The Linkwitz LX521 Reference Loudspeaker | Preview
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- The LX521 is a 4-way loudspeaker, designed as full-range dipole, for flat on-axis and off-axis response in the horizontal plane and frontal hemisphere. Listen in to learn more about its history, the engineering behind it, and more...
Listen to Tom's first impressions listening to the Linkwitz at AXPONA here: • Who was the Stand Out?...
Look out for Tom's full review of the Linkwitz loudspeaker in the coming weeeks...
About Tom Martin:
Tom is a long-time audiophile. He began his reviewing career after acquiring the The Absolute Sound magazine in 1997 and then hi-fi+ magazine in 2002. He has worked closely with Harry Pearson and Robert Harley at TAS and with Roy Gregory and Alan Sircom at hi-fi+. Since Tom and his teams expanded the TAS and Plus platforms in the digital domain, he has served as Chief Content Officer.
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The most important thing to remember is that this design does not look like your idea of what a speaker should look like because it is trying very hard not to be like any box speaker out there. All box speakers, whether sealed or ported, have problems with cabinet resonance. That is, all box speakers *sing* their own tune, which is a poetic way of saying they produce resonant distortion. Linkwitz LX521 are dipoles and were designed to reduce the impact the number one and two source of distortion in audio, the room and the speaker box. It looks different because it's performatively different.
Siegfried Linkwitz was a (very talented) microwave energy engineer for Hewlett-Packard. He understood quite deeply the topic of wave-energy propagation; almost like it was his career... His specific skillset allowed him to think approach sound as something you could focus and beam/project.
As a dipole, this speaker is like a lighthouse that sends out beams of sound forward and backward, with nothing to the sides. The radiant pattern of a dipole greatly reduces bass distortion (room modes/eigentones and room-overpressure) but also eliminates the off axis fall-off in the treble and upper midrange that results in a tight, narrow "sweet spot" in the stereo image. This is *not* to say that the stereo image is wide but unfocused. It is both highly detailed *and* doesn't fall apart or collapse into one speaker the minute you move a few inches left or right of dead center. The stereo image works broadly, which seems magical when you're used to box speakers.
With omnidirectional bass, the room is pressure-loaded just like stomping your foot in the center of a bathtub full of water. The pressure wave goes out, hits the sidewalls and returns, making a big mess. With dipole bass, the bass is beamed like a flood light where you want it to go, just like the upper midrange is, typically. This dipole produces deep, subwoofer bass without all the slop and mess. It's articulate and tight. It *will* lack the special effect of the concussive pressure wave of, say, an 18" ported sub. But leave that to the home theater geeks and techno heads.
With bass tamed, the mids and treble have room to breathe. That 'violin' shaped baffle on the top of the anti-resonance decoupling bridge is an *acoustic lens*. People look at this thing and think, "Oh, that's ODD looking." But that is like pointing at a jet plane and saying, "That does not look like a biplane! It does not look right to me so it must be a piece of junk!" No. The appearance and shape of this speaker are *purely* functional. If it is odd looking to you, it is because you are seeing something that breaks every visual rule you have about what a box speaker should look like. But it breaks those rules because it is not trying to do or be the same thing as any box speaker. And *that* is a *good* thing!
Linkwitz arrived at this violin shape over a decade of design, mockups and testing. His goal was to carefully control exactly how much energy in each portion of the frequency range wrapped around from front to back. That's why it is wider in the midrange and narrower at the top. It's literally all math. Think of it this way, in a dipole, when the box is open some of the energy from the front wraps around to the sides and so does the energy going backward. When they hit one another, they cancel out because they are 180° out-of-phase. Many dipoles sound interesting because they lack box resonance but have problems because they are not controlling cancellation by frequency. If you stick a speaker in a rectangular shaped open baffle, it is not going to focus individual frequencies so they behave the same. So by shaping this violin shaped lens, Linkwitz was designing how it focuses sound energy at the same time as he was designing its frequency response.
Essentially, you have to hear this thing to believe it. Forget all your preconceived notions about sound at the door. It has all of the benefits of other dipole systems with fewer drawbacks. Yes, you *do not* want to shove these up against the wall. They definitely work best in open floor plans because they require a BIG volume of air to work properly. They definitely want to be out from all walls by about the same distance as a person is tall. They definitely do not want to be in an equilateral triangle with the listener, but better set up at the points that divide the room width into thirds. So they bring some requirements in terms of room and room placement.
You've nailed it. Thanks for the time you've taken to explain so easily the basics of a very complex design. And this comes from a LX521.4 owner and complete devotee.
After all, there is no generalized scientific answer from the commercial audio industry to any of the serious questions posed in relation to the loudspeaker/listening room binomial, which is ultimately the essential link in any sound system. And this is where SL pointed all his efforts and documented them in his website.
