When magic happens…
Music has been a part of my life from my earliest memories, and audio gear has been a part of it since before I was in junior high. I guess you could say I was almost “born” an audiophile (or “audio nerd” if you prefer…). I grew up listening to the big Sears Silvertone console stereo my parents had in our dining room, and that was something that ignited my interest in audio electronics in general – and the pursuit of better sound. My mother was also a music lover and instilled a passion for it in me with lots of records in the house, season tickets to the symphony, musical theater, and more. I was always involved in the music programs in school, became a drummer at a young age and gigged with bands for a few years (I still play today… but at church… it’s a lot safer!). So to say that music and sound are more than a hobby and an integral part of my life would likely be a huge understatement! To me, music is the magic. In the words of Plato, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything”. I decided in those formative years, that recreating the best sound possible was something I wanted to, nee, had to, pursue.
During the course of my long audio journey, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to or own a vast amount of gear, including speakers. Ask any audio aficionado you know, and they will all tell you about particular pieces of gear they have owned that they found absolutely magical in performance, enhancing their enjoyment like nothing else, and it will usually be about what an awesome value it was as well. I’ve had a number of those moments across the span of years that have been my audio life, and this is one of those stories.
Some time ago, I began to hear rumblings about a new speaker from Wharfedale that was making waves and getting rave reviews. Wharfedale is one of the world’s oldest, continually operating audio companies in the world. Started by Gilbert Briggs back in 1932 in Yorkshire, England, and originally named the “Wharfedale Wireless Works”, they have been at the forefront of speaker design and music reproduction since their founding. Briggs had a love of music and listening to it live, and that created a passion for creating products that were known for their ability to recreate the musical experience as faithfully as possible. Wharfedale has pioneered a number of technologies and design techniques that are still utilized today and considered very common, and Gilbert Briggs, who passed away in 1978, has gone down in history as one of the founders of high fidelity and the world of audio we know today.
The speaker that started everyone talking about Wharfedale again was the Linton 85th Anniversary Edition. Named after the original Wharfedale Linton released back in 1965 the Linton 85 has classic lines with an aesthetic nod to the past. But that’s where most of the similarity to vintage speakers ends. The company’s current designer, Peter Comeau, has utilized some novel ideas in this design to create a highly musical instrument of a transducer. First, the cabinet is not constructed like most modern speakers where the entirety of the cabinet walls and inner bracing are milled entirely from MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard). The Linton utilizes a sandwich of high density chipboard between two thin pieces of MDF to create a final product with better vibration suppression characteristics. According to Comeau, there is ample research that he has leveraged to create this sandwiched cabinet material and the final outcome seems to bear out his claims. The Linton’s cabinet is solid and substantial, and seems to be very inert with little effect on sonic performance.
Another novel difference from many modern loudspeaker designs is the Linton’s wider front baffle. This accommodates the design’s 8 inch woofer, but also addresses an anomaly in speaker design called the “baffle step”. A baffle step is something that designers have had to deal with in most modern designs where the front baffle on most modern speakers has become much narrower ( think about something like a modern tower speaker versus an old Altec or JBL cabinet from the 60’s ). Simply put, there is an acoustic issue that comes into play as a baffle becomes narrower, where the higher frequencies, which have shorter wavelengths, become more directional. Those higher frequencies can’t interact with the cabinet baffle and room as much as lower frequencies so at the listening position they actually increase in output to about 6dB, which is called the baffle step. It’s compensated for in the crossover and when properly designed for, shouldn’t be something that you’ll hear, but it does create the need for more complexity in the crossover network and it decreases overall efficiency increasing the demand for more power. The Linton’s wider baffle is designed to eliminate the baffle step to create smoother response, and improved efficiency, which Wharfedale states is 90dB and recommends amplifiers from 25W to 200w per channel, which opens up the possibilities of associated electronics to a wide array of possibilities. The speakers have dual rear ports and very nice five-way binding posts to finish off the package.
