Originally Posted by
Barry
Yes I know. I heard them twice: once at a London hi-fi dealer and for a second time at an audio show. On both occasions they were being demonstrated in a large room. The image floated around so much I almost felt sea sick, and could only put with listening to them for about ten minutes. When I pointed this lack of focus and image stability to the demonstrator his replay was "How do you know it's not meant to sound like that?"
Clearly he hadn't attended many live performances in his life.
Sorry, IMO the Isobariks really are/were awful speakers.
In fact the Linn Isobariks join a select company of two speaker designs that are the worse I have ever heard. And the second I would forgive because I heard them being played in a hotel room that was far to small for such a (dipole) speaker.
+1. Lowthers of pretty much any description being the other... although I once heard a set of massive horn loaded things that had what looked like a wooden doorknob sticking out of the middle of each modified Lowther driver which sounded excellent...
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco