Lindemann Move

Whenever I grumble about the fragmentation of the audio equipment market, which translates into a huge variety of equipment available in stores, but also problems for customers to sort it all out in their heads and make a choice, I get a press release about new speakers, amplifier, or wireless headphones. If only these were brands whose existence I was aware of, whose products caught my eye while browsing magazines or reports from exhibitions, but this is not always the case. Later it turns out that we are not at all dealing with a small factory founded by enthusiastic students, but with a company operating continuously for thirty years, boasting many successes, awards, and, of course, a large group of loyal fans. Such was the case with Lindemann.

If you had asked me a year ago if this name had crossed my mind, I would have replied that of course, I know Till Lindemann, the lead singer of the German band Rammstein. So we remain on a related topic, but we're talking about another Lindemann, Norbert, who is an engineer and music lover, and because he likes to put his skills to practical use, a little over three decades ago he founded a company specializing in hi-fi equipment. "At Lindemann new products are created by means of the most advanced design tools and measuring methods. In doing so we use, of course, the latest and best technologies on the market. Yet the sonic outcome is always of prime importance; our ears are the key measuring instrument. A careful optimization of all circuit details and a target-oriented selection of top-grade parts build the basis for every genuine high-end product. It takes a lot of meticulous work here to understand all sound influences and optimize the result accordingly. On the highest level real progress in sound quality can only happen through a deep insight into the correlations and a consistent implementation in the circuit design." - that sounds very German, doesn't it? Order also reigns in the catalog. The flagship Musicbook series consists of just two devices, while the Limetree line features four. Is that all? No, because Lindemann recently showed its next creation - extremely interesting monitors called Move.

Lindemann Move
The speakers attract attention from a distance, unless you cover them with a gray grille.

Design and functionality

When an electronics specialist introduces a speaker system, it's usually a collaboration of some kind. While some headphone manufacturers also make microphones or even phono cartridges, because the technical facilities needed for this are similar (I'm talking, of course, about large companies like Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, or Audio-Technika), leaping from amplifiers to speakers can be compared to switching from an airplane to a transatlantic container ship. In both cases the job is quite complicated, and similar only in the sense that in both cases technical knowledge is needed to develop and build such equipment (quite different in principle, but always), and the people who take on the job should have enough experience and be sufficiently attuned to properly evaluate the effects of their actions. The rest is like entering uncharted waters. Completely different parameters, designs, materials, and requirements, not to mention something as mundane as machinery. It's no wonder, then, that even large companies, when they have the need (for example, when they decide to create their own compact stereo system or active loudspeakers), are more likely to ask someone for help than to invest huge amounts of money to do it all in-house. One might have expected Lindemann to follow the same path, its loudspeakers to look strangely familiar, and in a moment it would turn out that they were actually designed and made by a company like Audiovector, Pylon Audio or T+A. But no. Germans decided to create their speakers from scratch.

Move is something extremely original. You can see that the manufacturer did not want to multiply entities, compete with dozens of similar speakers, or repeat patterns that have been duplicated thousands of times. Everything here is unconventional - the drivers, stands, sockets, and even the cabinets. However, it doesn't end with the appearances. The copper-colored woofer and gold-glowing AMT tweeter are effective eye-catchers, but I was even more intrigued by the information about how the crossover of the German monitors is constructed and what components were used in it, or rather, how many were not used. At the sight of the first pictures of the Move, I thought that these were active speakers, perhaps even networked, largely based on components we've seen in the all-in-one Musicbook Combo system, for example. If these were to be ordinary passive speakers, then the brand, known for its love of modern solutions, could have surprised us with some extremely elaborate crossover with impedance linearization circuit, or at least switches or jumpers for adjusting the intensity of low and high frequencies. Well, that's a flop, because mister Lindemann, who, by the way, was involved in loudspeaker design long before he created the monitors described here, took the opposite direction.

