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Wharfedale Linton Heritage - opinions

Cícero Shmidt

pfm Member
Has someone acquainted with this speakers? I thinking in upgrade my sistem to them.

Also, my receiver is 85w power per channel. The speakers require 20-200w, wich is quite wide variation.

So, any thoughts?
 
The power rating on the back of the speakers is not any indication of how powerful and amplifier you need. Yeah, it would be nice if it were that simple but there are so many variables it's an almost meaningless number. The sensitivity and impedance are more important and even then it depends but if your amp puts out a genuine 85wpc and you don't play at party volume it should be fine.

I've not heard them but I have an old pair of original Diamonds here which I think are great speakers if you drive them with a grippy amp. The flip side is that I've not heard any more modern Wharfdale speakers that I liked! The are all clean, even and well behaved but have no life about them. Fine if that's what you want but I find them boring.

These guys are supposed to be a reincarnation of a vintage speaker, so may well be voiced differently. I don't know but I'd certainly want to dem them with my own kit. I like the looks, classy speaker for the money in my opinion.
 
I've heard them, I want a pair - but they're big. Surprisingly big in real life. A very enjoyable sound, detailed, punchy and beautiful to look at. Rear ported, so need a bit of space behind them too. As Mr P says, you can pretty well ignore the WPC rating on speakers, it's largely meaningless and a throwback to god-knows-when. Your amp will drive them fine, they're not a difficult load.
 
I like the look of them and considered them for The Daughter.

The Lintons are 6 ohm speakers, I have always had 8 ohm speakers and amplifiers, so I am not aware of the implications?

if anyone can explain in very simple terms what the ohms thing means in relation to this I would be grateful.
Terms that a complete novice would understand.
 
I haven't heard a pair but if I was in the market for a pair of speakers around this price these would be top of my demonstration list, great looking 3 way with a really nicely designed matching stand that appear to offer excellent VFM, @fegs is the man to ask , I believe he has a pair.
 
The only connection between these and real Wharfedale Lintons is the name!

I've seen various generally positive write ups on them but the Chi-Fi thing puts me off.

Such things are made with great effort and attention to detail as far as "ticking all the boxes" go.... and having max eye appeal... so will have fancy looking gold plated binding posts, maybe "brand name" parts in the crossover, kevlar drive units etc etc, but as to how well engineered they actually are well that's another matter.
 
I like the look of them and considered them for The Daughter.

The Lintons are 6 ohm speakers, I have always had 8 ohm speakers and amplifiers, so I am not aware of the implications?

if anyone can explain in very simple terms what the ohms thing means in relation to this I would be grateful.
Terms that a complete novice would understand.

It's nothing to worry about. It's literally in between 4 and 8R models in all the implications of that.... so a little more current and less voltage required for the same level compared to an 8R speaker and a little more voltage and less current required for same level compared to a 4R speaker. Also comes in handy for cheating in the efficiency spec by saying "dB/2.83V" when 2.83V is 1W into 8R!
 
I heard them on a 17Watts class A amp and I was actually astonished how good they sound.
Your 85 Watts will be plenty..my impression was they are grateful for an amp even much above their class.
I heard the Harbeth P3 ESR in comparison..which were clearly better even as a two way,
but in an entirely different price segment.
The Lintons held up well in this comparison.

I'm used to Yamaha NS1000 at home with good amps..and despite this I had to admit
they actually really do very well, so no pain at all to imagine listening to those for a longer while.
I fully understand the China comments and basicly I share that point of view generally.
From the sound they were a very nice balance of warmth and balls & precision.
The P3 ESR differenciated certain nuances even more detailled etc, but the Lintons did nothing wrong.
No trendy boom in the bottom and no screaming treble, just nice resolution and a well based but not overblown fundament.
For a beginner imo there's a many ways to start worse with 1st speakers..

My gf went with the P3 ESR in the end, so we bought original made in England,
but I silently noted my admiration for the Lintons as a plain music making object.
For the money incredible, imo. (new, that is..)

A closer competition than the P3 ESR may be the ATC SCM7.
A little more than the Lintons, but also better and also excellent vfm..
 
:rolleyes: I must be seeing things, your second sentence didn't say " but the Chi-fi thing puts me off" ?:confused:

FFS the price or VFM is not relevant to the fact that the Chinese tend to put the most effort into visual appeal and box ticking on features... "never mind the quality feel the width"...

A UK small company traditionally may have made something that sounds fantastic and is reliable and made with good parts plus based on hundreds of hours of listening tests etc BUT it may have looked like a Halfords lorry battery charger... think older Sugden or Croft etc...

The Chinese would never do that in that 90% of the effort will have gone into making it LOOK slick, professional, visually tempting, "how do they do it at that price" etc but the quality may not continue to the innards and little research or listening tests may have been done. And I'm generalising rather than talking specifically about these speakers.

It's the same as in the story I've told a few times before where at Alchemist our biggest customer, the Malaysian importer, came over here to see the new range and spent all his time examining the fit and finish of the casework and controls etc before demanding even more gold and chrome plating on them.... but when asked if he was now ready to come and hear them he said he wasn't interested in the sound quality! What he meant was they would surely "sound like hifi" ie cover the bass, treble and mid ranges without audible distortion or hiss and would go loud hence to the generic "average punter" they were "good enough" sound wise and what mattered most for sales and profit was the looks, the showroom appeal and, in that context, the fact that they had more bling than a magpies nest and said "Made in London, England" on the back.
 
I haven't heard a pair but if I was in the market for a pair of speakers around this price these would be top of my demonstration list, great looking 3 way with a really nicely designed matching stand that appear to offer excellent VFM, @fegs is the man to ask , I believe he has a pair.

Yes,I have a pair and I'm extremely happy with them, they suit my system and what I listen to perfectly.

I totally get the "Chi-Fi" reservations of some, but for me with the budget I had at the time (£1000) to get what I wanted avoiding chinese built stuff was going to be difficult.

I think the build quality is very good and importantly (for me at least) aesthetically pleasing.

The sound to me is a very full sound with great bass capabilities, and I never suffer any sort of listening fatigue even after a few hours
 
I would always ‘buy British’ when it comes to speakers, but I see the appeal of these Heritage
speakers and the like.
Not everyone wants to chase the sometimes subtle differences of various English speakers.
They want ‘a sound they like’ and they are happy.

Pretty much sums it up for me, well put
 
Yes,I have a pair and I'm extremely happy with them, they suit my system and what I listen to perfectly.

I totally get the "Chi-Fi" reservations of some, but for me with the budget I had at the time (£1000) to get what I wanted avoiding chinese built stuff was going to be difficult.

I think the build quality is very good and importantly (for me at least) aesthetically pleasing.

The sound to me is a very full sound with great bass capabilities, and I never suffer any sort of listening fatigue even after a few hours
This is why China will take over the world, and basically own us - because we value cheapness above almost everything else. It's sort of understandable, but it dooms western civilization. We need to be willing to pay the prices needed to support local manufacturing, but can't see it happening.
 


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