Do I go active with my Linn 5140s ?

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!

Going active is a significant upgrade. My experience was with a somewhat more modest Linn system than yours or Kennyt's. However, I would second that bass improvement was notable.

If you're hesitant about the cost, you can always experiment with a couple of smaller Linn amps like the LKs, which are pretty cheap used nowadays. You could do it for under $1000. If you like the active setup, you can later upgrade to a bigger Chakra and sell the LKs at little if any loss. It will also give the newer Chakras time to appear on the used market at a lower cost.

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)