Much like mid-century furniture, retro hi-fi equipment is currently all the rage! With records in renaissance as the “cool” way to playback your home music collection, the knock-on desire for other retro-components such as; amplifiers (both valve and solid state), tuners, cassette decks (which are rather difficult to come across these days) and loudspeakers.

Now, whilst second hand retro hi-fi may look great, I’m reminded of the phrase “Caveat emptor”, which is a Latin saying that means "let the buyer beware". You never know what’s really going on under the hood of these products, not to mention the fact that materials and manufacturing processes have come on leaps and bounds, especially when it comes to hi-fi speakers. After all, if you’re after retro hi-fi, surely it’s about it looking good and not sounding old?

Lamb dressed as mutton…

Wharfedale are a speaker manufacturer who have been around since 1932 and been at the forefront of the retro speaker revival. This month we're going to take a look at one of the newly revamped Wharfedale ranges, the Wharfedale Linton Heritage, which has embraced the “old school vibe” but with modern driver and crossover design technologies.

Wharfedale Linton Heritage...

The Wharfedale Linton Heritage are a large 3-way, standmount speaker which have the option of a dedicated pair of stylish but heavyweight stands that double-up as speaker storage. If bought together as a bundle, the stands are heavily discounted. To be honest, the speakers not only really look the part with the bespoke stands but sonically it also makes sense, as we’ll discuss later in the article.

Redesigned from the ground up by Peter Comeau, Director of Acoustic Design at IAG, the new Wharfedale Linton Heritage embraces the style of the original with all the advantages of modern computer aided design and anechoic chamber resources. The results speak for themselves (pun intended), with a musical sound that original owners will recognise, but with a noticeable enhancement to clarity thrown-in.

wharfedale linton heritage with matching stands doubling as a record storage.

The real McCoy...

wharfedale linton heritage real wood veneer finishes

The Wharfedale Linton Heritage have a real, luxurious feel to them with sumptuous wooden finishes... I personally am particularly fond of the walnut finish, which is available for all to see and hear at our Brighton store. So feel free to come in and witness it for yourselves.

wharfedale linton heritage in walnut on dem at our brighton audio t store

Keeping up appearances...

The Wharfedale Linton Heritage speakers certainly are “lookers” but are they up to snuff sonically?

At their price point, competition is relatively scarce, certainly in the large standmount category. It is nigh on impossible to find a floorstanding loudspeaker to compete with a good quality, small bookshelf in that price range and the Wharfedale Linton Heritage, albeit not strictly a floorstander, fits the bill, as a nice looking and sounding alternative.

Competitors may include the Dynaudio Evoke 10s and the ATC SCM7s, both of which we recommend highly, however these two are much smaller bookshelf designs offering a very different look and sonic palette and if you’re after something like the Lintons, you’d probably not even give them a thought. On the face of it, the Wharfedale Linton Heritage seem to offer a lot more for the money!

wharfedale linton heritage v dynaudio evoke 10

A lot of sound for the pound...

Since the Wharfedale Linton Heritage arrived in store, we’ve listened to them with a range of different sources and amplification, from the more intermediate level Rega Brio through to more prestigious designs like the Naim NSC 222, NPX 300, NAP 250 combination.

naim 200 series proved an excellent match for the lintons

In all cases we’ve used them in the Wharfedale Linton Heritage delivers a sound that is both wholesome and detailed, without being overly analytical. They are very easy to listen to, being musical and sufficiently dynamic to do justice to good recordings, without making poor recordings unpleasant to listen to. The only use case where I’d point a customer in a different direction would be intensely dynamic and complex orchestral pieces, where its big brother, the Wharfedale Dovedale Heritage, might be a wiser choice, albeit at a significant premium.

Somewhat of a surprise to us was how easy the Linton Heritage were to position and get good results out of. Although we’d not recommend placing them in a corner or right up against a wall, where the twin bass ports may allow the bass to become too “fruity”, 20 inches or so out into the open produced nicely balanced results, with good bass extension and timing.

Wharfedale Linton Heritage specs can be found here but needless to say they are fairly easy to drive and any modern, competent amplifier should get them going nicely.

wharfedale linton heritage twin rear bass ports

A retrospective view of the Lintons...

The Wharfedale Linton Heritage standmount speakers are an excellent addition to the Audio T Brighton repertoire. They fill a void in our price range and are very enjoyable and easy to recommend to our customers, because not only do they look and sound the biz they also offer a lot of speaker for the money. Highly recommended from myself and the team.

Thanks for reading.

Ade, John and Paul - Audio T Brighton

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