So after hearing more and more about the design and the reactions of reviewers, I decided to take the plunge and pull a pair in. To say I’m glad I did is a serious understatement! First of all, the price for the Linton’s is almost ridiculously affordable. For $1799.00/pair, you get a beautifully built, real wood veneered speaker (available in walnut, mahogany, and black oak – I chose the mahogany) that includes the Linton’s purpose built stands. The speakers come in matched pairs and when you pull them from their crates, you’ll be immediately impressed with the level of fit & finish these speakers have. They come with nice setup instructions, in felt bags, with gloves for handling, and groovy little sorbothane nodes for coupling between the speaker and the stands. The Linton is a three way system that utilizes an 8 inch woofer and 5 inch midrange, both made from woven kevlar, and a 1 inch soft-dome tweeter. As previously mentioned efficiency is about 90dB with a nominal impedance of 6 ohms, which makes them relatively easy to drive. Frequency response is rated from 40Hz to 20kHz and bass extension is down 6dB at about 35 Hz, but performance in your room may vary.
I initially set the Lintons up out in my room at the position that most speakers I’m evaluating sit to start out, about 3 or 4 feet form the back wall and 3 feet from the side walls, with about 7 feet between them, and toed in slightly at about 15 degrees or so. I did tweak placement along the way a bit, but they didn’t venture too far from the initial set-up spot. Just make sure they’re not too close to a back wall so that the bass energy from the rear ports isn’t over amplified by reflection from the wall. The rest of my system at the time consisted of a Sota Sapphire Turntable with my trusty Fidelity Research FR64fx tonearm, various cartridges from Denon, A-T, and Lyra, a Sutherland Insight phono preamp, Yamaha CDS 1000 SACD player, Blue Sound Node, and a Hegel H120 integrated amplifier.
After set-up, I started up some favorite tunes, and thought the performance was great for a speaker in this price category, although it seemed maybe just a bit restrained and “closed in” at first, sort of like being tightly squeezed in the name of control. So I fired up some streaming and just let them run in for a couple of days. Then, going back to my listening chair and getting settled in for some more critical listening, it happened… The magic! After just a few tunes I realized I was tapping my foot, grooving in my chair, and just listening to music. Not analyzing, not critiquing, not listening for frequency anomalies, or imaging miscues, just listening to the music! My mind was suddenly blown by the fact that I had been listening to track after track and album after album, non-stop for hours. No matter what I threw at the Linton’s, they just happily brought it to life in front of me. I was especially struck by the mid-bass to upper midrange frequencies, where most music fundamentals live, as being beautifully smooth and with an authentic realism that many speakers at this price miss. Female vocals are sweet, and beautiful, and smoky all at the right times, with singers like Jane Monheit, Norah Jones, Dido, Linda Ronstadt, and the amazing Eva Cassidy (taken from us way too soon) all able to project their unique character into the room. At the same time, Beth Hart, Grace Potter, Allanah Myles, or Janis come through like gang busters and can rip your chest wide open. Male vocals from Jason Isbell, Peter Gabriel, Ray Charles, Robert Plant, or even Andrea Bocelli are all presented with the correct timbre, depth, and gravitas you expect each to have. Drums, like on Dire Straits “Heavy Fuel”, “Bird on a Wire” from Jennifer Warnes highly regarded Famous Blue Raincoat, the percussion lines form Paul Simon’s Graceland, or “Rhythm of the Heat” by Peter Gabriel are stunningly real with snap, punch and power on every recording without any strain. Guitars slash through mixes, slice and dice you, bass thumps and bumps and pops, orchestral swells are appropriately breathtaking…. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that the Linton is a speaker that not only sounds outstanding but can reach into you on an emotional level and bring you the magic of what music at home should sound like.
