Wharfedale Super Linton - Amp Upgrade

[Bassbin]

Hello, apologies if this question has been asked to death.

Can anyone suggest an amplifier upgrade from a Cambridge audio cxa81 for Super Lintons?

I recently purchased a pair of Super Lintons to replace B&W606 s1 speakers (I found their sound too forward).

It’s been a week, and I’m finding that the sound is a little bit too crisp on the treble, and slightly on the bright side - to the point of a fatiguing, Also vocals seem a bit thin. The bass is lacking.
My experience seems counter to other reports on the speakers, and I suspect the amp is a problem. The room is the best I can get it. Not treated, but well furnitures and a rug in front of speaker

Anyway I’ve had the amp for 5 years, and am happy to replace to hopefully improve sound.

I am seeking to get a deeper, richer, more musical, warmer (but not overly) sound. I want zero listening fatigue.

Can anyone suggest any amp match for the super Lintons that might achieve this?

 

[staticV3]

Hi @Bassbin! Welcome to ASR.

Lab tests of the CXA81 have shown that with both static test tones, as well as highly dynamic music-like test signals, the Amp retains a ruler flat frequency response:


This means the Amp is simply incapable of adding crisp-ness, thinning out vocals, or making bass weak.

What you're hearing through the CXA81 is purely the sum of your tracks, speakers, and room acoustics.

In this equation, the CXA81 is equivalent to a multiplication by 1.

As 98% of Amps on the market (and 100% of well designed ones) behave exactly the same (multiply by 1), looking for a solution in an Amp upgrade is plainly pointless.

But there is a tool that's specifically built to counteract things like piercing treble, thin vocals, or underwhelming bass: the Parametric Equalizer.

There are dozens of PEQ solutions on the market, but which one is right for you depends a lot on how you get music into your CXA81, in other words: which music source device (or devices) are you using?

 

[Mart68]

What are your room acoustics like? Lots of hard surfaces might explain why these and your last speakers were just too bright.

 

[AM88]

Maybe even just toe out the speakers if you haven’t already.

 

[El_Duderino]

Have you tried, placing them closer to the wall? AFAIK they are specifically designed for that purpose.

Edit: I assume, you checked for correct wiring (polarity).

 

[LTig]

@staticV3 is right - no amp is able to improve the sound of the speaker over your current CA. You need to experiment with position and toe in, but finally it's almost impossible to get a flat frequency response in a room without using room EQ.

And not to forget: speakers always sound different, and your hearing is adapted to the soind of the B&W. It will now adapt to the Wharfdales and chances are high that you like them much more within a few weeks (laymen explain this as burn in, but it's you that changes, not the speaker). Been there, done that.

 

[Bassbin]

Thank you very much for the comprehensive replies.

The B&w606 were indeed crazy bright. Glad to move on.

I stream Tidal via a Cambridge audio mxn10.

The room is not treated, with plenty of hard surface. I’ll work on that.

I am still play around with speaker position. Slowly reducing toe in.

The bass seems to be improving with time. I’ve had the speakers for a week. Placing closer to the wall is helping - but still doesn’t feel like enough.

- What would you recommend PEQ control?
- Would digital room correction be the way to go? Dirac with a mini flex?
- Would a more powerful amp with the goal of a fuller, less thin sound ?
- what about a sub-woofer.

I am new to all of this !

Thank again.

 

[voodooless]

- What would you recommend PEQ control?
- Would digital room correction be the way to go? Dirac with a mini flex?
- Would a more powerful amp with the goal of a fuller, less thin sound ?
- what about a sub-woofer.

Let's start with the last two: a more powerful amp would not make any diffrence at all, unless the current one cannot reach the SPL level you need.

A subwoofer can surely help to fill out the bottom end, but I would not add it to your current amp, because it does not offer a proper high-pass to eliminate the Lintons.

Which is also where the other things come in. Your amp does not offer any form of tone control, let alone room correction. This makes it really hard to add any without losing any of the other features it offers, like streaming. So if you would like to switch amps, it would be much more effective to look for something that offers those kinds of features. An AVR would work; something like Denon X3800H would offer Dirac (additional cost). Or something like a WiiM Amp Ultra would also offer room correction and PEQ at a very reasonable price. NAD has some stereo amps with Dirac as well. All of those also offer proper subwoofer integration.

 

[Ditonica]

Thank you very much for the comprehensive replies.

The B&w606 were indeed crazy bright. Glad to move on.

I stream Tidal via a Cambridge audio mxn10.

The room is not treated, with plenty of hard surface. I’ll work on that.

I am still play around with speaker position. Slowly reducing toe in.

The bass seems to be improving with time. I’ve had the speakers for a week. Placing closer to the wall is helping - but still doesn’t feel like enough.

- What would you recommend PEQ control?
- Would digital room correction be the way to go? Dirac with a mini flex?
- Would a more powerful amp with the goal of a fuller, less thin sound ?
- what about a sub-woofer.

I am new to all of this !

Thank again.

I agree with others' advice above. I would add that these speakers radiate a lot of energy in the high-midrange and low tweeter regions compared to the midrange. So, they definitely benefited from room treatment and sound absorption.

What I would not recommend is using the equalization without measurements. Sometimes, changes may sound good at first try, but actually make the tonal balance worse. As previously mentioned, Wiim Amp Ultra is a good option because it provides frequency response correction based on measurements with your phone, as well as an external microphone option for better precision. You can also use it for subwoofer integration.

 

[staticV3]

I stream Tidal via a Cambridge audio mxn10.

I'd replace the MXN10 with a WiiM Pro Plus, or a WiiM Ultra if you're considering adding a subwoofer later on.

Then you can load the anechoic loudspeaker correction for the Super Linton, which will precisely remove the extra brightness:


You can skip the middle four filters, as they don't do anything useful.

The bass filter at 42Hz you can keep on or turn off based on preference.

 

[delta76]

A few facts that need to be stated everytime
- upgrading amp will not make your speakers sound better, unless your amp was borderline broken (it is not)
- speakers will not burn in. they only need a few seconds (if not less) to break in. they will not sound different over time, it's your brain adapted to the sound
- cheapest => most expensive way to improve sounds are speaker placements, room treatment (could be very cheap or very expensive), room correction, add a sub, add two subs, better speakers.

sub will definitely improve the bass and if you can set the cross over, allow your speakers to play louder, but it will not fix the "thin" sound.

 

[Paul7777x]

As the room and the positioning of speakers in the room is the biggest culprit when it comes to sound issues it makes most sense in any hifi to remedy those issues.

The simplest, most straightforward way I’ve found is Room Perfect.

I’d buy a used (or new) Lyngdorf TDAi 1120

It is the single best use of money I’ve ever spent. Not just on hifi. Anywhere.

I’ve used ARC, Dirac and an Antimode, and enjoyed what they all do.

But none are a patch on Room perfect.

Nor are any as simple and fast to use as the Lyngdorf.

If you ever plan to get one (or two) subs then the 1120 shines even brighter.