Here we see the frontal driver array before its gold-rimmed magnetically affixed ovoid grill conceals it. By even spraying their horn mouths with flocking paint, the first surfaces which these tweeters and bracketing midranges see are acoustically treated. One assumes clear sonic benefits over the usually reflective alternatives of hard lacquer or veneer. By not reflecting light either but absorbing it like negative space, this paint even in bright sunlight remains an inky black.

Needless to say, big-bore engines love nothing better than being goosed to burn rubber. With butch cone surface and 96dB sensitivity fronted by 600 watts, Linga was most happy to oblige. That was a foregone conclusion. Having no neighbors to protest other than sheep allowed me to lay down some heavy skid marks, albeit with now quite aggravated bass droning. How would these towers of power behave into domestic levels and below where we do our actual listening?

When answering that question for myself didn't tally with personal expectations given price, I asked Donatas. How much break-in had this pair come with? "It played a lot before being packed up and sent off. It did stay in colder temps for about 2 weeks. 10 to 15 hours of play time should do fine, 20 hours max." That settled it. We had made that typical rookie mistake. I didn't have enough room for this very big speaker to perform as intended. Of course that wasn't Linga's fault. So proceeding with a review only to disregard the evidence would have been unfair. Donatas agreed. "I'm pretty sure they do need a bigger room. That's what they were made and adjusted for –  5 x 6 meters at least. But, you could still try and disconnect the upper woofers by removing jumpers N°5."

I did. This duly eliminated the off-kilter bassiness. To restore proper tonal balance, I backed off the tweeter contours accordingly. Done. But now I wasn't using 45% of the speakers' cubic volume. No longer was there any justification for such tall structures when half their size sufficed. Why pay for double cabinets with premium woofers, then only use half the enclosures and disable two costly drivers? That didn't make for a solid foundation to base a proper review on. "In a 50-100m² room, Linga's bass can get weak especially when the speakers are farther from the corners and front wall. It's why I had to adjust the crossover to leave the midranges dimmed down. Three planned bass options will build in better tuning flexibility. Also, in larger rooms one sits farther away. Then the frontal array behaves more like a point source and imaging becomes much clearer. Most the measures I created to cope with the issuess of very large rooms worked in the opposite direction for you to have Linga not shine at all. Linga S will be a small 40-liter version with 10" woofer, 5.5" midrange and 1" horn tweeter. That behaves far more civilized in the 20-35m² rooms most music lovers have. This model will have to prove that the Linga range isn't just about visual and seismic impact."

So as the revised title header presaged, this article became a mere introduction to Lithuania's Linga from 8mm audiolab. For proper sonic commentary, look at another reviewer with an appropriately sized space who can properly accommodate these black-velvet 5-driver towers…