Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary speaker review & measurements by Erin's Audio Corner

[Deleted member 48726]

I do have the Linton 85, MiniDSP Flex, UMIK1 and Dirac license.
I have to correct for two nasty room resonances, but couldn't be bothered to do more. I simply cut the FR below 50Hz and use two subwoofers to do that part, all by ear and often the subs aren't even turned on.

1. i can simply replace the speakers with something else, my room modes are fixed.
2. i probably should do a better job making measurements and also use Dirac ;-)

1. No I don't think you can. Your modes will be more or less excited by different speakers. Same modes of course but the magnitude is not the same because the speakers differ in frequency response.

2. Yeah it sounds like you should..

 

[TheBatsEar]

1. No I don't think you can. Your modes will be more or less excited by different speakers. Same modes of course but the magnitude is not the same because the speakers differ in frequency response.

Right, that makes sense.

2. Yeah it sounds like you should..

Don't pressure me into doing the right thing!

 

[Kachda]

Is there anyone Linton owner here using it with MiniDSP Flex + UMIK calibration?

Not sure if it's worth it to fix some room problems. Actually because I am in Spain and a MiniDSP + Umik 2 is around 750 euro
And on top of that I need the dirac live license

I am using the Lintons with a minidsp shd + dirac. However, I also tried to remove room
Modes with just peqs rather than dirac, and to me the results are very similar sounding

 

[DSJR]

I do have the Linton 85, MiniDSP Flex, UMIK1 and Dirac license.
I have to correct for two nasty room resonances, but couldn't be bothered to do more. I simply cut the FR below 50Hz and use two subwoofers to do that part, all by ear and often the subs aren't even turned on.

1. i can simply replace the speakers with something else, my room modes are fixed.
2. i probably should do a better job making measurements and also use Dirac ;-)

I use the MiniDSP Flex more like a DAC/Preamp i guess, so i still got my money worth.

750€ seems a bit much for used stuff. That's almost retail, isn't it?

View attachment 303366
BTW, i can recommend the Hantech, really crisp and cool. Has an airy quality.

Now take the other speakers away into a different room preferably and listen again - you should hear an immediate improvement

I learned many years ago that a wall of speakers (more than two sets at least) interferes too much with the pair that's playing and in my times when I was forced to dem like that, they all tended to 'sound' much the same (long story, but up until back then, I only set one pair of boxes up in the dem room at a time - we didn't sell behemoths in our store, so not an issue for a twenty - forty odd year old with a *then* good back I had to give up said dem room to all the cheap stuff in the main store as B&O wanted the entire 'ground floor' given to them. Within months sales of 'separates' ground to pretty much a halt and I left shortly after, the store eventually reverting to an 'AV' type place with little decent 'high fidelity' gear to sell after B&O turned the franchise thumbscrews too tightly for the management - place is now a 'pop-up shop' last I looked.

 

[Stoney Burke]

I am a new happy owner of the lintons, they are impressive specially for the price point couldnt find any better (acoustic sierra and Revel not available in my country). So I can stop looking for speakers and just sit and enjoy the music!

I just purchased a set and live them!

 

[TheBatsEar]

Still fighting the KEF R3! So far i prefer the Linton 85 bass and, at least in my room, wider stage.

 

[ZolaIII]

Still fighting the KEF R3! So far i prefer the Linton 85 bass and, at least in my room, wider stage.

Cross the Linton's higher at 90 Hz (as that's their braking point when playing very loud - 102 dB SPL at 1m compression plots), plug the port's and try like that. I hope sub's are closed enclosure one's (both pluging port's and close enclosure sub's in order to have less room modes and better ISO 3382-1 early-to-late arriving sound energy). First PEQ L - R chenel to get them even to each other then do Dirac or FIR correction (or just PEQ them).
@Infinit0 there are and good software solutions when used with multichannel DAC which either don't cost a lot like JRiver or are entirely free like EQ-APO if such suit's you.
Of course try using equal loudness normalisation.

 

[Eleo]

Hello! I'm using the Linton in a slightly asymmetrical room. Apply fir (rew + rephase) below 200 hz and iir below 800 but I cannot get rid of a nasty dip between 60 and 90 hz. Do you think that adding one or two subs could improve the situation?

 

[ZolaIII]

Hello! I'm using the Linton in a slightly asymmetrical room. Apply fir (rew + rephase) below 200 hz and iir below 800 but I cannot get rid of a nasty dip between 60 and 90 hz. Do you think that adding one or two subs could improve the situation?

Sure but try with thick rug all over the floor first (because you probably already have one).

 

[Eleo]

Sure but try with thick rug all over the floor first (because you probably already have one).

My floor is made of wood. Moreover, I have a large carpet - not so thick, however - in the middle of the room. I must say I am very satisfied with the overall result. However, one strives for the best …

 

[TheBatsEar]

Hello! I'm using the Linton in a slightly asymmetrical room. Apply fir (rew + rephase) below 200 hz and iir below 800 but I cannot get rid of a nasty dip between 60 and 90 hz. Do you think that adding one or two subs could improve the situation?

