First post here at the Steve Hoffman forums! I too bought the Lintons Heritage 85 in the hope they are good all-rounders and I love their styling. I was immediately baffled with the overly warm midrange frequencies. Diana Krall's 'S' words (words that have an 'S' in them) are downright so harsh that it's even quite painful to my ears. So today I placed the Lintons in my home studio to play with some pianos and other sampled instruments that I'm really, really familiar with (and through a variety of hi-fi and studio speakers). This made it even more clear that something is 'wrong' with them. I then decided to use a parametric EQ (the standard one in Cubase) to find out what frequencies are creating this problem. Pulling the midrange down around 2100 hertz (slope zero, which is the broadest, widest slope) for about 4 dB made everything sound a lot better. If I'm correct, this is situated and the end of the midrange spectrum and the start of the upper midrange. Gently pulling up the top highs around 14 - 15 kHz may even result in a further improvement but the true culprit is the midrange/upper midrange. The highs are being suppressed by the overly strong mids. The tweak videos on youtube solely concentrate on the treble but that won't solve the midrange issue. I also find it unlikely that a break-in period will change the 'warm' character of the Linton Heritage speakers. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that I don't want them, and hope the shop where I ordered them will be so kind to help me out, because right now I'm feeling depressed.
This album from Angus & Julia Stone is quite problematic on my Lintons. It's fine on all my other speakers. With its electric guitars, it's very midrange heavy and it sounds over-saturated on the Lintons. OTOH, the solo album of Thom Yorke sounds pretty good on the Lintons and it's probably because it's electronica based with not much emphasis on the midrange. Any recording that avoids the 1500 to 3000 kHz range, will make the Lintons sound nice.
Pioneer A-A9-J, Yamaha S-A501, Denon PMA-510AE. The Yamaha has unusual tone controls of 20 Hz - 20.000 Hz, and while better than the typical 100 Hz - 10.000 Hz, adding more top high treble doesn't do the trick. So I prefer to leave everything flat, like I always do. I went back to the shop and told the owner about my depressive experience. He told me to break them in for 200 hours , and if I still don't like them after that, I can trade them in for something else. So that's what I'll do. Another CD that really sounds good on the Lintons is Field Day by Anthony Phillips, a double CD with well recorded solo nylon and acoustic guitar pieces. There's no trace of any oversaturation or painful mids. Have you tried to listen to the Angus & Julia Stone CD that I posted about in my previous post? I wonder how it sounds on the Lintons of other people.
Yesterday I played a lot of testing material to loosen the drivers, and lo and behold, the difference that I heard at the end of the day is immense! My complaint about the midrange seems to be pretty much resolved. Never experienced anything like it. It's almost as if the midrange driver was literally rusted shut. Yes, it's still a warm tone but it's way more balanced now. At least, I think it is. Will check today to see if I wasn't dreaming. Playing the soundtrack of The Revenant just blew me away.
I tried this album on my system - absolutely no problem! Great album and great sound! From myself, I can say that even the choice of a digital source greatly changes the sound of Lintons. I am currently using Raspberry Pi + "hat" Pi2AES (for Tidal) as a source. I tried a new hat from our diy masters. The sound has changed very much for the better! It has become very detailed, with high resolution, but the Lintons have not lost their magic - a soft, unsharp sound. I also tried the multi-bit DAC audio-gd R2R II - it also added a lot to the sound. The sound acquired volume, relief and became very contoured, non-planar. My amp is now QUAD Venna 2. It is neutral and plays well, but I feel like I could find something more interesting to fully exploit the Lintons' potential. So I look at the Atoll in200 SE and also want to try class A.
From the beginning, the Lintons played with Yamana R-N803D - this is the Yamaha level of 700-800. And when I changed it to QUAD, Lintons sounded completely different, much more interesting. I would not recommend Lintons from the entry-level Yamaha. 1000 and up, maybe.
I am really happy with them, especially after switching amp from marantz 8004 to a ps audio s300... I have had lots of speakers and these are a great compromise. I prefer them over my totem hawks for overall tonality and sound dimension.
According to Jay Lee from The Next Best Thing Studio, combining the Lintons together with the Willsenton R8 was magic. I love to hear it for myself.
Seems like the Lintons need some power. They go to 4 ohms at certain frequencies and high phase angle at others (i.e., are a capacitive or inductive load). The amplifier IIUC needs to be comfortable driving at least down to 4 ohms and possibly to 2 ohms. Other amplifiers may sound great up to a certain sound level but above that they’ll probably start straining a bit and the sound may suffer. If you listen at low to moderate levels it’s probably not a problem, depending on the amp of course.
