PHILOSOPHY


For reproducing a music recording through loudspeakers there is only ONE way to do his correctly. It is complete hogwash to say  there should be a type of loudspeaker for every kind of musical genre. Contrarary  to musical instruments, loudspeakers are not supposed to have any sound "character "of their own. 

The loudspeaker designer has to strive for maximum transparency , minimum distortion , uniform dispersion and absolute neutrality. 
This is a difficult task cause the better he succeeds in this task the more the shortcomings of the source are exposed , not in the least the quality of the recording.

This is the major reason why large manufacturers are making compromises ( sometimes with exception of their toprange ) 
in the transparency 'tuning' of their speakers and tend to make their speakers euphonic , embellishing the sound but helas also masking the microinformation so important for reproducing the harmonical content of the instruments and human voices.

LINK loudspeakers do not compromise in their design . They are not "warm or cold" sounding  speakers, they do not emphasize any particular tonal region,
They are neutral and extremely transparent "performers".
The uniformity of the sound dispersion is extremely important to reach this goal wich also explains the exceptional stereo imaging of LINK speakers.
 This is necessary to reproduce a correct stereo image with a neutral sound balance since the perceived sound consists of the sum of direct and reflected sound.  This frequency uniform dispersion is the key factor where LINK loudspeakers have always been far ahead any competition.

LINK loudspeakers are "room integrated" designs. From the beginning of the design the loudspeaker/room interaction plays a major role in the further development. Loudspeakers purely designed on software programs or anechoic measurements emphasize the bass frequencies if you put them in the normal listening environment, masking the musical content of mid and higher frequencies.

The argument that each listener has its own way of hearing/listening is a false one, cause the same hearing is used in enjoying the live performance .


 
Cabinet construction and design
LINK loudspeakers have always been built carefuly in order to minimize cabinet coloration at the inside and in the enclosure walls.

The K100 model has been a revolution in cabinet design both technically and aesthetically.

CNC programmed milled from environmently friendly multiply Finnish Beech wood the shape and thickness are optimized both for suppressing resonances of the walls but also minimizing the negative effect of standing waves within the enclosure.

The shape form the outside is optimized for an optimal sound dispersion,  free of any diffraction of the sound waves of the music.

In the design of every LINK model , shape follows function.

The elegant design is the result of an optimal aesthetic but also acoustical integration in the living environment. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Cabinet tuning 

Each loudspeaker model has an optimised internal volume, precisely tuned to the bass-loudspeakerunit for an optimal pulse behaviour and a tuning calibrated in orde to get an even bass response in tje listening environment.

LINK loudspeakers are double tuned: first the internal volume is tuned for a deep and pure pulse bass reproduction. 
Secondly the tuning also takes consideration of the living room so that the final amplitude frequency response is linear in it. 

All too often loudspeakers are still tuned in an 'anechoic' room for the most linear bass 
reproduction.

Once these models are put in the real listening room they tend to sound 'boomy' .

More and more the Hifi consumer lacks the reference of real music performance and especially of acoustic instruments without any reinforcement.It is a sad evolution to notice that the hifi has lost its goal of << High Fidelity >> for wich the term was created long time ago.

I can imagine that someone used to listening only to his so called hifi reproduction could be dissapointed when being confronted with real acoustic instruments and could may be bored by the lack of the lack of theatrical exaggeration of a coloured "hifi" sound system.
 

 


Loudspeakerunits and crossover

The same rules are applied here. The loudspeaker units should be regarded as 'air pumps' putting air into movement without any loss or distortion.

Therefore it is imperative that the cone of the woofer or the dome of the tweeter stays in exactly the same physical shape and to not deform under the mechanical stress.

The loudspeaker units used in LINK loudspeakers have membranes made out of the most rigid materials available. The basunits have a sandwich cone construction made of five different layers or carbon filled papercones. This has the advantage over the usual stiff aluminium or Kevlar or carbon cone that the peak resonance associated with these materials can be eliminated. 

The tweeter has an ultra light stiff aluminium alloy dome, damped with the flexible polymer surround and a the ferrofluid in wich the voice coil is immersed. The use of ferrofluid has not only the advantage of cooling the voice coil and allowing very high dynamic sound reproduction but also of linearising the impedance curve allowing the crossover filter to work optimally.

The quality of the chosen loudspeakers is such that the crossover filter can be kept as simple as possible allowing a minimal phase and therefore pure pulse sound reproduction. More components often mean less quality cause of the loss of transparency in the sound. The choice of the crossover point has been critically chosen to ensure an optimal integration between the units. This explains the absolute homogenity and wide linear dispersion of the sound, so typical for every LINK model.