Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary Review

[AnthonyI]

Also in all seriousness the Linton’s are on a spiked steel stand that weighs a tonnes, I’m not too concerned.

I would have to agree, not to mention while mine are sitting on carpet, there is a concrete floor under the carpet. If anything, maybe swapping out the rubber feet between stand and speaker with small sorbothane feet or something similar. Again, I think all of this boils down to each persons space and or situation.

 

[Joe Mac]

I would have to agree, not to mention while mine are sitting on carpet, there is a concrete floor under the carpet. If anything, maybe swapping out the rubber feet between stand and speaker with small sorbothane feet or something similar. Again, I think all of this boils down to each persons space and or situation.

Yeah equally my spikes are going into the supplied cups on wooden floors onto a concrete sub floor with a heavy rubber liner between. It’s going nowhere but equally I don’t think that something like the Isotek feet are an applicable solution for the Lintons in any scenario.

 

[Jango]

I would have to agree, not to mention while mine are sitting on carpet, there is a concrete floor under the carpet. If anything, maybe swapping out the rubber feet between stand and speaker with small sorbothane feet or something similar. Again, I think all of this boils down to each persons space and or situation.

The Gaias help mitigate vibrations from the floor yes. My speakers weigh more than the Lintons and were also on spikes. The Gaias allow the speakers to move to minimize the effect of internal reflections as well as within the room itself.

There’s an explanation and demo that starts at the 0:58. Yes the speakers are in slightly different positions and the explanation sounds like bullshit, but the difference here in sound syncs up with my experience. Without the background noise, of course.

 

[Joe Mac]

The Gaias help mitigate vibrations from the floor yes. My speakers weigh more than the Lintons and were also on spikes. The Gaias allow the speakers to move to minimize the effect of internal reflections as well as within the room itself.

There’s an explanation and demo that starts at the 0:58. Yes the speakers are in slightly different positions and the explanation sounds like bullshit, but the difference here in sound syncs up with my experience. Without the background noise, of course.

That’s fair enough. I think then that the only place it would make sense to put them on the Lintons would be under the stands, by screwing out the supplied spikes and putting them in their place. With the combined weight of speaker and stand you’d be looking at the heaviest then and probably threaded screw ones like you have. It does then come to roughly half the cost of the Lintons themselves for 8 feet!

 

[AnthonyI]

The Gaias help mitigate vibrations from the floor yes. My speakers weigh more than the Lintons and were also on spikes. The Gaias allow the speakers to move to minimize the effect of internal reflections as well as within the room itself.

There’s an explanation and demo that starts at the 0:58. Yes the speakers are in slightly different positions and the explanation sounds like bullshit, but the difference here in sound syncs up with my experience. Without the background noise, of course.

I can see it, again, one of those things I'm not gonna knock unless I test it for myself

 

[HiFi Guy]

Also in all seriousness the Linton’s are on a spiked steel stand that weighs a tonne, I’m not too concerned. The tweak I may make is to replace those hateful little sorbothane dots with maybe four of these for the meeting point between each speaker and it’s stand.

Sorbothane Vibration Isolation Square Pad 4" x 4" - 2 Pack

Sorbothane vibration isolator pads are versatile anti-vibration pads that can be used as feet, stops, spacers and protectors in many different applications.

www.isolateit.com

The US distributor recommended Blu Tac. I didn’t want to risk and damage to the finish, even if it’s on the bottom.

I ended up changing to these which are more compliant- figuring that Blu Tac is more compliant than the Sorbothane dots that the Lintons ship with.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B075KKX3QQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Jango]

That’s fair enough. I think then that the only place it would make sense to put them on the Lintons would be under the stands, by screwing out the supplied spiked and putting them in their place. With the combined weight of speaker and stand you’d be looking at the heaviest then and probably threaded screw ones like you have. It does then come to roughly half the cost of the Lintons themselves for 8 feet!

I haven’t looked at the price of the Indigos but the Gaia’s were $400 for 8. I mentioned the Indigos because I’m guessing the biggest benefit would be had if they were on the speakers, not the stands.

 

[Joe Mac]

I haven’t looked at the price of the Indigos but the Gaia’s were $400 for 8. I mentioned the Indigos because I’m guessing the biggest benefit would be had if they were on the speakers, not the stands.

I just don’t think they make any logical sense for this application then. It was nearly €500 for the 8 which is a lot of money when speakers and stands combined cost €1199, if put where you suggest it substantially raises the height of the tweeter and it would ruin the clean junction between the stand and speaker and would be a complete eyesore as they are they’re not at all in keeping with the design.

