Do I go active with my Linn 5140s ?

Mark,

He will spend a fortune on Active cards to do it that way as the new amps require different cards, and the cards rarely if ever show up used (though I was lucky enough to buy a 5105 with the bass cards when I stepped up from the 5120's for surrounds)

I can't answer for going to the Chakra, but I had a Linn AV 51 system back in the day, ad going active on the 5140's with three 5105's and active cards was a hue improvement, particularly in bass extension, the general characteristics of the speaker were still there, though they were a bit smoother and more open, but the bass that came out of them was hugely improved.

I liked the improvement so much I went to an active 5120 center and 5120 surrounds, then as my room grew, I went to active 5140's for surrounds too.

NOW, the headache of rewiring that system was HUGE.... Seven dual mono amps and three sets of speaker wire to EACH of five speakers was a major PITA, but the system sounded great!

Dfw,

FWIW I used my AV 51 system in my condo, when I bought a home the theater room was bigger, ~18 feet deep and much wider with an open left rear corner.

The reason I sold the AV system was two fold.

I was so sick of dealing with all those cables, and it just didn't handle the larger room well to volume I want for HT, and often two channel, but YMMV depending on what level you like to listen to music...