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Linn Sara Isobarik loudspeakers

How are you getting on with your SARAs and Mac? Sweet sounding, I presume?
I am still in love with my system, powering the Linns with a NAD 3020 as preamp and tweeter amp, and a Nikko Alpha II as woofer amp. But I just ordered a new stylus ($200CAD!!!) so I guess the upgrade bug is still in me.
 
Old thread but I don't care. I'm excited! Just picked up some Linn Sara speakers. I'm listening to them now and love them. I'm sing Audio Research SP-8 and Aragon 2004mkII with them to listen to Joni Mitchel and Linda Ronstadt on a Micro Seiki DD40. All I can say is Wow! I hooked them up in place of Sony SS-M7's. I like them just as much. They have a different quality. They're brighter. Bothe speakers can be improved in my system. I look forward to hearing the Linns with either a Fisher X-101-D or with an Eico hf-87. I think the Fisher will work well with them. The Sony's will improve with biamping. Eventually I will try my Eico on the top with my aragon driving the base. I would love to drive them with 2 Aragon 2004mkII's. Maybe some day but I am very happy now. I look forward to listening to some Pink Floyd. These are phenomenal speakers. Love them!!!
 
I'm happy with both but last night after Dark Side of the Moon I lost myself in the music. I like Pink Floyd (Dark Side and The Wall) for reference listening because of the soft dialogue in the background of the music. I heard things last night I had never heard before. There is a woman saying "I'm not afraid to die". I don't remember which track but this tells me I am getting more detail from the Linn's than any other speaker I have owned. My copy of Dark Side is a new copy. I have to ask lots of questions about my experience. Could the new copy be remastered? Was I so attentive when I listened to it threw the Sony's? I am carful about evaluations because of expensive mistakes selling gear that may have better than I knew due to needing time to burn in or maybe being a poor match for other links in my audio chain. I have some ADS 1230's that I was going to give up on but realized they need time. They were recently rebuilt by Richard So and when they came back I gave them some critical listening and found the Sony's more to my liking. I am going to get them back in place and give them allot more time to burn in before I evaluate. I don't want to make another mistake as I know they are fine speakers also. Thanks for your response Hifi. It's nice to have community!
 
Squirrely said:
Old thread but I don't care. I'm excited! Just picked up some Linn Sara speakers. I'm listening to them now and love them. I'm sing Audio Research SP-8 and Aragon 2004mkII with them to listen to Joni Mitchel and Linda Ronstadt on a Micro Seiki DD40. All I can say is Wow! I hooked them up in place of Sony SS-M7's. I like them just as much. They have a different quality. They're brighter. Bothe speakers can be improved in my system. I look forward to hearing the Linns with either a Fisher X-101-D or with an Eico hf-87. I think the Fisher will work well with them. The Sony's will improve with biamping. Eventually I will try my Eico on the top with my aragon driving the base. I would love to drive them with 2 Aragon 2004mkII's. Maybe some day but I am very happy now. I look forward to listening to some Pink Floyd. These are phenomenal speakers. Love them!!!
Click to expand...
wow, like 'em more then the sony M7? that's pretty high praise indeed!

I've liked, and I mean really liked every linn speaker I ever heard.
 
Squirrely said:
I'm happy with both but last night after Dark Side of the Moon I lost myself in the music. I like Pink Floyd (Dark Side and The Wall) for reference listening because of the soft dialogue in the background of the music. I heard things last night I had never heard before. There is a woman saying "I'm not afraid to die". I don't remember which track but this tells me I am getting more detail from the Linn's than any other speaker I have owned. My copy of Dark Side is a new copy. I have to ask lots of questions about my experience. Could the new copy be remastered? Was I so attentive when I listened to it threw the Sony's? I am carful about evaluations because of expensive mistakes selling gear that may have better than I knew due to needing time to burn in or maybe being a poor match for other links in my audio chain. I have some ADS 1230's that I was going to give up on but realized they need time. They were recently rebuilt by Richard So and when they came back I gave them some critical listening and found the Sony's more to my liking. I am going to get them back in place and give them allot more time to burn in before I evaluate. I don't want to make another mistake as I know they are fine speakers also. Thanks for your response Hifi. It's nice to have community!
Click to expand...
oh lard, down the rabbit hole of DSOTM... different masters sounded different. My 1992 TOPO disk all the vocals, especially for example, the woman saying 'I'm not afraid to die' are much more prominent in the mix then any other master I have, and I think I have four or five different masters.

Do you have the 'immersion' master or a different one? beware, you're going down the rabbit hole with this one though.
 