The lower driver in the Move is actually not a woofer, but a wideband speaker, so it works without any filtering, being connected directly to the terminals. In terms of treble reproduction, it's assisted by an AMT tweeter, which is filtered, but this job is handled by a single high-end capacitor. Thus, it can be said that the crossover in the Move consists of a single element, whose role is to remove from the tweeter the duty of reproducing low frequencies, which, of course, such a unit is not designed for. Other than that, however, we are dealing with a maximum, even radical simplification of the circuit. The company claims that this has resulted in a sound that combines the best features of wideband and multi-way designs. However, it doesn't stop there. Since a fullrange unit has been used here instead of a classic woofer, you're probably wondering what, if in this case it can be called that at all, the division frequency is. Well, the lower speaker works up to about 9 kHz and the AMT driver extends the bandwidth to 36 kHz.

The Germans claim that with this configuration Move implements the concept of a point source. Not as literally as is the case in speakers actually using a single fullrange or coaxial speaker, but also without the inherent drawbacks of such designs. One might be tempted to say that in Lindemann's monitors, the key part of the bandwidth is reproduced by a single unfiltered loudspeaker, and frequencies above 9 kHz are burdened by an auxiliary loudspeaker mounted on top so that the "main" one doesn't have to have an additional magnet, coil and diaphragm, so we don't get phase problems and various other stories that designers of coaxial loudspeakers have to deal with. Smart. It's rare to see coaxial units in which the treble is reproduced by something other than the dome. Of the well-known brands, only ELAC and its Concentro series come to mind. Designs with unfiltered speakers or crossovers consisting of a single element are also scarce.

German monitors are extremely interesting from a technical point of view, but I must leave the rest of the details for later, since in our test layout a separate paragraph serves that purpose, so let's get back to the impressions of unpacking, setting up, connecting, and using them. At first glance, everything is in order, although music lovers accustomed to hi-end monitors will see that Moves can't really hold a candle to some speakers for several thousand euros in terms of workmanship and finish, the number of available color versions or included accessories - everything that translates into the impression of dealing with luxury equipment, unique, refined to the smallest detail. For a start, there are no color options other than the one you can see in the photos. The main part of the casing is covered with white matte varnish, the front is black, the grilles are gray, and the terminals are no WBTs or Furutechs, but "Exposure style" holes, in which only banana plugs will fit nicely. Bi-wiring or bi-amping? Forget it (although it would be extremely interesting in the case of such unusual loudspeakers). The manufacturer hasn't even provided any self-adhesive pads, let alone threads into which we could mount decent feet or spikes. For an extra charge, you can order Lindemann's stands, which in my opinion look a bit like cocktail tables. I had considerable doubts about their stability, so I used my own metal stands during the listening test.

Another curiosity is the front walls. Maybe not everyone, but a good portion of speaker manufacturers assume that they should be as thick, heavy, and rigid as possible, while in the Moves they are only a few millimeters thick. In the press materials, I found information that the black plates were made of aluminum, but I wouldn't be sure about that. The front baffles got warm very quickly despite the fact that they arrived in our editorial office in winter. When tapped, they also made a deafening, heavily muffled noise, and gently flexed when I removed them for the photo shoot. I may not be a materials science expert, but it seems to me that aluminum behaves differently. To make things even more interesting, the front panels are mounted with six screws, under which you can see soft washers. They stand out, as they are beige, making the screws even more prominent. Moves look more like a combination of modern network speakers and studio near-field monitors than equipment for audiophiles who prefer classic style, turntables finished in exotic wood veneer, and tube amplifiers.

The manufacturer prides itself on the fact that its equipment is not only designed but also manufactured in Germany, which is not so obvious these days. The only question that remains is whether we should expect more at this price. As far as the visual experience is concerned, I'm inclined to say yes, but I must stress that I've been having trouble keeping up with reality lately, especially in an economic sense. Mentally I am still in the days when €5000 was the conventional threshold of high-end for many audiophiles. Now amplifiers and speakers for that kind of price are considered, at best, middle class, so the requirements must also be lowered accordingly. Or maybe the Lindemanns aren't particularly beautiful and don't have shiny, rhodium-plated sockets, because their designer focused all his energies and resources on getting phenomenal sound out of them? There are many indications that this is quite a likely scenario, but I won't be convinced until I have a listen.

Lindemann Move
Most speakers in this price range are equipped with more luxurious terminals.

