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Wharfedale Linton amplifier


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I received yesterday this nice NOS condition Wharfedale Linton amplifier. Carton has been opened, but amplifier with tags is still wrapped in plastic. Speaker leads supplied with amp do have tags attached and shorting plugs are in plastic bag.

Wharfedale did not produce their own amplifiers. As Leak was part of Rank family in early 70´s, Linton was actually Leak Delta 30 with different face plate and wooden case. Delta 30 was developed from original Leak Stereo 30 with germanium transistors via Stereo 30+. In Stereo 30+ stage germanium devices were replaced with silicon ones.

I was very happy to find this one in NOS condition... but I am not 100% sure if this good thing anymore. Pots are seized and switches seems to be pretty much in similar condition. I try to soak pots and switches with contact cleaner tomorrow to try if this helps. If anyone of you do have any experience about other method to handle this situation, any advice is appriciated.

More to follow...

Best Regards

Kimmo

Oops... is there any way to edit misspelled Linton in title of the post?

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  • 3 months later...

Nice Kimmo. Did you ever get this thing going?

Wharfedales (which I have gotten into lately with 2 pairs of W70's and one W35) require very little power to drive and drive nicely so that I am guessing is a lower power amp at what, 30/ch? I use mine with my Dynaco ST70/Pas2 tube system and the Wharfedales sound great with that 35 of the ST70.

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Never seen or heard of one of these - - - but I love the simple appearance of that Wharfedale amp - - it almost reminds me of some of the styling from Tandberg. When I saw the "Disc" function tab on the front I became curious about its vintage, but after looking at the rear, I see this is simply the mode we normally refer to as "Phono". Maybe late 60's to early 70's?

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I have managed to free seized pots and switches and also did clean innards of pots due possible oxidation... even there should not be any debris as amp was wrapped in original plastic bag, which seems been sealed all the way since original sale date. I suppose grease on pot shafts and switch linkages was cause for seizing. I also used BLO to refinish veneered teak case. Unfortunately, Linton has been sitting idle on my table with unfinished Quad 303 since... innards are super clean due NOS nature and storage in sealed original shipping carton with original inserts and plastic bag.

As I said earlier... Linton amplifier was actually rebadged Leak Delta 30 (not Delta 70 as it was sometimes suggested). Amplifier was rated 15 + 15 watts to 8 ohm sand 20 wpc to 4 ohm load... so it is no powerhouse. Tags do have 6/3/72 date printed on and styling does have more common with Tandberg and B&O than with Leak... like ra.ra mentioned. If I am correct Delta line were the last genuine Leak amplifiers. Later Leak amps and also Wharfedale amplifiers were sourced from Japan. I suppose Wharfedale did not succeed too well as supplier of amplifiers. I suppose idea under Rank Organization was that Wharfedale should concentrate for making loudspeakers and Leak on amps even they had been making sandwich speakers for some time.

Maybe I should concentrate my efforts to this little amp in near future. I try to post some new pics of innards of this amp soon.

But anyway... it was nice to hear that there is some interest for this item too. Thank you David and ra.ra. for nice words.

Best Regards

Kimmo

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David and ra.ra.

Here are few new pics of Linton amplifier.

Pics 1 and 2 are taken from manual including specifications sheet.

Pic 3 shows pre- and poweramp boards: You can see that "new Scandinavian look" does not apply here. Leak origin was not disguised anyhow. Weak point of this design can be seen here. Tin plating of edge connector was not the brightest idea. Leaks, as well Quad 33 and Armstrong 500 series of this era do suffer from contact problems due oxidation of tin plating here.

Pics 4 and 5. It can be seen that chassis wiring does owe much to old school tube amps. However serviceability was most likely prime issue as only PSU and signal switching was hardwired. Active circuity excluding 2N3055 output devices was placed on 4 removable PCB:s. In pic 5 there is only 2 PCB:s not fully seated in edge connectors. Layout is quite similar that H/K used for Citation 11 and 17 preamps. However H/K used decent edge connectors that have proved to be reliable. But... Citations were top of the line amps, this little Linton was entry level design. It is quite easy to understand why these were the last genuine Leak designs... 10 years after build date of this amp, such neat chassis wiring would be rare as hens teeth.

This is nice book http://www.impublications.com/content/a-pair-of-wharfedales, if there is any interest in history of Wharfedale

Best Regards

Kimmo

PS 15 WPC power may not look too much... but my first 2,5 WPC power amplifier was built from Philips Elcoma kit in early 70´s, when this was considered to be underpowered new 6 WPC amplifier was built from Philips kit too...

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