Linn mid-range drivers

[John g]

Just blew one of the mid-range drivers in a 5120 center channel. Emailed the Linn folks who gave me the closest dealer, who in turn quoted a price of $750.00 to replace the driver(!). Bought the 5120 on Ebay for $250.00. Just wondering if anyone may know of an extra driver that may be available somewhere out there. I much appreciate any attention that may be given to my plight.

[Nat]

Knowing nothing about the driver, I feel comfortable in saying they are ripping you off. $750 will buy you many fine pairs of speaker systems, and you know perfectly well that the driver never cost anywhere near that originally. Looking on the bright side, apparently you are sitting on several thousand dollars of woofer and tweeter if you can find the same sucker they are looking for.
I wonder if its possible to find an midrange that expensive from ScanSpeak, Eton, Dynaudio or whomever.
I'd find something cheap that fits the hole and the frequency range and hope for the best.
I don't usually assume the worst of dealers and manufacturers, but don't see much alternative here.

[Nat]

Once my indignation subsided, it occured to me that there are plenty of places that will rebuild your midrange, and if you are way handier than I am, you could do it yourself.

[toxcrusadr]

Is it made by them, or possibly sourced by someone else? People talk about manuf. codes on drivers, but I don't know nuthin bout how to read them.

Yeah, for that money you could get a real nice midrange to replace it with and still go on a 3 day/2 nite cruise...

[Nat]

There are lists of manufacturer's codes that people have posted links to here, but my impression is they tend to be american companies or older codes. I would try posting pictures of the front and back of the driver and see if anyone can identify it for you. I know that I always look at mystery or help identify type posts, because of unabashed desire to show off. I also know I'm not alone in this.

[persil]

I know Linn from old! and how to deal with them! I can tell you that Linn dont make drivers, this is what you should do:
send an email to Linn (UK) stating what you have been Quoted and by who, tell them how you feel about their after sales service and that you expect much more from such a highly regarded manufacturer! ask them how thet justify the price quoted. ask them who made the driver. See how they respond and let us know. Dont forget to mention that this is what you intend to do. Linn value their US market!
If you get no joy Take the driver out of the cabinate, take some pictures and dimensions, write down any references that are printed on it. look on this site https://secure.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/catalog/ contact them with the details you have and hope they can identify the driver and supply a direct replacement. If they cant they are great at recomending a replacement by another manufacurer (lucky its from a center speaker and is not a matched pair!) Lots of Linn speakers used Kef drivers or other drivers from a few manufacturers. Good luck

[Nat]

I agree with Persil's suggestions, but want to vent some more. The reason to use more expensive drivers is that their response is more tightly specified, but any manufactured product will exhibit some variation from piece to piece. Consequently manufacturers of higher end speaker systems match each driver to the other drivers in the system, and sometimes match pairs of complete loudspeakers. Unless your dealer is going to do a complete matching of drivers and tuning the crossover (which if they were actually able to do would be pretty impressive), than you are not guaranteed actually any better performance using their fabulously expensive magical driver than you are using any high quality driver of similar efficiency and response.
Particularly since this is a center driver and doesn't need to be matched to its mate in a stereo pair, I suggest you contact Linn, and if they don't sort this out for you at a resonaable price, I suggest you simply buy an appropriate midrange from someone else, and tell the dealer to shove it.
One suspects they are already telling you to shove it by punishing you for not buying the speaker from them originally, but return the favor...

[cartvv]

Linn speakers of the first few years all used KEF and Scanspeak drivers, more precisely KEF on midrange and woofers, and Scanspeak on tweeters.

That was true of the Kans, the Saras and the Isobariks. All great speakers on their own way, BTW.

IMO they have never equalled that level of performance again. Tells you something about driver quality importance, doesn´t it?

I know this doesn´t help you much. Just my 2 cents anyway.

[vicdiaz]

Hi,

AFAIK, in the 5120 Linn uses drivers from a japanese OEM manufacturer named Tonegen. They have been supplying Linn with drivers for a number of years.

Vic
Main system: LP12/Ittok/Karma/Lingo/Genki/Exotic/2250/Katans
Spare System: SL-1200MKII/Grado/Wakonda/Klout/DIY Speakers