Wharfdale Announces the Super Linton
The speaker that has alluded me from the time I started reviewing audio gear has been given an upgrade!
Enter the Super Linton. The original Linton was announced in 2019, and it has sold like hotcakes. So why not? Wharfdale had previously announced the Super Denton’s so this was inevitable.
Excerpts from the Press Release below:
Making the Linton ‘Super’
The original 20th Century Linton incarnations began in 1965 as a two-way design and ended as a three-way with 1975’s Linton 3XP. Styled by Robert Gutmann of the British Design Council, its cabinet was substantial enough to hold a large bass unit yet not overly unwieldy by the standards of the day. And its sound was rich, natural and full-bodied, a ‘proper’ hi-fi speaker that was not excessively priced. This combination of attributes earned great popularity.
The 2019 Linton, which remains current, drew from the three-way configuration of the Linton 3XP and Gutmann’s classic styling but re-engineered every aspect, capturing a mix of vintage style and sound elevated by modern technology that is as attractive to today’s music lovers as the original Lintons were to their audience half a century earlier. Ultimately, the current Linton is a hugely enjoyable speaker to own, delivering music in heart-stirring fashion, and that is the key to its success.
While the 1967 Super Linton offered little more than a revised cabinet design over 1965’s two-way original, the new Super Linton is a much more substantial upgrade over 2019’s three-way iteration. It sports the same look, evolved from Gutmann’s original design, but the cabinet is now a little taller and its construction enhanced to improve its acoustic behaviour. The three drivers have been upgraded, including a new treble unit and an uprated motor system for the bass driver. The crossover has been redesigned, now split onto two boards utilising superior circuit components, and even the speaker grille has been improved.
The result is a speaker retaining everything that continues to make the 2019 Linton so popular, whilst enhancing performance across the frequency range. Crucially, it maintains the effortless, full-bodied ‘fun factor’, adding more detail, more control, more extension and more impact to the sonic mix.
With sales of the 2019 Linton continuing apace, the Super Linton arrives as a new premium option, beneath only the flagship Dovedale in Wharfedale’s Heritage Series hierarchy.
Super Linton upgrades: the cabinet
While its footprint is the same as the regular Linton, the Super Linton’s cabinet is 4cm taller, increasing the speaker’s internal volume. Its construction is enhanced by the application of dual layers of fibreboard coupled by latex-based damping glue, specially formulated to reduce panel resonance to below audibility. The interior space is filled with long-hair fibre and strategically placed acoustic damping foam, aiding the absorption of internal resonances.
Super Linton upgrades: the bass driver
The Super Lintons greater internal volume has allowed Peter Comeau and his team of engineers to make improvements to the bass driver. While the 200mm woven Kevlar cone is the same, a more powerful motor system with increased magnet strength deepens low-frequency extension to 32Hz and delivers superior bass control and impact. Improved transient performance from this new bass unit and cabinet combination plumbs musical depth and detail in a way that is thrilling to experience.
Super Linton upgrades: the treble unit The Super Linton’s new high-frequency unit inherits much of its design from the one used in the £5,000-per-pair Dovedale, with a 25mm dome formed from a fine fabric weave coated in a special damping material. The diaphragm is driven by a ceramic magnet-based motor system, with a damped rear chamber to absorb output from the rear.
This reduces the resonant frequency of the treble unit to well below the crossover region, allowing full treble detail and harmonics to be revealed whilst remaining sweetly integrated with the rest of the speaker’s output. A revised short horn profile around the dome ensures a smooth response extending down to the upper midrange, while the new front plate design enhances high-frequency dispersion
Super Linton upgrades: the midrange driver
The Super Linton uses the same midrange unit as its regular Linton sibling, with a 135mm woven Kevlar cone. Here, though, the driver is housed in its own generously proportioned cylindrical chamber, with graded layers of long-hair fibre to cancel out the back wave from the rear of the cone. This further contributes to the clean, seamless integration of all three drive units, resulting in the natural and realistic portrayal of instruments and vocals, with impressive scale, expression and transient impact.