One thing that became apparent quickly with the Linton’s was their frequency response capabilities and how the system has been “tuned” by Wharfedale. It’s obvious that the wider baffle has a smoothing effect on the midband up into the treble range as the entire system has an excellent balance. I’ve noted over time that the image qualities are very natural and not overly “etched”, like perfect cutouts in space (which I personally am not fond of because it actually sounds unnatural) and the frequency response characteristics are consistent across the imaging plane. Consequently, the sweet spot for listening is larger than many other speakers and doesn’t require a “head-in-the-vice” listening positions… so listen with some friends! The bottom registers are punchy and direct and lay an excellent foundation for the rest of the music. The ported cabinet lends to the speaker’s ability to get down into lower registers well and allows them to move enough air to give great in room response down into the 30 Hz range; probably not the darling of pipe-organ aficionados, but for most music the Linton’s bottom end is well extended and tuneful.
Oh, and I will without reservation state that the purpose built stands should be considered a requirement and not an option. They’re built like tanks and give the speaker a very solid foundation that improves performance, and are obviously designed as a synergistic match not just for the aesthetic of the speaker but for its sound as well. They’re also just the right height for storing LP’s if you like! Also, it’s important to understand that the speaker is designed to be played with the grills ON. The grills are actually an integral part of the recessed front baffle and the dispersion pattern of the speaker. My own experience found that the tweeter sounds better and smoother with the grills on that off, and they do image slightly better as well. Plus, they look nice with their grills intact.
Now, you wanna really have some fun with the Linton? Stack them. That’s right, one pair stacked upside down on the other and wired in parallel. Our distributor for Wharfedale, the wonderful Lenny M of MoFi Distribution, kept bugging me to try them stacked and exclaiming how I’d be blown away by it. Well, at last year’s AXPONA show, he had them set up in a stacked pair, and to say I was shocked at what I heard was an understatement. If you already have a pair of Linton’s it’s a built in upgrade path. You get an initial pair with stands, get a second pair without stands and set the second pair up with the right hand speaker flipped upside down on top of the left and vice versa for the other side; they should be tweeter to tweeter. What happens is that they become a quasi-mirrored line array that takes the already formidable Linton to a whole new plane of sonic fireworks. Everything the Linton does right is magnified and improved upon across the board. The amount of sonic power a stacked pair can pump into a room is astonishing. Not just volume, but the quality of the sound and the image size improve, the bottom end tightens and plumbs deeper, the sweep and size of instruments are enhanced, and everything becomes more “real”.
Are the Linton’s perfect? Well, at $1799.00/pair with stands, they’re hard to critique as their price to performance ratio is insanely good. While the Linton does perform way above their price class, they do have a couple of minor compromises, but they are VERY minor. While they have a relatively flat frequency spectrum, they could be just a tad more extended in the highs as the last bit of sparkle is not always apparent in recordings where it’s available, and the bottom end is just ever so slightly diffuse with just a bit of wooliness that is almost always apparent with any ported speaker (yes, even some that are into six figure prices). You may notice just a slight “smearing” effect in imaging compared to more ambitious designs, but that is going to be directly related to set up in your room. Some have commented that crossover points (as well as some crossover components) be improved, but my gut says that these are just opinions from those reaching for anything they think they can as a critique.
Those minor quibbles aside, I’ve found the Linton’s to be one of the most surprising and best performing pieces of gear that I’ve heard anywhere near its price. To be honest, this review has been really difficult to get completed, simply because it’s hard to come up with descriptors for a product like the Wharfedale’s because they just take whatever I throw at them and they bring me that magic. This is a speaker that allows you to sit back and just enjoy the music. It’s tuneful, it’s honest, it’s dynamic, it images well, is easy to live with, looks fantastic, and just gets it right. We’ve been able to demo the Linton in our shop for some time and it usually trounces just about every contender in its price range, and quite a few that are even more expensive; and that’s not just an observation by yours truly, but the honest feedback from people who listen and compare products they want to spend their hard earned dollars on – and it’s one of our biggest sellers. If it’s any further indication of how I feel about the Linton’s, I bought the first pair that ever graced the doorway at Rich’s and they reside happily today in our family-room home theater system where everyone gets to enjoy them. Simply put, at the price, the Wharfedale Linton 85 may be THE best buy loudspeaker on the planet for those that simply want to listen to the magic of the music!