Good morning Jazzmans. I think this is one of my favorite rabbit holes. I'll take a look at the LP on the weekend. It seems hard to believe that I don't have time in the week to even read an album cover but I'm up early to commute and home late after the commute. Life is in a rhythm that seems that seems important some how. Not my favorite rabbit hole. Keep in mind I only had a day to listen to the Linn speakers and I think the Sony's have more to offer with biamping. Last Saturday was a good day for me with the purchase of the Linn Sara's for $200 I hit up another person and picked up a Rotel RLC-1040 for $25! I'll be getting time off soon and plan to play.
 
I took a look at the Dark Side of the Moon LP I was listening to. I was pressed in 2016. I'm 65 years old so the copy it replaced was likely when it first came out. I purchased it in the 70's when I was in high school. It saw allot of play time on many different turntables that had who knows what condition of stylus and VTF's. My folks had a Gerard changer and I eventually got a Philips. I'm sure each of them carried a penny at times to prevent skipping. What did I know. As a result of my vinyl abuse, I have no way of knowing if the things I am hearing from this LP were audible from my original copy. If those subtleties were audible on my original they won't be today. Any way, I am back to listening to my Sony SS-M7's because the Lynn's have a problem. One speaker partially cuts out intermittently. The sound is rich, full and full of detail then about half of the presence drops from my left channel. It will be a while before I open it up but I suspect there is a loose wire or there could be a cracked solder joint in the crossover.
 
Squirrely said:
I took a look at the Dark Side of the Moon LP I was listening to. I was pressed in 2016. I'm 65 years old so the copy it replaced was likely when it first came out. I purchased it in the 70's when I was in high school. It saw allot of play time on many different turntables that had who knows what condition of stylus and VTF's. My folks had a Gerard changer and I eventually got a Philips. I'm sure each of them carried a penny at times to prevent skipping. What did I know. As a result of my vinyl abuse, I have no way of knowing if the things I am hearing from this LP were audible from my original copy. If those subtleties were audible on my original they won't be today. Any way, I am back to listening to my Sony SS-M7's because the Lynn's have a problem. One speaker partially cuts out intermittently. The sound is rich, full and full of detail then about half of the presence drops from my left channel. It will be a while before I open it up but I suspect there is a loose wire or there could be a cracked solder joint in the crossover.
Click to expand...
That likely explains it. DSOTM was first remastered in one of MoFi's first remasters, and the popularity of their version led to the 'official' remaster 1992, iirc which gave rise to the 'topo' cd which was MUCH better with regards to the 'little things' then the original us pressings.

For some reason, us pressings of a lot of music simply sucked.
pink floyd,
black sabbath,
led zeppelin,
beatles,

etc etc etc.

It took until globalization really began to take off and we here in the states started to hear the differences. Or, I should say, it took the MoFi remasters for us to start hearing what we were missing. (although I personally like the topo remaster over the mofi remaster, and the 'immersion' remasters a couple years ago are even better.)

So, yeah, any new version would sound worlds better then the orignal us pressings did.

Hell, my first lp copy of DSOTM was purchased in 1985, and by 1989 it was plumb worn out. I can't imagine how worn your copy from the seventies must have been!
Bummer about the Linns, I hope you find the problem, and that it's a simple fix.
 
I know this is an older thread but I am hoping someone with Linn Sara 9s can help me out. I recently acquired a pair and I couldn't figure out the wiring diagram on the back of the speakers. Mine have the same configuration as the the picture posted by the original poster of this thread with 2 pairs of plugs. However, the diagram are showing two sets of plugs side by side and one pair below it. Also, if I only plugged in on the top pair I hear music but the tweeter are not making sound, then if I only plugged in the lower pair I only heard very quiet music coming from the woofer. So I think the tweeters are blown or something have to be done about the connection. I am hoping someone can shed some lights.
 
I loved the first edition of the Saras when I listened to them in the late '70s They are absolutely meant to be used on very solid, very rigid stands. There were upward facing very sharp spikes which made contact with the bottom of the speakers. Placement is within an inch of the wall behind the speakers. The Saras had the most punishing load of the isobarik Linn speakers of the time(0.5 ohms in the bass).
An amp which is completely comfortable playing that load all the time was recommended by Linn. Having said that, I have heard stories of big tube amps(Esoteric Audio Research) doing a fantastic job with both the Saras and the Isobariks. Naim audio had an external line level active crossover for use on the 'Active model" not the 'P' passive crossover model of both the Linn Isobariks. By all accounts the best way to hear both of those Linn speakers was to order the Naim Naxo(Naim Audio crossover) and use a separate Naim NA 250 for each driver. Insanely expensive for the era, but the result was said to be revelatory.

I agree with what hifitommy said about the imaging but must be using top flight source and amps. I also agree with everyone who stressed that using receivers/ home cinema amps might be reveling in how good they sound, but that is but a fraction of what they are capable of. If you really want to hear the full capability of a Linn Isobarik speaker you won't have any idea of what you are missing until you use high quality amps. Again, don't scrimp on a compromised Source component. These speakers were designed to be tha last link in a superb audio chain.
 
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