As promised, I'm posting a follow-up to my review. After about 120 hours or so, the LF seems to have stabilized; that is to say the rate of change in substance has slowed down beyond my ability to reasonably detect one. It had been about time, too, having been served quite a curve ball almost one week to date. Let me explain - as you may or may not recall, I was on an obsessively compulsive trip to find the best sound for my LCD-2, and have identified the following candidates within my financial reach: Woo Audio WA22, Red Wine Audio Audez'e Edition, Cavalli Audio Liquid Fire, and last but not least the Leben CS-300XS.
As luck would have it, my Leben dealer was quite local, so I went in person to pick it up. While at the dealer, he demoed the Leben using a player previously unknown to me - the Resolution Audio Cantata. I was instantly smitten by the way it sounded; to my ears it was the closest to analog that I've ever heard digital sound. Confused and further annoyed, I took his demo unit home to audition it using my own setup. That is to say, A/B-ing with the Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2, with which I was absolutely enthralled. The DAC-2 was hitherto a perfect match to my Liquid Fire; it had a fluid, organic sound, yet detailed, that it was an astounding pleasure to listen to it. That is to say, until I connected the Cantata. It was an amazing revelation to pair it with the Liquid Fire. The sound took on a whole different dimension. I knew the Liquid Fire was a great amplifier, having won out of the 4 models I had tested; nothing, however, prepared me for the sound it pushed through my phones as converted by the Cantata. The accuracy and impeccable timing of transients were the best these ears had heard. The bass was further extended from where the DAC-2 had left off, while somehow presenting it fuller and clearer at the same time. This is not intended to be a review of the Cantata; that one is in the works and will be posted within a week or so.
I wanted to chime back in this thread once the LF had stabilized. Even with the DAC-2 right before the changeover to the Cantata, the sound became holographic in a sense; I could easily distinguish minute details in the farthest depths of the soundstage. Speaking of soundstage, it is about the widest I've heard on the LCD-2. The bass was the deepest and best defined of all the 4 amps I had auditioned; mids remained a bit flat compared to the WA22, but very natural nonetheless. Highs are plenty, accurate and not in the least harsh. All in all, it retains the best performance to my preference - deep, natural bass, neutral mids, pleasant highs, without losing any bit of detail. It is one very fast amplifier that somehow still manages to capture the euphonic tonality of vacuum tubes. On Diana Krall's "Jimmy" from "Stepping Out", I had the closest-to-being-there experience of my life. Beginning with the most accurate rendition of a violoncello, where I could hear the sound of the rosin traveling across the strings as it was bowed, the sound of the bow as it stopped and reversed travel direction, the secondary vibration of the strings along the fingerboard, all the way to the visceral kick of the drum, the plucks of the bass, it was surreal. The piano had a surgical precision to its attack... I could go on and on.
Below are a few photos of the new setup, with the Resolution DAC. I'll post its review in about a week, as mentioned. Pardon the poor quality, as I didn't have time to white balance the photos.