 

[Jango]

I just don’t think they make any logical sense for this application then. It was nearly €500 for the 8 which is a lot of money when speakers and stands combined cost €1199, if put where you suggest it substantially raises the height of the tweeter and it would ruin the clean junction between the stand and speaker and would be a complete eyesore as they are they’re not at all in keeping with the design.

Makes sense. If I had just bought new speakers I wouldn’t have been so quick to try the Gaias. The Lintons are beautiful and I probably wouldn’t want to mess with that either. But if someone were looking to improve the sound this would be a good way to do it without voiding the warranty.

 

[Joe Mac]

Makes sense. If I had just bought new speakers I wouldn’t have been so quick to try the Gaias. The Lintons are beautiful and I probably wouldn’t want to mess with that either. But if someone were looking to improve the sound this would be a good way to do it without voiding the warranty.

Yeah i would have potentially considered the Gaia under the stand as they are cheaper, less obtrusive and wouldn’t make as much of a height difference in place of the supplied spikes. But as is doesn't seem to make the difference on the stands I think I’ll just upgrade the annoying dots to washing machine anti-vibration pads or better dots like @HiFi Guy at some point in the future.

 

[dansomeone]

The US distributor recommended Blu Tac. I didn’t want to risk and damage to the finish, even if it’s on the bottom.

I applied four quarter-sized dots of blu tack to the bottom of my Denton 80s to secure them on speaker stands, and later removed those dots with no issues. I assume the finish on the Dentons is the same as the Lintons. As for sound quality, I didn't hear any difference with or without.

 

[JohnnyCashFan]

Thinking about trying Canare Quad BlueJeans speaker cables to start on Lintons (just have generic ofc copper now), anyone have luck with any others ? (I fully understated the cable snake pit).

@HiFi Guy was the Hudson HiFi product slightly better over the stock feet on the bottom of the speakers to stands ?

 

[Joe Mac]

Thinking about trying Canare Quad BlueJeans speaker cables to start on Centions (just have generic ofc copper now), anyone have luck with any others ? (I fully understated the cable snake pit).

@HiFi Guy was the Hudson HiFi product slightly better over the stock feet on the bottom of the speakers to stands ?

I just got the BJC Ten. BJC claim their own cable is the best quality one they sell, 10AWG is this heaviest gauge they sell and the Lintons aren’t bi-wireable (only one set of connectors) so the benefits of the four cores is negated.

 

[JohnnyCashFan]

I just got the BJC Ten. BJC claim their own cable is the best quality one they sell, 10AWG is this heaviest gauge they sell and the Lintons aren’t bi-wireable (only one set of connectors) so the benefits of the four cores is negated.

Please let us know your thoughts after break-in.

Trying double runs of shot gunned speaker wire at some point might be interesting as well. @Joe Mac I think you can have BJ combine the cores of the Canare, making it a sort of Shotgun psuedo bi-wire ?

 

[Joe Mac]

Please let us know your thoughts after break-in.

Trying double runs of shot gunned speaker wire at some point might be interesting as well.

They're well broken in now and I think they sound great. I don’t really have anything to compare them to though as I haven’t really run them with anything else!

 

[JohnnyCashFan]

They're well broken in now and I think they sound great. I don’t really have anything to compare them to though as I haven’t really run them with anything else!

What made you end up choosing the 10 AWG White ? The price to the Belden is nearly the same for 10ft. I know the Canare Quad also has a good rep.

 

[Joe Mac]

What made you end up choosing the 10 AWG White ? The price to the Belden is nearly the same for 10ft. I know the Canare Quad also has a good rep.

I think its the same cable. Reading the website closely the BJC 10 white uses Belden 5000UP too. The white jacket was all they sold on Amazon US at the time and I wanted to buy from them because of prepaid customs fees and cheaper pricing.

 

[JohnnyCashFan]

I think its the same cable. Reading the website closely the BJC 10 white uses Belden 5000UP too. The white jacket was all they sold on Amazon US at the time and I wanted to buy from them because of prepaid customs fees and cheaper pricing.

one last thing, did you get Spades or Bananas for the end going to the Lintons and what size where they ?

 

[Russ I]

I think its the same cable. Reading the website closely the BJC 10 white uses Belden 5000UP too. The white jacket was all they sold on Amazon US at the time and I wanted to buy from them because of prepaid customs fees and cheaper pricing.

It's a somewhat confusing site because they seem to use different letters/numbers in different places to represent the same stuff. But I think you're right, it's all the same, with the option of white or gray casing.

 

[Joe Mac]

one last think, did you get Spades or Bananas for the end going to the Lintons and what size where they ?

I went bananas because I prefer bananas. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong there.

They’re actually lockable so you put them in with the bronze sheathe unscrewed and they’re really loose. As you screw the sheathe on they expand to lock into place.