r/vintagespeakers

Yesterday I went to my local thrift store with the intention of digging through the old CDs. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing interesting to be found.

They also have a small “audio” section further inside the store, but honestly… there’s usually nothing worth getting excited about there either. Still, I thought: might as well have a look.

And then I spotted them.

Two slightly larger speakers, hidden behind a pile of other random stuff.

I took a closer look and thought: wait a minute… are those Wharfedales?

So obviously, the next step was removing the grilles.

Wharfedale Linton 25i.

And the price?

€50 for the pair.

I checked them over pretty carefully. The cabinets are in excellent condition, the grilles are perfect, no weird smells (always important with thrift-store speakers), and all the drivers looked completely intact.

I hesitated for about five minutes…

…and then decided to take the gamble.

Once I got them home, I hooked them up to my system and put on some music.

Holy crap.

I honestly nearly fell out of my chair.

For €50, these things sound really good. Obviously, they're not quite on the same level as my Triangle Antal Esprit EZs, but considering what I paid for them, I'm genuinely impressed.

They're going to need their own amplifier eventually, so I'll probably start looking around the used market for something cheap and interesting to pair with them.

What I find particularly interesting is that there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information about the Linton 25i online. From what I can gather, they may have been made specifically for a particular audio retailer/chain, rather than being a regular Wharfedale model.

So now I'm curious:

Does anyone here know more about the Wharfedale Linton 25i?

I'd love to know when they were made, what they were originally sold for, whether they were a retailer-specific model, and how they compare to other Linton models from that era.

Either way, I think I just made one hell of a €50 thrift-store find.

https://preview.redd.it/8d5dgetmjhth1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1575f17da365cce9c4a4d9ac3eada64a38f4ef65