Wharfedale Linton Heritage 85th Anniversary

So I have a pair about 30-35 hours on them. Paired with PrimaLuna Integrate with KT150s/KT88s/EL34s & NOS Brimar/NOS RCA ClearTops 12AU7s.
These speakers sound terrible! All BOOM and VERY forward mids. No highs to speak of. Added plugs to rear bass ports with minimal results.
I have them on the matching stands with 1.5 inch foam between to speakers & stands.If these do not break in & clear up some they're going back! Totally disappointed at this point.I had a 1 on 1 conversation with jbhiller who has these too and his info was helpful but unless these need more time I just don't see anything good here. Speakers are positioned about 4 feet from rear wall but room is fairly well furnished. My 2 cents.

I have had the same hard-mids impressions on top of over-blown bass and mid-bass...not much treble.
I have had the same impressions first time I heard the Denton's 80th.
I was impressed right out of the box with the stand-up bass tracks and the general big sound though.  If there's such things as speaker break-in, the mid-range does smooth out.  I have learned how to appreciate the lintons 7ft away, pointed right behind listening position.  Mine are about 21" from back wall (baffle) and 78in medium to medium.  Pics are in my system.  
Tonally they can sound muffled to some.  I find imaging and soundstage in general very satisfying though.  What I am missing with them is air.  I do know that the combination marantz pm8004 / Linton contribute to this lack of articulation and air.  I may get an integrated that will bring the best in them before moving to something substantially more refined.

Might want to try them with an amplifier other than the Primaluna, since the frequency response for that amp has an interesting signature, varying with load:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/primaluna-prologue-premium-power-amplifier-measurements

Interesting article. The PrimaLunas get such rave reviews but I'm beginning to question theire overall reproduction of music. I had a pair of Tekton Design Lores and they did better than the Lintons (tight bass) but still not what I was looking for. (and the wife got tired of looking at them)I have never had a pair of speakers that sounded so terrible right out of the box (Lintons). I did remove the foam I had between the speakers & stands and this did improve overall sound. Less "boom" but still up front mids and not much air on top. Tried 4 ohm & 8 ohm taps on the amp, right now connected to 8 ohm taps.  jbhiller informed me that he installed a pair of Cifte 12AU7s in his PrimaLuna and this helped especially with air on top. I'm getting a little discouraged with buying $200 - $300 tubes in experimenting with not much success.I did have a pair of French Radiotechnique 12AU7s (Lores) with no luck at all. Brimars better. I'm really trying to make the PrimaLuna work as it is a quality product, point to point & auto biasing, etc. So I'll give the Lintons some more time and maybe try the Cifte tubes.

I have owned these with the matching stands for a few months.. I was looking for a retro styled speaker at the time I found these at a local dealer. After auditioning them on a mid fi marantz integrated I bought the set. The dealer also carries harbeth. I compared them to a pair of harbeths that were more than twice the price. I use them for music. No home theater here. They are paired with a Yamaha s2000 integrated amp and the matching c2000 CD player. Analog is a vintage Yamaha yp b6 TT.  I thoroughly enjoy this system as a whole. I had a pair of Linn majik 140s prior to the lintons. The 140s are for sale. I am using a rel sub with them.