Super Linton upgrades: the crossover
Combining the output of the bass, midrange and treble units is an all-new crossover network. This superior design is split onto two separate circuit boards, eradicating the possibility of electromagnetic interference from the bass crossover components affecting higher frequency signals and incorporating specialised inductors and capacitors selected for their first-rate audio performance.
The midrange and treble inductors are superior air-core designs, while the bass inductor, which must maintain low DCR (Direct Current Resistance), is wound on a proprietary ‘Super-Power’ laminated silicon-iron core. Low-loss polypropylene capacitors are used for top-tier transparency, alongside low- inductance resistors. Even the internal cabling has been upgraded, with a polyethylene dielectric and LCOFC (Linear Crystal Oxygen Free Copper) conductors for optimal signal transfer.
Super Linton upgrades: the speaker grille
Even the speaker grille is an improved design. It incorporates internal shaping to smooth the power output of the midrange and treble units and enhance the transition through the crossover region, further aiding the integration of all three drive units into a coherent transducer.
History elevated
The requirements of modern-day speakers are quite different to those designed half a century or so ago. Today’s solid-state amps deliver greater power, and modern speakers need power handling to match. The demands placed on frequency response by contemporary digital recordings and sources, especially at the extremes of bass and treble, are also quite different to the midrange-focused vinyl records and turntables of the 1960s and ’70s.
The new Super Linton is ideally adapted to these requirements, combining the most advanced drive units, crossover and cabinet construction of any model bearing the Linton name. The speakers are easily matched with a vast array of amps – power outputs from 25W to 200W per channel are recommended, with high sensitivity of 90dB enabling even modestly rated amps to drive them at high volume levels whilst remaining in control. Impedance scarcely varies from a nominal 6 ohms over most of the frequency range, further aiding the Super Linton’s broad compatibility.
In keeping with a design intended to be treasured, the new Super Linton sports hand-matched wood veneers, polished and lacquered to a satin finish. The speakers can be purchased with the same stand developed for the 2019 Linton, intended to position them at the correct height and ensure critical Left Collectively, the upgrades applied to the Super Linton elevate the classic style and sound to another level damping of unwanted vibrations. The stand’s rigid metal frame is complemented by matching wood- veneered panels at the top and bottom, and as the two Linton models share the same stand there is no need for anyone upgrading from ‘regular’ to ‘Super’ to buy new ones.
The Super Linton raises every aspect of the Linton’s performance whilst retaining its essential magic. Its bass is deep and impactful, its midrange open and expressive, its treble sweet and detailed, with free-breathing dynamics and an expansive scale that brings music to life. This is a sound you can dive into and lose yourself in as you play album after album; a speaker that exudes authenticity, designed for passionate music lovers who simply want to revel in their favourite works of any musical genre.
SPECIFICATIONS
Speaker type
Three-way standmount
Enclosure type
Bass reflex (2x rear ports)
Treble driver
25mm fabric dome
Midrange driver
135mm woven Kevlar cone
Bass driver
200mm woven Kevlar cone
Sensitivity
(2.8V @ 1m) 90dB
Nominal impedance
6Ω (8Ω compatible)
Recommended amp power
25-200W
Frequency response
(+/-3dB) 39Hz-20kHz
Bass extension
(-6dB) 32Hz
Crossover frequencies
550Hz; 2.5kHz
Cabinet volume
6.6L; 33.4L
Speaker dimensions (HxWxD)
605x300x330mm
Weight (each speaker)
19.8kg
Price and availability
A modern-retro classic lovingly upgraded using the latest technology, the new Super Linton is available from mid-November in a choice of walnut, mahogany and black wood veneers.
The Super Linton’s MSRP is $2,799 per pair including matching stands, or $2,499 per pair without stands.
The 2019-edition Linton continues at $1,799 per pair with stands and $1,499 without. The stands are priced at $499 if purchased separately.