What is Wharfedale’s best-selling loudspeaker of the modern era? The answer is 2019’s reborn Linton: a large-format vintage-styled and vintage-voiced 3-way standmount loudspeaker selling for €1199 per pair; or €1449/pair with custom stands whose mid-section accommodates a small collection of vinyl records. But Linton designer Peter Comeau hasn’t sat idle. He spent the best part of 2023/24 putting together the new-and-improved Super Linton which – after a long time in the oven – emerges freshly-baked this week.
So – what’s new?
The Super Linton borrows the Linton’s 20cm woven Kevlar bass driver but its more powerful motor system and increased magnet strength promise improved attack and slam. In tandem with a cabinet that’s 4cm taller than the Linton, the Super Linton mines down to 32Hz.
That cabinet is constructed from a layer of MDF attached to a layer of fibre board with latex-based damping glue. According to the press release: “The interior space is filled with long-hair fibre and strategically placed acoustic damping foam, aiding the absorption of internal resonances.”
The midrange driver in the Super Linton is the same as the Linton’s – a 13.5cm woven Kevlar cone – but ‘graded layers of long-hair fibre’ have been added to the driver housing to better absorb its back wave.
However, the Super Linton’s tweeter is new and, according to the manufacturer, delivers greater resolution. Pulled from Wharefale’s larger and costlier Dovedale speaker, the 25mm dome is: 1) made from a fine fabric coated in a ‘special damping material’; 2) driven by a ceramic magnet-based motor system; and 3) housed in a chamber with back wave absorption that pushes its resonant frequency below the midrange driver’s crossover point.
Back to the press release: “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.”
A taller cabinet and revised driver units necessitate a new crossover. Here, Peter Comeau has applied air-core inductors to the midrange driver and tweeter — but why not to the bass driver? Comeau asserts that air-core inductors increase resistance to diminish the amplifier’s current delivery. Instead, we get a proprietary ‘Super-Power’ laminated silicon-iron core inductor. Elsewhere, we note the presence of low-loss polypropylene capacitors and low-inductance resistors. The internal cabling has also been upgraded with “a polyethylene dielectric and LCOFC (Linear Crystal Oxygen Free Copper) conductors”.
Upgrades like this don’t come for free.
Wharfedale’s Super Linton will sell for £1999/€2299/US$2499 per pair with the matching stands – or £1849/€1999/US$2299 per pair without – when they go on sale in mid-November.
Further information: Wharfedale
