Linkwitz LX Mini+2 and IPL Acoustics S2TLK listening comparison

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I made contact with John from the ORION/PLUTO/LX... Users Group website who kindly brought over his Linkwitz LX Mini's and the two single driver dipole subs. We compared our two speakers.

The LX Mini's where powered by a very cheap Sony STR-DB1070 AV received with two Mini DSPs doing the processing. We used my existing Arcam SR250 as the preamp due to the lack of another other suitable source, and when not testing the LX mini's my present S2LTK transmission line speakers were reconnected to this amp using Chord Odyssey biwire.

Room is 5m x 4m x 2.4m (L W H)

Photos attached - if you have any questions post them here and will try to answer.

Overall this for me was a lesson in room acoustics - my reasons for wanting to hear the LX minis in the first place. Living room ergonomics requires me to place my speakers near the wall, I use Dirac Live within the SR250 to counter bloated bass. Bringing the speakers out into the room (about 1.2-1.5m I guess) does make a sizeable difference to the quality of sound to both speakers, the improvement however is dramatic for the LX Mini's.

Dirac live somewhat flattens the soundscape of the S2TLK speakers (and I believe I have a pretty good target curve that is a reasonably natural match to the speaker/room), it wasn't needed with the S2TLK speakers once they were brought further into the room (room correction was off for all LX Mini tests). However, and this is the big difference, the S2TLK speakers don't really vary in terms of their stereo presentation - they sound pretty much the same, even near wall the stereo presentation really doesn't change that much. But the LX Mini's were in a completely different league when placed out into the room - as Linkwitz states on his website you should really compare any other design to a set of LX speakers as a reference.

We also tried the LX Mini's in the near wall position as well, and they still sounded very good, but the soundscape was flattened (a bit like listening to a band being on stage in front of you, as opposed to actually being on the stage with the band).

When correctly placed in the room the LX Mini's had a soundstage I have never experienced before with any other brand/type of speakers, even when properly placed - but this is my first time with constant directivity/dipole speakers. You can clearly make out the position of each element and this actually makes listening to the LX Mini's a very relaxing and almost natural experience - you tend to listen less critically because you just hear what it should sound like and different elements of the music are located as they should be.

In terms of clarity, frequency range and everything else both the LX Mini+2 and the IPL S2TLK transmission lines are very good, I would consider them to be pretty similar and without any major flaws to be honest, but the soundscape on the LX Mini is another level and a considerable upgrade if you can place your speakers into the room.

Would I switch from my S2TLKs? Not at the moment, I will hopefully be moving house soon and if I am able to place my speakers out into the room then I would definitely invest my time and money into building a pair of LX Mini+2's. The LX Mini's are comparatively light, so you could just move them out whilst listening, but I also would need extra space for the subs as I am not prepared to lose that full range sound.

Thanks for reading.
 

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there is nothing "narrow" about the LXminis. my only beef with them is that they are power hungry and sound better when played loud. I am still trying to match their dispersion with a more sensitive home-brewed OB which allows for using FW class A clones. so the systems alternate in my house.
 
Question - how tolerant were the speaker to listening position, was it a narrow or wide 'sweet spot' for good stereo imaging ?

I agree with Koja. The LX mini's have quite a wide listening position, both myself and Colin thought so. The soundstage remains pretty much intact as you walk around the room in front of the speakers and at different listening heights. This was one of the key reasons I wanted to hear them for myself.

Of course, there is audible reduction in SPL's if seriously off angle, but this is to be expected. We really weren't critical of positioning the speakers when setting up, we just followed the basic rules and they worked superbly. I found my IPL S2TLK speakers to have a much smaller sweet spot, this is partly because of the directivity of the Fountec Neo 3.0 ribbon tweeter which has narrow vertical dispersion (if you stand up, the quality drops off a lot). I thought that ribbon tweeters where the best solution, but I think I was too quick to discount domes as they tend to have better dispersion than ribbons unless you spend mega bucks on a RAAL or other similar waveguide ribbon (all depends upon your application I guess).

There is a video on youtube showing the directivity of the LX Mini - my advice to you - ignore it! There is generous space in front of the LX mini's and you are not forced to sit in a critical position.
 
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