Sound performance

Lindemann's monitors were mentioned extremely often in comments after last year's Audio Video Show in Warsaw. It was one of the first, if not the first official demonstration of these speakers in the world. Visitors were impressed by the power, clarity, and spaciousness of their sound, describing them as sets boasting a scale of sound typical of floorstanding speakers. Their positive impressions were reinforced by the price. For the average person, it's certainly not low, but in the conditions of such a huge event, where you can see and hear a system worth several hundred, if not several million euros, in almost every room, two-way bookshelf speakers for less than €3500 is a real budget, penny-wise equipment. If we asked any person we met at the show to take a picture of every cable worth more than Lindemann's monitors, I think we would get well over a hundred of them within an hour. Surely such a gallery would include a speaker, signal, power, and even LAN and USB cables. Nonetheless, according to many audiophiles, it was in the room with Moves, that one could hear sound qualifying for the top ten in the stadium, and perhaps even the entire exhibition. Hearing so many positive reviews, I decided to review the German speakers in a controlled environment.

It quickly turned out that Audio Video Show visitors were absolutely right. The Lindemanns offered a spacious, majestic sound, whose main assets are powerful, meaty bass, great transparency, and a three-dimensional soundstage. All this has been combined in such a way that we cannot complain about excessive deviations from neutrality or tricks typical of lower-end equipment. You can hear right away that linearity, transparency, and versatility were not the most important things for the German engineers. The sound of these monitors is natural and correct enough that no one should immediately cross them off, but to even begin to consider this, we would have to ignore other attractions, and this is simply not feasible, because each of them is able to effectively attract our attention. Moves are careful not to overstep the bounds of good taste, and unless we push them to the very wall, they certainly won't bite. Instead, we can be sure that during the first minutes of listening, we will discover many interesting elements and many flavors in their sound.

Regardless of the music we choose, German monitors always bring on something worth listening to, some distinctive characteristics and details we probably wouldn't hear on most other speakers. Moving them from the desk to the dresser in another room, from the dresser to the stands, changing the amplifier, the source, and the speaker cables - the Lindemanns react to our actions like a child finding more and more presents under the Christmas tree. When I replaced the Yamaha R-N1000A, which I had planned to use only for a quick warm-up, with the Unison Triode 25, the Moves began to play as if they had been locked in a cardboard box for five years, and in all that time they had been dreaming of finally being able to sing. If you have a dog, you certainly know what happens when you say "walk," put on your shoes, and pick up your pet's leash or favorite toy. That's exactly how you feel when listening to the described speakers. The Lindemanns don't make us wait for them to have a good day or discover their strong points hour after hour. They give us a magnificent performance here and now as if they know they are made for this and derive incredible joy just from doing their job. It's no wonder that after a while, this mood transmits to us as well.

What exactly is the reason for this? Well, most loudspeakers boast one, two, at most three truly unique characteristics. In the case of Bowers & Wilkins 704 S3s, it will certainly be neutrality. Revival Audio Atalante 5s offer a palpable midrange and interesting bass. Triangle Magellan Cello 40th - dynamics, transparency, and clarity, Spendor Classic 2/3s - timbre, meaty bass, and musicality. If one were to put the reviews of these models through a simplifying filter and do it until there are single words left, this is what it would look like. In the case of the Lindemanns, it would be very difficult, because I don't know where to start, which of their advantages is more important. And to make things more interesting, my observations still evolved over the course of listening. In fact, until the last day, Moves surprised me with more interesting details. It's a good thing I don't like listing the tracks I played during the test because here I would have to prepare a whole playlist and map out the most interesting moments, thinking that anyone would repeat that procedure. Long story short, whatever you listen to, and how many times you have already analyzed your favorite recordings, I guarantee that with Lindemann's monitors, you will rediscover them.

