This was my experience as well. I recall that it was generally well reviewed at the time and, because I found Lingo 1 to be such a big upgrade from Valhalla, I bought Lingo 2 blind, and was underwhelmed.
If I was starting over and was on a budget, I would stick with a filterless Lingo 1. I don’t think I’d bother with anything between that and a Klimax Radikal (or Akurate Radikal 2, about which I’ve heard nothing but praise*).
* Yes, you’d think I’d know better by now.
Dear @Murmur i sort of know what you mean, but they are easy to set up providing you are very methodical, the results are astounding, even today.
Martin
I thought the same. (1982 vintage, pre Cirkus).
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on changing the mains socket to unfiltered.
Bear in mind that servicing a pair of 135s, a 52/82 and a power supply is likely to be well over £1k of that £10k budget. Factor in cabling and supports, your budget for boxes is more like £7.5k
Re speakers, I used both Linn Isobariks and Saras with a 52/SC/135 set up for years. IMHO much better than SBLs, which I also owned. Isobariks are truly special…
I’ve never heard that tweak, but given the L1’s well known propensity for polluting the mains, I’m willing to believe it would be an improvement. If I was in the position of looking for an L1, I’d be sure to get it fully serviced, get the mains filter tweak taken care of, and be done with it.
Thanks. I’ve actually heard a refurbished pair of Isobariks ( 2 years ago at the NW Audio show ) and yes they were extremely impressive and bizarrely the guy refurbishing and selling lives in the next village to.me in Lancashire but they were way out of my budget
I used SBLs for about 20 years before I bought a 2nd hand pair of Ovator S600. A big step up in performance despite only been driven by 4x135s.
Thats correct Camphuw. However, in my living room the Ovators work well on a completely different spot than the SBL’s. Ovators: freestanding fire in the length of the room, SBL’s: against a wall across the width of the room. Both have their virtues but in the end Ovators are better indeed.
Mine fire across the room, and I have a low ceiling. Every now and then I think about adding a 250 as I don’t have room for a pair of 135s. Then again I could sell the LP12.
Not sure i would claim that the Ovator is better than SBL personally. They are quite different in the way they present music, and obviously in their room placement. I’m a big fan of both speakers, and have for many years owned both S400 and SBL, and for a short time the S600 (which were not a success here). Either way, depending on the room layout, both capable of great music.