Linn Audio Loudspeakers Athenaeum Speaker Review

Setup

As far as setup goes, I simply removed my Teresonic Ingenium XR and plugged banana plugs of my High Fidelity Cables CT-1 Ultimate speaker cables into the back of the Linns. The amp was my beloved Wavac EC-300B. The source was the Soundsmith SG-220 Strain-gauge mounted in the AMG Viella V12 turntable an arm. By the way the Wavac had plenty of power to drive the Linns and control the 15-inch woofer.

The speakers weight 225 pounds each so you will need some help getting them into the room. If you don’t live within driving distance from Oakland, I would suggest using some shipping service like “White Glove Deliveries,” that is, someone who ships them like furniture and who unloads them and puts them in your house where you want them. The few things I have had shipped this way have been well worth the price. Once you get them in the room, you’ve got to find out where they sound best.

The first thought is although they look like corner horns; they aren’t. The cabinet shape has more to do with getting the best sound from the drivers. Still, considering how big they are and the size of my room, I started with them nearly in the corners. I found if you put them to far back in the corners, they sounded a little less alive, but still very nice. They don’t need that much toe-in, but I was pleased that neither the bass nor mid bass seemed overpowering in the corners. I found they sounded best aimed directly at my ears. The next question was how close to the corners they needed to be, so I pulled them well out into the room and about one foot from the side walls. This did nothing to help them. The soundstage was no better, the bass was looser, and they looked ridiculous.

I spent several hours over two days playing around with placement and ended up with the speakers’ back outside corner about 20 inches from the wall behind them and about 6 inches from the sidewall. This makes the front of the spherical horn about 43 inches from the corner of the wall behind the speakers. This is the placement I ended up using for the review. In my room, it simply did not help the speakers to move them out, but just the opposite. Unlike the Voxativ Ampeggio Speakers (review forthcoming), I did not have any trouble with trying to sit farther away than normal, or any problem with ever having the cupped hands effect.

You need to know if speakers sound bright or dull, before you start swapping amps, cables, and the such, or work on toe-in. The angle of the horn and the distance of the horn from your ears can effect this area of their sound.

One last thing about setup. The Linn Audio Loudspeakers Athenaeums come with six one-pound brass footers that come down to a subtle point. Of course, it’s much easier to move them around on a carpeted floor without the feet screwed on, but as soon as you get close to the right place; put them on! The bass is tighter and has more bloom with the brass footers on. Likewise, raising the horn helped the sound to open up a little bit. The speaker sounds better in every way with the footers on.

Listening

These speakers have forced me to re-evaluate how I listen to music. They let me hear all the magic of the Wavac EC-300B with the NOS Western Electric 300B and 345A tubes. Let me say from the beginning you can’t listen to them without coming away with the thought, “man that was beautiful.” They surely aren’t a lot of things audiophiles listen to in music, but you can’t deny the fact that they play music beautifully.

Other than the incredible magic that is in the narrow range of voices and certain instruments, the Athenaeum sound fundamentally different from my Teresonic Ingenium XR. What are those differences? Let’s just make a quick list before we go down the line of why and how:

1: They sound significantly richer
2: They reveal more tonal colors.
3: They have a more relaxed sound.
4: They sound bigger, not a bigger soundstage, just more substantial.
5: They are more forgiving of less-than-perfect recordings.
6: They are more powerful, They do this while still having a wonderful life to the sound.
7: They are not as fast.
8: Their micro-dynamics are not quite as good.
9: They don’t let you hear quite as much air around and within instruments.
10: Can’t think of a 10th.