Yes, one can always get better amps, and I would love me a Yamaha A-S1100 (if only for the VU meters), but amps weren't the cause of my issue with the Lintons, the break-in period was. I can't only imagine they will get even better over the next weeks.
I use the A-S1100 with my Lintons, great combination. Break-In took about four to six weeks for my set.
I read your original post and was going to reply that my Lintons started out very midrange centric but after a few weeks really balanced out. Well, I got busy and forgot to. I check back now and see this. Mine continue to deliver a highly enjoyable experience to this day.
I know it's a cliché (shops used to sell many speakers thanks to Krall), but darn, this album sounds great on the Lintons!
Has anyone been able to reproduce this midrange test our host @Steve Hoffman suggests using the Lintons? If so, what amp are you using? SH Spotlight - Test the midrange purity of your system and/or your computer speakers using Bing Crosby!
Tempted to pick up a pair of the Denton 80ths. How do you find them for 70s rock, 80s pop, etc? Read they can be a little rolled off on the top end, and was wondering if the Denton 85s may be the better choice for me? Decisions ...
I purchased the Wharfedale Lintons in Walnut at the beginning of the week after listening to them in one of the local hifi shops and so far I’m more than happy with them. In the shop they were hooked up to an expensive tube amp, which I don’t have, and they sounded absolutely amazing. We played some Underworld through them because I’m into a lot of electronic music, then played some Mark Lanagan to hear his distinctive baritone voice and finally some AC/DC to rock them out, the Lintons sounded so good with everything. I could even hear the finger/pick strumming on the guitar strings when listening to Shoot To Thrill, something I’ve never noticed before, that impressed me. So I had to get them and at NZ$1700 (US$1220) without stands I think I got a pretty good deal. They’re set up at home now replacing some Monitor Audio Bronze 5 floorstanders. There’s definitely a break in period that others have mentioned. Out of the boxes and once set up they sounded good/ok, but nowhere near as good as in the hifi shop’s listening room, that tube amplifier there more than likely had a lot to do with it. Anyway, after leaving them playing all day for three days while at work (they’ve had about 30-35 hours on them so far), playing them at mid-volume on a streamed German techno radio station with plenty of thumping bass to help loosen them up, they’ve bloomed to life! And they’re still getting better! Played a few records on them last night, some Pink Floyd- Meddle and Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy (early Japanese pressings) and they sounded so good, the acoustic parts on LZ’s - Over The Hills And Far Away and then PF’s - Fearless were so clear and present, the bass so warm, I really do love these speakers and just want to listen to them more and more!! Now the stands, I don’t have them yet, they’re an extra NZ$600, the local store has them on back order, but I’m not sure if I’ll get them, I do like the look of them, but I’m thinking of going with something more traditional looking for them, something that doesn’t distract from the look of the actual speakers themselves. Can anybody recommend a good stand for the Lintons? Something basic, but still stylish, not to tall and will still look smart.. Thanks for reading my 2 cents worth on the Lintons and enjoy the music too! Peace.
I was considering concrete blocks as speaker stands. Cheap, smart solution. Definitely sturdy enough for Lintons. I can also wholeheartedly recommend crossover mod if you have guts to void the warranty.
I like the original stands, think they look great. Really happy I decided to get them when I bought my Lintons. If you‘re looking for a cheaper alternative you might check out the chair section of Ikea.
Anyone here compared the Lintons to the Denton 80ths and 85s? Curious to hear the differences (given the obvious size, depth, etc).
Thanks Meehael, so the modification improves the sound even more? How much more are we talking exactly? Thanks again..
Thanks for the recommendation Joshua Tree, yeah I might just wait until the original stands are available in the next week or two. Unless I can find a decent alternative. Doubtful though. Such superb speakers these Lintons, I’m going to listen to them some more now, this morning it will be My Bloody Valentine and Depeche Mode..
A lot, I would probably pay double the price for speakers that sound this good. Everything improved, detail, texture, imaging by a lot, vocals are more focused in the center so they leave more space left and right for other instruments. Singers and instruments also sound more true to size. Like they stand in the room in their natural size and not like they're giants. Try listening a Thirsty Work by Gaelic Storm. Tin whistle sounds as a much bigger instrument than it should. I need to say that slight brightness went away after capacitors broke-in, they took some time though. I had Dentons before so I know the Heritage sound... Lintons still sound like Lintons only much better. It was a $120 investment, but I think you can get similar results for less.