A bigger cabinet can also accommodate bigger drivers. Bass frequencies are handled by a 20cm unit that's the same size as the bass driver inside the old Linton XP2s but this time utilises woven Kevlar instead of paper in the construction of its cone. A 12.5cm Kevlar midrange driver sits just above in its own enclosure, and slightly off-set to the inside edge is a 25mm fabric dome tweeter.

Peter Cormeau: For me the attraction of vinyl, the more organic feel of its music reproduction, has never gone away. I’m happy to use both analogue and digital sources for my own enjoyment. What led me to start the Linton Heritage design, over 2 years ago, was a desire to recapture the feeling that I had from the first Wharfedales that I heard, and later built myself, in the 1960s. There is a level of performance available from bigger loudspeakers that has been lost, I feel, as modern preferences have led to ever smaller speakers.Unusually, they are designed specifically for use with the grilles on. Not only does doing so help to maintain that low visual profile, the grilles actually improve the sound thanks to their shape ameliorating interference from reflections from the edges of the cabinet. Sometimes the screen would go blank, sometimes RPT would show, and on other occasions it would switch from Phono to OP1. Looking at Linton, it becomes immediately clear that there's no expiration date on vintage style. The same can be said about superior sound, which you'll also find Linton offers with abundance. 100% Music Direct Guaranteed. I believe that a thin speaker always sounds thinner throughout the midrange when directly compared to a speaker with more generous baffle width. Of course, as designers of modern, slim speakers, we compromise by adjusting for the baffle step in the crossover, but in doing so, we also compromise sensitivity. What starts out as a 90dB at 1W drive-unit often ends up as an 85dB system once we have adjusted for the power loss due to the baffle step." Wharfedale specifies the new Linton's sensitivity at 90dB/2V/1m and recommends using amplifiers rated 25–200Wpc. The speakers sound best when slightly toed-in towards the listener, making sure that the Wharfedale badge is on the outside edge of each unit. That ensures that the off-centre tweeters are positioned on the inside edge, although as we play with the positioning, the difference between that and the other way around feels minimal.

Go large! The Linton in its full 1970s glory on Wharfedale’s dedicated stand, also strong and functional. Below there is space for LPs. Single gold plated terminals don’t accommodate modern fangled ideas like bi-wiring.

Most famous Loudspeaker

Wharfedale’s 135mm woven Kevlar mid-range unit gives clear, well projected vocals. Just as old 1970s Wharfedale (and Leak) loudspeakers were configured to do the same.

For the record.: the slightly older sibling 8300A may have the additional power you prefer to have and prices of the 2018 introduced units went south (in Europe) after the 6000series arrived.AS: I absolutely love the plentitude of functionality of the 6000A for an integrated, but wouldn't it be more up to date to give the unit the network capabilities (and an USB input) we have seen in other (AIO) amplifiers this year? The purpose of this test is to illustrate how much (if at all) the output changes as a speaker’s components temperature increases (i.e., voice coils, crossover components) instantaneously. So I’m going to tell you to buy new speakers, right? Nope. You have the original Kappas. Those were better. You have better drivers than I did- you’ve got EMITs- Infiinity speak for their diaphragm tweeter drivers. Those are quite special. If something goes wrong, you can still have them rebuilt. The parts are inexpensive and easily sourced. Same with woofer surrounds. The midrange is no longer available, but they rarely fail. Here are 2 cues for better sound, taken from the designer’s note sheet, which I have added to the Zip-file with some other product documentation at the end of the review