"I've designed some tools to adjust bass with Linga. When there's limited space, it's simply not easy to try them all. Due to the weight of Linga's upper cabinets, this needs at least two men to be done safely." Going in, we both knew it'd just be me. As the drawing shows, option 2 would mean disassembling my configuration, swap the tops for mixed woofer layout, redo the 10 jumpers and play erector set again.

Before going down that painful route, a different amplifier might solve my bass issues. I already knew that I could make at least decent sound running our Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature line stage with Elrog or Western Electric direct-heated triodes not into our customary 200-watt LinnenberG Liszt class AB monos but a Purifi 1et400a stereo amplifier instead.

That demonstrator sample is a 'next-gen Ncore' design from Bruno Putzeys and Lars Risbo. So it's class D with vanishingly low output Ω and copious amounts of negative feedback. When an amp applies ultimate control over demanding woofers, it's easier to discern what is basic lack of damping vs sub-optimal speaker placement.

Out came the Purifi amp from its shelf in the storage closet. Would it turn off the bass boom without sliding the towers into a less room-reactive position? That would be easy with our Track Audio spike shoes on furniture glides.

Nearly all visiting speakers simply perform best exactly where I had them already.

Swapping amps did erase the loose bloomy bass textures. It just didn't cure excess amplitude across a narrower band of bloat. To diminish whilst not eliminate that, Linga had to move away from the chair toward the front wall by well more than a meter. Then the chair itself had to move back a good half meter for a very elongated listening triangle.

Alas, the same extreme amplifier damping that had drained the low-end swamp had predictably dried out the remainder of the bandwidth. That neither needed nor wanted it. To compensate just a bit, I could swap in Western Electric 300B. Still, I'd much prefer our Liszt monos. On my list of no-go objections, bass boom simply trumps textural dryness. The Purifi amp could work.

How about a bridged pair of Gold Note PA-10 in on parallel review?

They generate 600 watts into 4Ω from class A/B biased GaN Mosfets and a custom switch-mode power supply. Their unique selectable damping factor then can separate the effects of raw power vs output impedance with the push of a recessed switch. I might now better understand what Linga really wanted to perform best in our room.

With Purifi amp.

On general bass control, the bridged Italian monos were virtually on par with Purifi—i.e. better than LinnenberG—then far superior to this class D amp for the bandwidth above my trouble zone. Woofer in/out scenarios I'd experimented with in this room before to know that firing across the shorter distance had my vote; and high damping factor on the PA-10 was better. That only left the mixed woofer orientation unexplored. That I opted not to attempt only to find out that I would have to revert to the original setup again. I'd still call these far too much speaker for this room. But now I thought that I could give them my best shot whilst writing off remaining narrow-band amplitude peaks to room interactions.

Manolis Karantinis, one of Greece's best bouzouki players, lending his cover art for some carpet fill.