Wharfedale’s Upgraded ‘Super Linton’ Speakers: Style And Substance?

In 2019, Wharfedale relaunched its classic Linton speaker with a reimagined design that added new technology to a form-factor harkening back to the brand’s best-seller from the 1960s and ‘70s. Just like the original, the 2019 Linton became Wharfedale’s most successful product, and even inspired other brands to jump on the nostalgia bandwagon with their own “retro” speakers. Five years after its launch, the Linton is still Wharfedale’s biggest seller. But Wharfedale’s engineers, led by Director of Acoustic Design, Peter Comeau, haven’t been resting on their laurels. The team examined every element, from the drivers to the crossover to the lovely wood-clad cabinet, looking for ways to extract even better performance. The result of this effort is the new, upgraded Super Linton ($2,799/pair including stands, or $2,499/pair without stands).

The Super Linton is the second largest speaker in Wharfedale’s Heritage Series — a range of classic speakers from the 1960s and ‘70s, re-engineered for the 21st century. (Wharfedale also makes a number of highly-acclaimed contemporary loudspeakers, including its flagship Elysian models.) The Heritage Series will appeal to those with a soft spot for vintage styling, but Wharfedale tells us that these speakers offer superior build quality, finish, and sonic performance, compared to the classic speakers that inspired them. Despite using the latest techniques and technologies, the Heritage Series remains faithful to the spirit of the originals, according to Wharfedale. The Denton 80 and Denton 85 were the first out of the gate, launched to celebrate Wharfedale’s 80th and 85th anniversaries, respectively. Then came the Linton in 2019, followed by the generously-proportioned Dovedale in 2023. Selling for $7K per pair (including stands) the Dovedale is made in Wharfedale’s UK facility in Cambridgeshire. Earlier this year, Wharfedale launched the souped-up Super Denton, which took the existing Denton and upgraded key elements in specific ways to deliver elevated performance for a reasonable uptick in price. Now the Linton has received the Super treatment, resulting in a speaker that reportedly delivers a major performance increase for a modest price increase.

Wharfedale Super Linton: History and Design

The original Linton was a two-way design when it entered the market in 1965, though it had grown into a three-way design by the time the Linton 3XP came out a decade later. Robert Gutmann of the British Design Council was responsible for the styling. Celebrated for its rich, natural, and full-bodied sound, the 1975 Linton 3XP is the spiritual ancestor of the new Super Linton — expensive enough to be beautiful and perform up to “proper” hi-fi standards, but affordable enough to appeal to music-lovers with real-world budgets. Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, Wharfedale often used “Super” to designate an upgraded version of an existing speaker, so this prefix makes sense within the context of the Heritage Series.

The first Super Linton was launched in 1967, just two years after the first Linton. But that speaker represented a relatively minor update over the original, offering little more than a revised cabinet design. The 2024 Super Linton is a much more substantial upgrade over the 2019 Linton, according to Wharfedale. The aesthetics haven’t changed much, paying homage to Gutmann’s original design, but the Super Linton’s cabinet is about 2 inches taller, and better built. It benefits from a proprietary sandwich design that features a resonance-reducing combination of two layers of MDF, adhered by a layer of acoustic damping glue. Inside, the cabinet is filled with long-hair fiber and strategically-placed acoustic damping foam to reduce internal resonances.

The three drivers have been upgraded as well. A new bass unit features a die-cast chassis, a more powerful motor system, and increased magnet strength to enhance the low-frequency performance. Wharfedale says that the Super Linton’s bass extends down to an impressive 32Hz (-6dB). The speaker promises a more dramatic and impactful low-end, compared to the 2019 Linton. The midrange driver in the Super Linton hasn’t visibly changed — it’s still a 5 ¼ -inch woven Kevlar cone — but a revised chamber behind it uses multiple layers of long-hair fiber to cancel out mid-band-specific back waves. The tweeter has seen a major change. The Super Linton features a lightweight fabric-weave dome tweeter coated with special damping material. Supported by a ceramic magnet motor system, this tweeter has a sweet and detailed sound character, according to Wharfedale. It is reportedly taken from the brand’s larger and more expensive Dovedale speaker, and is said to be a big upgrade over the tweeter in the 2019 Linton. The revised short horn profile promises smooth response down to the upper midrange. Meanwhile, a new front plate design is said to enhance high-frequency dispersion, “matching the transient impact and detailing of the new bass unit,” according to the company.

In order to accommodate these new drivers and slightly larger cabinet volume, a new crossover was designed, now split onto two boards. The split-PCB crossover design avoids electromagnetic interference and also benefits from custom-specified components, including air-core inductors for the midrange driver and tweeter, and a proprietary laminated silicon-iron core inductor for the bass driver. The crossover also features low-loss polypropylene capacitors and low-inductance resistors. These components were reportedly chosen for neutrality and optimum signal transfer. Even the internal cabling has been upgraded; it now features a polyethylene dielectric and LCOFC (Linear Crystal Oxygen Free Copper) conductors.

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Wharfedale says that the result of these design choices and upgrades 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.”

Design-wise, the Super Linton shares obvious Linton DNA, and even uses the same dedicated stand, complete with built-in LP storage. The Super Linton’s MSRP is $2,799 per pair including the matching stands, or $2,499 per pair without the stands. As of the time of writing, Wharfedale is offering an Early Bird special: buy the speakers for $2,499 and get the stands for free. The 2019 Linton remains in the lineup, priced at $1,799 per pair with stands, or $1,499 without. The stands are priced at $499 if purchased separately. The Super Linton speakers are now available from our channel partner Audio Advice in three different finishes: Walnut, Mahogany, and Black Oak. The speakers are shipping NOW and on currently on sale for $300/pair off.

More information: Wharfedale Super Linton

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