You can test that, put the mike to where your head would be, use a smaller speaker, like a bookshelf to play a 60Hz tone and move it to all the places in the room where a subwoofer would be possible.
If you can see the hole filled, it makes sense to buy the subwoofer.
You could use the second speaker to find a place for the second subwoofer for the 90Hz dip.

If nothing fills the dips, don't waste your money.

 

[ZolaIII]

My floor is made of wood. Moreover, I have a large carpet - not so thick, however - in the middle of the room. I must say I am very satisfied with the overall result. However, one strives for the best …

So do I and it's thick old school oak one and sealing is also covered with decking. Like I said thick rug all the way from corner to corner.

 

[Infinit0]

Is It posible to calibrate the room just using a DB meter and a frequency generator for the 10 band instead of using minidsp/dirac? Is It viable?

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Is It posible to calibrate the room just using a DB meter and a frequency generator for the 10 band instead of using minidsp/dirac? Is It viable?

No

 

[TheBatsEar]

Is It posible to calibrate the room just using a DB meter and a frequency generator for the 10 band instead of using minidsp/dirac? Is It viable?

The microphones in these things have a frequency response curve of their own and they don't get corrected anywhere.

What you need is a measurement microphone and a calibration file and the software REW.
Once you have the measurements and an idea what to change, you can either use a MiniDSP 2x4HD or Flex do this in a separate device like a streamer or in your operating system. The feature you are looking for is called PEQ.

 

[DearSX]

Most of my speakers activate my room modes, and the bass gets boomy. From the KH120ii to my Lintons, I can hear some boomyness, although the Linton seem to strike a decent balance of some bass but not a super deep amount. I need to mess around with REW, speaker placement, room treatment and measurements because I want deep clean bass.

 

[Snoopy]

Most of my speakers activate my room modes, and the bass gets boomy. From the KH120ii to my Lintons, I can hear some boomyness, although the Linton seem to strike a decent balance of some bass but not a super deep amount. I need to mess around with REW, speaker placement, room treatment and measurements because I want deep clean bass.

Invest a couple hundred dollars in bass traps first

 

[DearSX]

Invest a couple hundred dollars in bass traps first

Yeah, I may try that. Don't want more stuff in my living room, but maybe I can get it to work

 

[ethanhallbeyer]

Still fighting the KEF R3! So far i prefer the Linton 85 bass and, at least in my room, wider stage.

Did you consider the KLH Model 5 (sealed) vs Linton, since one can position the former closer to the wall if needed? For mahogany version, it's on sale for about the same price as the Lintons. Just curious if you were able to compare the two.

Looks like you compared with ATC and KEF R3. Do you find the detail and imaging good enough on the Linton vs those other two (and the KLH)?

From what I've read, it seems a common remark about the Linton is they are more forgiving and can play a wide range of music enjoyably, without being too analytical. But I'd imagine the other 2 (plus KLH) are going to be more revealing?

 

[TheBatsEar]

Did you consider the KLH Model 5 (sealed) vs Linton, since one can position the former closer to the wall if needed? For mahogany version, it's on sale for about the same price as the Lintons. Just curious if you were able to compare the two.

No, i didn't, but i now have a search filter on Hifishark, maybe a cheap pair shows up.
I can't say the big cigarbox design is appealing to me, in fact, i would rather love the KEF R3 than the Lintons because of their looks, but you can't force love.

Looks like you compared with ATC and KEF R3. Do you find the detail and imaging good enough on the Linton vs those other two (and the KLH)?

No, i compared the ATC with the Linton. The ATC where gone before i found a cheap KEF R3 pair.
I have to watch the budget. Wich is why i'm eternally behind on the curve, i never buy new and wait years before a good price for something used shows up.

ATC SCM19v2: 1450€
Wharfedale Linton 85 with stands: 650€
KEF R3: 700€

Only fools pay retrail.
And only fools buy speakers for more than they sell them later.

From what I've read, it seems a common remark about the Linton is they are more forgiving and can play a wide range of music enjoyably, without being too analytical. But I'd imagine the other 2 (plus KLH) are going to be more revealing?

I don't know what revealing means. The Linton 85 emit less high frequency energy, i guess that has to do with it. Easily fixed with PEQ or tone controls.

For some reason i can't put my finger on, the Linton 85 draw a wide and position independent "soundfield" into my room. I bet it has to do with directivity and some book shelf reflecting the right band of frequencies in a certain way. I like this very much and so all the other problems i have with the Linton 85 (mainly size and looks) melt away.
None of my previous speakers did that. Couldn't measure anything out of the ordinary either, i expected some area between 1000 to 5000 or so to be louder than the rest. Nothing. Except for bass it looks sufficiently clean in my room, the lines show not much difference to the KEF R3, wich are excellent by themselves, btw.

This is all just subjective and i can't explain anything with measurements. Bugs me a little. ;-)