John Darko
Loudspeaker designer Peter Comeau has elevated the Wharfedale Linton to Super Linton status by adding 1) thicker walls to a taller cabinet that now houses 2) a more powerful bass driver motor, 3) back-wave absorption to the midrange driver and tweeter, 4) the latter pulled from the Dovedale and 5) a completely reworked crossover. The price? £1999/€2299/US$2499 per pair with matching stands whose undercarriage still houses a selection of vinyl records.
That’s a thousand clams more than the standard Linton (review here). And with the Linton’s 3-way topology and Heritage series aesthetics carried over to the Super Linton, the most obvious question stands to attention: what audible qualities does the extra outlay buy us?
I wondered aloud – and then via email to Peter Comeau – if frequency response plots of the Linton and the Super Linton were available for a ‘preliminary’ examination of any audible differences. Comeau’s reply was as swift as it was thorough. The Linton’s frequency response is traced in green, the Super Linton in red:
From this graph, we can deduce that the Super Linton has a few extra dB of sensitivity: it will play slightly louder than the Linton given the same input signal. Comeau tells us that we should also note the Super Linton’s better-damped bass, which allows end users to place the speakers closer to the front wall. That’s a win for anyone doing it tough with wiggle room.
Our man from Wharfedale also confirmed that, like the Linton, the Super Linton should be heard with grilles on. Those grilles are reportedly designed to reduce cabinet edge diffraction and reviewers should only remove them to show the three drivers in a video or (per the header image above) a photo.
But then came a warning. “I wouldn’t read too much into this graph. What you’re hearing is the sum of a lot of different aspects”, says Comeau.
Even measurement novices like me can see that each loudspeaker’s off-axis frequency responses are MIA. These would otherwise tell us how closely the sound reflected and delayed by the room’s walls, floor and ceiling will follow the tonal balance of sound travelling directly to the ear. That’s useful intel for anyone listening in an untreated room.
Mine is acoustically treated to maximise my chances of hearing the audio hardware under examination untainted by the room’s acoustic makeup (because all rooms sound different). If that sounds like a dull reason to suffer the visual intrusion of panels mounted to every surface except the floor, know that music is much more enjoyable to listen to in an acoustically treated room.
Comeau then adds (via email) that his frequency response graph does not show the Super Linton’s improved driver integration and superior phase response. For that, we need more measurements; or we must listen to the Linton and Super Linton side by side.
A conundrum lands in our laps: if we can consistently hear the results of what we have already measured – as many measurement people tell us is the case – then why measure at all? Why not just listen, take notes and report back? Perhaps it’s because no single listener can cover all possible scenarios – room acoustics, loudspeaker position, ancillary gear – to underscore the importance of readers/viewers taking in multiple opinions.
My video review will land in a week or two.
Further information: Wharfedale
