Review Wharfedale Linton Heritage monitor speaker

Intro

The British (what else could it be?) Wharfedale is a true icon in the world of hifi audio. They have been manufacturing loudspeakers since 1932, which comes down to almost 90 years (at the time of writing). Not many manufacturers can say that. The ‘big boys’ usually celebrate their 45th or 50th birthday. Wharfedale is heading for a mighty 100 years. But that says nothing about the quality of the products, of course. We listen to the Wharfedale Linton Heritage. A hefty monitor-speaker of about 1200 euros per pair.

The original Linton loudspeaker stems from 1965. This one looked – not entirely surprising – almost the same. But if you look closely, you will see that things have changed. Fortunately, because insights and techniques have simply changed in 55 years. The Wharfedal Linton Heritage therefore has new units, a better filter and a better cabinet. The classic looks have remained.

Structure

The Wharfedale Linton Heritage is basically build around a rectangular cabinet. In it, we find three units, masked by a black speaker cloth. Right. Like ‘the good ol’ days…’.

There’s a left and a right model. This is because of the offset tweeter placement. Basically it means that the logo on the speaker cloth should be on the outside (that way the tweeter is more to the middle).

There are matching stands. These ensure that the tweeter is at the right height. That is important of course. The Wharfedale Linton is not a small speaker and because of that, the tweeter will quickly be too high on normal stands. Then the stereo image and maybe also the sound image is not correctly balanced anymore.

Technically, we are listening to a three-way bass reflex speaker. On the back are two pipes. The speaker units are a 25mm soft dome tweeter, 135mm kevlar midrange and a 200mm kevlar woofer. Crossovers are at 630 and 2400 Hz. The range is about 40 Hz – 20 kHz (+/- 3dB). The -6dB point is at 35 Hz.

The cabinet is MDF according to our estimate. The dimensions are not modest with 56.5 cm high, 30 cm wide and 33 cm deep. The weight is 18.4 kg, which is significant. It certainly will leave a dent in the floor if it drops of the speaker stand. Though that doesn’t happen quickly with the matching models. Unfortunately we didn’t have them; it certainly completes the classic look.

The finish is excellent for a loudspeaker in this class. We don’t see any large seams, the units are neat and the grille fits neatly on the front. It is not magnetic mounting, but can we expect that in this class?

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