Having to point out the most interesting element of this sound, many listeners will bet on the bass. Apparently, Lindemann's corporate emblem is the bass key for a reason. It's perfectly understandable to compare the German monitors to floorstanders, but only if what we have in mind are large speakers capable of generating really deep and dense low frequencies, and not slim, two-way floorstanders with 13-cm woofers. Moves can boom and bang, but that doesn't seem to me to be the most important thing about them at all. Monitors with powerful bass are usually associated with buzz, coloration, and rumble, but here - with a bit of common sense in terms of positioning (I'm thinking here of the distance from the rear wall) - you shouldn't hear anything like that. The bass is relatively plentiful, there's quite a pleasant thickening in its midrange, there's even a slight mannerism, but it's all been tuned with such sensitivity that the sound doesn't ooze, doesn't spill over the floor, and certainly doesn't rumble. Even if we have a slight aversion to boosted bass, after a few minutes we should get rid of it. We begin to trust the Lindemanns not to overdo it. Despite this concert-like disposition of the low end, everything will be fine. Okay, the paragon of neutrality these speakers are not, but the depth, fill, meatiness, and the way these low frequencies pulsate - that's marvelous. Interestingly, because of this extremely meaty bass, the Lindemanns can play quietly. I pay attention to this because I often listen to music while I'm working. Many speakers uhm, how can I put this, die a little after going below a certain volume level. Bass becomes weakened or shuts down completely. The resolution also suffers. Here the position of the volume knob makes almost no difference to the character and balance of the sound. The decibel level is our choice. The quality and completeness of what we can hear is a credit to Lindemanns.

What, besides the bass, did I particularly like? Dynamics, clarity, soundstage, midrange tangibility, speed (bass is not at the forefront in this area, but it's not far behind either, while midrange and treble are snappy as can be), and something that's really hard to put into words - the impression that a thick curtain has dropped between the music and us, the fog has disappeared, the distance has shrunk. Is this due to the lack of a classical crossover? Or is it due to the use of a fullrange driver assisted by an AMT tweeter? I don't know if I should wonder about that. Perhaps I stared far too long at the manufacturer's technical descriptions and materials, so let's just assume that this unusual sound comes from something, and there, case dismissed. You're probably wondering if Moves have anything to offer us besides an original approach to music and a few standout assets. Well, they do, because when we wade through all this pile of highlights, we can forget about trying to evaluate the sound in qualitative terms, and when we do, we come to the conclusion that it's really good. To give a verdict, to give the German monitors points, to put them in some specific place on the scale from zero to infinity is more difficult than usual because this sound is so distinctive that the final result eminently depends on the circumstances - the recording, the electronics, and the acoustics of the listening room. Under unfavorable conditions, we will come to the conclusion that there is something very appealing in Lindemanns sound, but it just doesn't work as it should with us. However, if we hit the jackpot, the German monitors will overshadow much more expensive speakers, just as it happened at the Audio Video Show.

A much more important question, it seems to me, is whether audiophiles looking around for monitors in this price range will be willing to go that hardcore, let go of the pursuit of neutrality, transparency, and versatility, put aside the concept of hi-fi and consciously choose hi-fun. Recently, many manufacturers came out with such bold proposals, and I don't know if it has paid off for them. What it means is breaking out of certain patterns, going against the grain, and abandoning the fantasy that one can buy speakers that can do everything, perform well in any situation and any music, and on top of that delight us with something. The Germans openly laugh at such a concept. With the sound of their monitors, they clearly let us know that in their opinion you have to bet on something, step out of your comfort zone. And they advocate that listening should be fun, an unforgettable experience. And if the bass sometimes goes a little off the rails? That the highs will prick your ears when the drummer starts testing the strength of his sticks? That not everything will be smooth, and predictable? Such is life, such is the world, or at least the one we see when we stop scrolling the feed on Instagram. If, while listening, you feel like you're browsing through those smeared photos and directed videos, you'd like to pump more life into the music, to feel less like you're at a dinner at your future in-laws' house and more like you're at a holiday rock festival, be sure to get off your butt, and make an appointment to listen to the Lindemanns.

Lindemann Move
TThe Markaudio Alpair 11 MS speakers could have been silver, but Lindemann opted for a bolder option.

