightness of the Yamaha "house sound". Well at least the sound of the lower tier Yamaha's like mine. I take it you're looking at the special on at AV World... so gutted I pulled the trigger a couple of moths ago... paid more than I had to
I actually hadn't seen they were on sale with the stands. Not sure if I can pull the trigger before xmas but thank you!
You auditioned the Lintons and immediately you could hear where its crossover points are? That's impressive! I still don't know where they are. When I first got them all I could hear was that that the low mid-range was too forward and that there wasn't enough upper mid-range (they replaced my Dynaudio C1's which have a rather prominent or lively upper-mid-range). I could hear 'brilliance' in the treble but there was a gap or dip between the center mid-range and the upper-treble. After many hours of playing (and tightening the screws of the bass and mid-range drivers that were sitting too loose in the cabinets) I think the Linton are most honest speakers I ever owned (my previous speakers were Pioneer HPM-100, IMF ALS40 and IMF TLS50, B&W CDM1, Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mk II and Dynaudio Confidence C1, ...). I'm only talking about tonal balance (not imaging or dynamics) because that's what I care for the most. 3 different measurements (by 3 different people) seem to confirm my observations. Then comes along Danny who says everyone is wrong and that the Lintons actually measure poorly and need some serious tinkering ($730) to sound good. This makes me a bit sceptical. I would really like to hear Danny's 'flat frequency response' speakers to get some idea of what he is talking about.
I have a Yamaha A-S501, tried it, but prefer my Denon PMA-1510ae. I should compare them again now that the Lintons have settled.
That sounds about right to me. OTOH, some are very happy with the Yamaha A-1100 or 1200, but when I heard the British Audiophile saying that the 1200 is forward in the mid-range, I no longer think I want it, despite its lovely VU meters. The cheaper Yamahas seem to be more neutral.
And now the black oak speakers product page is completely removed from crutchfield but they still have stands…sigh
I should have clarified my original post a bit, but I was referring more to the upgrade kits offered by GR Research, in general, not specifically for the Lintons. That's why I brought up my experience with the several upgrades to Klipsch and Dynaudio I've helped friends with. I am not at all begrudging your enjoyment of these speakers at all, but there is a huge chasm between 'chasing the dragon' with high end, and with a speaker that to my ears, just make too many mistakes. Mistakes that could have easily been mitigated, but they would have ruined the vintage 70's look of the speaker. It's not like fixing just those 2 problems, would have completely re-voice the speaker. They just would sound like better versions of the same speaker. There are no sonic downsides to correctly bracing a speaker cabinet, and eliminating diffractions from the baffle. Even if the designer wants to voice them to stray from a flat frequency response. I have a good friend who is part of the Revel speaker design team at Harman International (JBL, Infinity, AKG, Harman/Kardon, etc) here in the LA area . We used to build, modify, repair speakers together. I have hung out with him and his coworkers, so I have an inkling of speaker engineer's minds. And while they enjoy the challenge of building a speaker to a price, but still try to get the most out of it. They obviously know that the vast majority of speakers can not be designed without some limits. But throw something at them, like, make it look like a 70's speaker, and they'd cringe and hold their nose through the entire process. And let me add, that Danny Ritchie is not just some guy on the internet. His speakers have won several best of show awards at big audio shows over the years, despite being far from the most expensive.
Was able to get the black oak with stands ordered from Crutchfield today, should be here thursday, merry christmas to me
Hello friends! Has anyone tried our favorite Linton with Roksan K3? If anyone tried it, please write about your impressions?
congratulations to you! You won’t be disappointed I don’t think; I look and listen to them with great admiration and pride. Last speakers I’ll ever buy.
they had no idea what was wrong at the time as they still showed having stock on their end but for some reason the website wasnt showing it. So my advisor was great in getting them ordered for me and now getting them up on the site apparently
I just got a pair of open box Lintons in today, but a little mislabeling made me end up with two right speakers..but that's getting rectified. Being open box, I'm not sure how much time was put on either one (the "Left" speaker looked basically factory packed except for the outer tape, so maybe no real time on it at all), but they sound pretty nice. I've got them set up next to a pair of KLH Model Fives that probably have 30 hours on them at this point, and basically everything that everyone says about these two speakers is true out of the gate; you just need to pick the sound you like best. I'll spend a few weeks going back and forth before making a final decision.
Got my lintons in today and got them all setup, unfortunately we have all the christmas Stuff to get ready for so i probably wont have time to put some music through em until at least sunday but they look beautiful in black oak finish
Nothing wrong with running a quick song or two through them real quick... go on... you know you want to!! But seriously though... probably a good idea to start running even some background music through them just to get the (long) running in started? Congratulations again mate and happy holidays.
actually hooked my Ipod up to em and played a few songs off my favorite Dean Martin album (This Time I’m Swingin’) and it sound really good, definitely better than my old speakers already. i have some extended time off work currently, so im in no super rush with the holidays.
Wow, seems like if you still had the inexpensive Sony speakers these will be a real revelation! Seems like your Sphinx V3 should be a good match to the Lintons as well.
The stands certainly look better all black and the black matches the front panel with grills off since it is not veneered.
Flat frequency response does not necessarily add up to better sound. I know Peter Comeau tries numerous crossover configurations in his designs and decides the best through listening. More often than not he claims the measurements after tuning are good as well. These designs have had a lot of development put into them. Could be components get substituted for cheaper ones in production but they should be the same values? However I think that practice at IAG has ceased since the days when Quad production was moved from the UK. I think people should hold out for the new UK produced Mission 770 Comeau design as that could be very special. The original was a far better speaker than the Lintons of that time.
"We should be listening more and measuring less". - Peter Comeau Supposedly it will very balanced but that's true for the Lintons as well. It's kinda the philosophy of Peter Comeau. Perhaps the difference will be 'detail' and 'price'? Wharfedale was known to be a manufacturer of affordable speakers. Not sure how much more expensive the Mission 770 was at the time. Let's hope it won't be in the same category as the JBL L100.
My guess is it will be a similar price to KLH model 5 or JBL L82 in the UK. But it will sound better.
Do these little black rubbery dots go on the corners of the stand or somewhwre else? Currently have speakers directly on the stands
