The Leben CS300XS Thread

Hello friends. Last week I had the oportunity to travel to Tokyo and tried briefly this amp with focal utopia and another Sony flagship headphone. Their dac was some flagship luxman, then I asked to try with chord Dave connected to Leben. That conditions were good/ average due other people talking . Take this with a grain of salt because I was high due sake, but I was impressed with the amp.
Chord Dave alone was not engaging and connecting into the heart when compared to Leben. The only problem i recall was the bass, that was a flabby and poo .
Short story, now I evaluating to buy a Leben in my country. As the price it’s near 3000 dollars, and there is no connected Info in sbaf about this amp, your senior opinion it’s very appreciated
There is some highly review about this amp but I don’t trust

 

http://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,115.0.html

 

Thanks, other members opinions are welcomed

 

If this helps, used to have the Leben cs300xs, its a great amp and good looking. To my ears, the speaker out seems better than the headphone out. But this could be due to how I set it up when I had it.
I tried rolling the tubes, 12ax7 amd EL84 but doesn't seem to make a big difference from stock provided Sovtek I think.
Its really good with speakers.

 

Can you compare with others Amps? Which headphones did you tried?

 

I would say ZDS > Leben for headphones. I had the HF400i and PM3 that time.
I tried the ZDS to preamp into the Leben, not much difference. Fact better the Leben alone.

 

You right, I think I was way high on sakê that day and my emotions are over the rational. Plus, the seller was so so hot
Maybe I felt in love for her and I’m transferring to the Leben

 

I owned a Leben for a while.
I think it is a much better speaker amp than headamp. As a speaker amp it is kind of special. It is ok as a headamp as long as the impedance matches your headphones. But I found the bass a little too loose on my hd800s, which is a general issue with el34 tubes, some amps being better than others. The mids were fabulous, so smooth and natural. The treble roll of could be ok, especially with things that can sometimes sound a little strident on the hd800 such as violins. But el34 set amps have a sort of treble roll off that some don't like. With HD800 it was a good thing. With bright and efficient speakers (like some focals) it is a good thing. Small chamber music combos can sound really good on it, through headphones. But anything with a lot of bass is problematic. I think people here react strongly because for the price it isn't really worth it for a head amp. There are better options. And the bass on some headphones sounded even more uncontrolled than the HD800s. I used it for both speakers and headphones. Then in that case makes more sense to buy it. But as just a headamp, and with the wrong pair of headphones it isn't a good idea.

Hope this helps!

 

Three grand for a push-pull EL84 integrated? Why?

If you're in the market for something like this look at the Coincident Dynamo 34SE. $1500 factory new, 8 watts of triode-strapped EL34 operation with 6SL7 drivers and tube rectification. The transformers are kept secret but I strongly suspect they are sourced from Hashimoto of Japan. There is a headphone jack, but it sees a resistor network to pad the output down, which raises the output impedance to a whopping 300 ohms(!). This renders it quite bassy with Senns (which I did try) but at least it is not 'flabby poo'.

The speaker performance is actually impressive though. I cannot really think of anyone else offering an off-the-shelf product like this at the $1500 price point, not in North America (this isn't hyperbole, someone feel free to correct me). I auditioned it with the designer's Pure Reference Extremes loudspeakers and the headroom for the 94/db/w load was ample. Short of ultimate refinement and holographic staging there was not a lot to complain about, even with slightly noisy Psvane tubes.

I would only recommend the above if you actually do plan on transitioning it to a high-efficiency speaker system at some point, but really don't spend multiple thousands of dollars on mediocre warmbutt P-P pentode amps to drive headphones.

 

Wow fabulous picture!
For a speaker amp, I think the primaluna prologue sounded better when I ab'ed them a while ago. It had better bass extension and the treble sounded a wee bit more too. More power, so less speaker limitations, more tubes it can run, so you can tailor the sound to your speakers. Plus it is famous for running tubes very gently so you don't have to change as much. 200 usd more, no headphones. It is AB instead of Class A. But this was splitting hairs. Both sounded really good. And yes I think they both sounded as good as the leben, maybe better. But you are paying with the leben to have a well paid Japanese person hand solder etc etc, instead of a much less well paid Chinese person.

I decided to get a primaluna dialogue used and it cost less then either and sounded better than both.

 

@k4rstar great setup there! Can you share with us your components/impressions?

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/pictures-of-your-speaker-system.480/page-14

 

Beautiful pic, thanks. I recall now the triode Corp. trv88 for 2300. Have you ever listened to it in you country?

 

Any pics? The seller, I mean.

 

I own recently a Leben cs300sx, sovtek Tubes are awful !!! , With El 38 mullard nos and 12ax7 primaluna it sounds considerably better !! I can't understand why with that high cost amplifier they include only 10 Eu tubes like sovtek, with 15 to 20 Eu you can find considerably better options.
I had a primaluna Prologue classic with nos tubes, but the Leben is considerably better....considering both with the best combination of nos tubes.

 

The Leben has a unique cristaline sound

 

Nothing to complain about Primaluna, a great and very well built amplifier, finishing is equal or even better than japanese products, many japanese components, zero ummm noise, I haven't listened the dialogue line

 

If Norah Jones owns a Leben cs300sx......

 

http://www.whetstoneaudio.com/norah-jones-and-her-leben-cs-300-xs/