Best regards
sadly the dipole bass is a complete myth, beyond the schroeder frequency in small acustical spaces it means squat whether the bass radiates as omni/cardioid/figure8 as the response is purely steady state and the human ear needs a few cycles of waves this big to even register them, even the original designer of D&D 8c a speaker with cardioid bass admitted this, if non omni bass changes the stady state response of your room favorably its purely by accident but in most spaces you are just loosing output beyond schroeder frequency
@@Tacet137interesting remark, could you please elaborate on that?
@@Tacet137interesting remark, could you please elaborate on that?
I spent time in the Linkwitz room at AXPONA both this year and last year. In a slightly larger room they completely disappeared and the soundstage seemed twenty feet behind where they were setup, and localization within the stage was fantastic throughout the room. Bass was plentiful and tight. They were in a smaller room and weren't showing their best last month, unfortunately, but midrange and treble detail was still very good. I didn't hear another system in any room in the last two years that does what this system does well. The speakers can even be built from a DIY kit for less than $5K and they provide the crossover settings for a miniDSP so you can bring your preferred amplification. I didn't note any obvious Class D issues with the modules they use in the power boxes.
Viewing SIg Linkwitz's website was an education in acoustics and innovative speaker design. I recall that Mike Fremer interviewed him while he was bedridden with cancer; it drew a tear in my eye, but I appreciated every moment that Sig made available to share his thoughts before he passed in 2018. Best of all, his work still lives on in these updated versions.
My 2nd exposure to the Linkwitz with my 2nd year at AXPONA. Very interesting approach. Being a Maggie lover, dipole is my thing. Seeing a good non-panel approach is always interesting.
And nice format on this video! Informative and concise! Easily justifies the time allotted. I see little use in hearing how a high end system sounds captured by a phone and processed by youtube.
By pure coincidence I stumbled across a pair of these for sale a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea of what they were, but bought them, and am thoroughly baffled (pun intended) by the way they play! Now I know what to do the rainy days of the rest of my life.
This platform is the culmination of Siegfried Linkwitz life's work.
Dipoles ... possess such inherent advantages vis-à-vis the acoustic distortions of the room.
Of course being velocity sourced, the challenge is the pressure region, below the room's fundamental mode.
So spirited LF playback warrants either additional dipole subs ... supplementing, or perhaps a nearfield/tactile sub could be carefully blended in.
Any who haven't spent hours and hours on the Linkwitz website is missing out ... an absolute treasure trove of world class content.
Neat design . . . maybe some people might shy away from it due to its unusual shape but I hazard a guess that it might sound really good . . . it was very well presented
Magnifico.💰💰💰💰💰💰
thank you great demo.
so 27K for a FULL pair of speakers . and then an Amp/Pre-Amp/ integrated amp , have to be added on. right?.
On the fully-built version, I’d include an acoustically transparent cover a la Vandersteen to hide the fugly top baffle.
It might sound good, but the aesthetics man, that's something to stomach. The set I listened to sounded weak and milky in the midband, a sort of power vacuum, did you notice that too?
Frank, no room treatment even in a concrete bunker?
Shakey cellphone video equals headache
Tom Martin looks a bit slow...
Could it be used to dig the garden also? 😄
So, is this a commercial product of what was once a DIY/kit?
Yes an improved version with improved crossovers, drivers and your choice of finishes. Linkwitz also still sells kits but they are much nicer than the old ones.
@@56ctconger Thanks, I remember the kits Linkwitz sold back then.
@@scottwolf8633 - the old school kits are still avialable through Madisound, but updated to the newest version. That being said, the commercial product is using nicer drivers and adds that second tweeter, which makes a difference.
I stand corrected - rear tweeters are in the kits, too
Madisound does sell the older wood parts and driver set. But they are not the newest parts. They offer a crossover but it differs substantially from the latest version. The lower mid is a totally different driver and makes a big difference in sound quality. Lastly the kit parts from M are serviceable but not very well made. They are also of different materials. IMO in this case you really get what you pay for.
I don’t like active crossovers because I have no amplifier options. I like the passive version if available.
With active, low level, x-overs you choose whatever amplifier you desire.
While the full system includes the 10 power amps , 5 in each box, it is possible to order the system with just the active crossover. Then you can use any power amp you want. I am not sure but they may also need to be of the same power rating because in general gain follows power.
@@56ctconger The gain must be matched, but the power levels can be different.
That is a good way to put it. My point was that most power amps scale gain with power. If power goes up gain does as well so the the typically fixed line level can drive the amp to full power.
what? you can use any amplifier you desire with active speaker, its just going to be very expensive since you need one channel of amplification per driver
Siefried was a friendly Genius This loudspeaker is pretty ugly alas ! WAF is nil!
WAF can be bought - I have to build her a 60m2 boudoir with a bathroom and walk in closet to place them center in our living room!