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Linaeum LS2 Floorstanders

Crotalus

Crotalus

Well-Known Member
Found some excellent Linaeum LS2 towers at the local Goodwill today. Cosmetically they are almost perfect except for one of the grill pegs is busted off. Very heavy and well built. They have the same serial numbers on both speakers. They certainly sound different than anything I've heard before, but in a good way. The soundstage in my living room has grown 10 fold over the HPM-100's. Opened them up and found an 8" Vifa woofer (see pic below) and it had some egg crate foam along the back panel. These are definitely keepers. Maybe some floor spikes are in order though.

Problem is I can't find any info on the web regarding them. The main issue is that when you do a search for Linaeum you get mostly Rat Shack stuff. If anyone has ANY info on these I would surely appreciate it.

Linaeum-LS2.jpg

Lineaum-Tweeter.jpg

Lineaum-back.jpg

Vifa-Woofer.jpg
 
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Fedallah said:
What kind of tweeter is that? I've never seen the like.
Click to expand...
I believe that that is the original version of the now infamous 'Linaeum ribbon tweeter:thmbsp: 'Model ET-15' I think?. : Before Radio Shack bastardized it.
I saw a pair of these go for $300-$400 on epay last year.

I've always wanted to hear the original Linaeum version. I just never warmed up to the RS version.
I always thought the RS/linaeum tweet was way too harsh.

I am sooo jealous, I've been looking for an original pair of Linaeums for a couple years, now!!!
Please post more pics! And an in depth review, ASAP, please!
 
Orion says.

Linaeum LS-2:
1993
MSRP:$900
Used: $317

PS: If you find you don't like them, you can always ship them to me!! :D
 
Wow, considering I only paid $40 for the pair, I guess I did pretty good.

My first impressions and mind you this is only listening to a few songs (Santana and Diana Krall) is that they have great presence, not harsh or the least bit fatiguing, excellent midrange and the bass is good but could stand to be tightened up a bit. The spikes may help this.

I only worry that if anything ever goes wrong with a tweeter that they are unobtainium. Wonder if they are repairable?
 
Crotalus said:
Wow, considering I only paid $40 for the pair, I guess I did pretty good.
Click to expand...
:thmbsp::thmbsp:

Crotalus said:
My first impressions and mind you this is only listening to a few songs (Santana and Diana Krall) is that they have great presence, not harsh or the least bit fatiguing, excellent midrange and the bass is good but could stand to be tightened up a bit. The spikes may help this.

I only worry that if anything ever goes wrong with a tweeter that they are unobtainium. Wonder if they are repairable?
Click to expand...


Yes I think at this point they are unobtanium. IIRC, Linaeum bit the dust in the mid 90's. After fallout from the whole RS debacle.

I wonder if they are repairable myself? I read somewhere the tweets are not very robust and border on fairly fragile.
 
Saint Johnny said:
I read somewhere the tweets are not very robust and border on fairly fragile.
Click to expand...

Wonderful.:worried: I'm very hesitant to even remove them from the cabs to take more pics. Sticking a screwdriver in the sides of them to take them out makes me think of the many times I've jammed one in a driver.
 
Ratshack debacle? The lineaum based realistics were probably the best they have made. The origional lineaum tweeters were larger than the radioshack equivalents, but those used by realistic, RCA, and others were high quality drivers.

The tweeters are called ribbons, but really aren't true ribbon speakers. They are very nice, especially in dipole version. I have seen some DIY versions that were substantially larger, and reportedly sounded great.
 
My Radio Shack 8" two-way with their Linaeum tweeter sound great. Combined with a good subwoofer would be a killer system.
 
dnewma04 said:
Ratshack debacle? The lineaum based realistics were probably the best they have made. The origional lineaum tweeters were larger than the radioshack equivalents, but those used by realistic, RCA, and others were high quality drivers.
Click to expand...

Let me preface with. The little bit of info out there on the Linaeum/Radio Shack partnership is sketchy and limited at best. As the OP stated already. It's almost impossible to find anything about Linaeum, pre-RS license deal.

While I don't think the Linaeum/RS tweeters were bad, per se'. (I own 5-6 pairs, myself.) I do find them a wee bit harsh. All I have read, indicates the original Linaeum tweet was superior and far smoother and sweeter, sonically, to the the later RS version. By people who have heard both. I haven't heard both, so I'm just going by what I've read.

I would love to A-B an LX5 vs. a Linaeum LFX corian one day, if only I could find a pair of LFX's. I've been looking for years.

IIRC, the originals were assembled by hand in the US. And used with a high quality x-overs. While the RS's were mass-produced under license in Malaysia. Used with cheap quality x-overs. And manufactured by the millions for RS.

There was more than one version of the Original Linaeum tweet. There were at least 2. The Linaeum LFX used a smaller version. And it's that version of the now famous Linaeum tweet, that was licensed to RS for mass production.

When I said debacle. I meant 'financially' for Linaeum. They didn't survive their partnership with Ratshack. For whatever reasons. While RS being a huge multi-national corp. did.
 
Those look like a cross between the Monopole and the Dipole version of the tweeter- The monopole was inclosed a bit more, most dipoles were open all around.

This is kinda in the middle.

Linaeum was contracted by Radio Shack to build both monopole and dipole tweeters for thier personal line.

Possiblility a slight (?) material change was issued. But I've heard it was material thickness, and not a different material, that was the difference between the factory Linaeum issue and the one built for RS.

This, from what I've read. no promises I'm 100% accurate.

Borrowed pics-


The monopole tweet-

4bcc_1.JPG.jpg










The Dipole tweet-

linaeum.jpg
 
I know all about the radio shack/RCA stuff (but thank you for the info and pics (thedelihaus)), was hoping someone had some info on Linaeum's own line of speakers.

Thought I'd pull the tweeter and crossover hoping there might be some info. Here's some more pics.

Linaeum-Tweeter-2.jpg

Linaeum-Tweeter-Back.jpg

Linaeum-Crossover.jpg
 
Thanks Crotalus,:thmbsp:

Very interesting!!! Monopoles.


There is some info out there on the original Linaeum Corp. But you really have to dig to find it.

They were located in Portland, Oregon. They were started in the mid-late 1980's by some maverick engineer, IIRC. But I forget his name.
They made about 10 high end/ expensive different speaker models over a 10 year history. From roughly 1987-1997. When they went belly up and their patents, etc. were bought/sold to a company called Aura. I'm sure I'm forgetting some finer points.
 
I shot an email over to Aura to see if they could shed any light on them. Thanks Saint Johnny.

Been listening to them all day. Very open and airy on the top end. Probably the most natural speaker I've heard. Can't wait to get my Au-717 back from EW to put on these babies.
 
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