Build quality and technical parameters

Lindemann Move is a standmount loudspeaker with a rather unconventional design. It uses a fullrange driver operating without a crossover, supported by an AMT tweeter filtered by just one capacitor. The company claims that this results in a sound that combines the best features of wideband and multi-way designs. The driver with an 11-cm copper-colored magnesium alloy diaphragm reproduces the bandwidth from 40 Hz all the way up to 9 kHz. Bass reproduction is supported by a rear-mounted bass-reflex port, while the AMT tweeter extends the frequency range to 36 kHz. The manufacturer claims that this solution gives all the advantages of a fullrange driver, with time coherence at the forefront, while being devoid of its disadvantages. It's worth noting that the fullrange driver is connected directly to the amplifier, without any crossover. In addition, thanks to its special design, problems with resonances that usually plague speakers of this type at the edge of their frequency response have been eliminated. However, this is not due to the German company, as the driver in question is the Markaudio Alpair 11 MS. In addition to an interesting diaphragm (a gray version is also available, so the German designers could have opted for a safer variant, but after what I've heard, it somehow doesn't surprise me that they chose the more extravagant one) it uses a polymer basket, an inverted long excursion suspension and a large ferrite magnet. I didn't learn much about the AMT (Air Motion Transformer) tweeter, as I couldn't find any markings on it. What is known, however, is that this unit has the simplest and, according to Lindemann, the best crossover possible in such a concept, because it is connected through a single Jantzen Audio Alumen Z-Cap capacitor. So while the design of the crossover didn't consume too much time, after unscrewing the front panel it's clear that the Germans have worked on the cabinet. High-density boards were used here, and the internal reinforcements were made of glued plywood. The shape of the internal baffles is also quite original, and two materials were used for damping - sheets of foam snugged against each wall and wool filling the remaining space. The company reports that the cabinets are designed to accumulate as little energy as possible and to be free of any resonances. Certainly, it's not a typical, boring design like many others in this price range.

Lindemann Move
The company's stands are as original as the speakers themselves. Plus, they fold up easily.

System configuration

Audiovector QR5, Equilibrium Nano, Unison Research Triode 25, Hegel H20, Auralic Aries G1, Auralic Vega G1, Marantz HD-DAC1, Clearaudio Concept, Cambridge Audio CP2, Cardas Clear Reflection, Tellurium Q Ultra Blue II, Albedo Geo, KBL Sound Red Corona, Enerr One 6S DCB, Enerr Tablette 6S, Enerr Transcenda Ultimate, Fidata HFU2, Melodika Purple Rain, Sennheiser HD 600, Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO, Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, Meze 99 Classics, Bowers & Wilkins PX5, Pro-Ject Wallmount It 1, Custom Design RS 202, Silent Angel N8, Vicoustic VicWallpaper VMT, Vicoustic ViCloud VMT.

Verdict

There are many things Lindemanns are not suited for. If you like to make yourself a cup of tea after coming home, light a vanilla candle, and enjoy your music for hours in an atmosphere of blissful tranquility, you will probably perceive their sound as too engaging, direct, and offensive. If you like pleasant warmth in a typically British style, or if you adhere to the principle that every element of the audio circuit should go in the direction of maximum neutrality and transparency so that the resulting sound is consistent with the original recording, free from coloration and its own impurities, you are on the wrong street, or even in a completely different city. However, if you are willing to sacrifice some of the hi-fi philosophy in order to turn up the hi-fun index hard, extracting the maximum emotion from the music, getting a lot of enjoyment from listening and looking forward to each new song, the Moves were created for exactly this purpose. I'm very happy about this, because there has been a shortage of such bold speakers on the market for some time, and when they do appear, they usually cost considerably more than the Lindemanns. I'm not saying that this is a bargain, if only for their looks, lack of luxurious touches, and the overall impression of dealing with something resembling more studio equipment than fancy audiophile gear, but if you're looking for monitors with a bold, powerful, open, spacious, direct, uncompromising sound and don't give them a chance, you'll make a huge mistake.

The German designers claim that using a tweeter-assisted fullrange speaker is a better solution than a coaxial speaker.
1 / 10

Technical data

Speakers type: Standmount, dynamic, ported
Sensitivity: 87 dB
Impedance: 8 Ω
Frequency response: 40 Hz - 36 kHz
Dimensions (H/W/D): 35/19/31.5 cm
Weight: 6.8 kg (piece)
Price: €3199
Manufacturer: Lindemann

Sound performance

Balance
Dynamics
Resolution
Quickness
Coloring
Coherence
Musicality
Soundstage
Versatility

 

Editor's rating

8.2Overall8Sound9Functionality9Design7Quality8Price

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