[Skylab]

Very nice! Looks great.

I've been using my Leben with speakers for the most part recently and in a small room the CS-300 is just luscious with speakers...it's even driving my somewhat difficult Infinity Kappa 6's right now very well, given that I'm keeping it at a pretty sane listening level. Beautiful music flowing!

 

[spkrs01]

Very nice! Looks great.

I've been using my Leben with speakers for the most part recently and in a small room the CS-300 is just luscious with speakers...it's even driving my somewhat difficult Infinity Kappa 6's right now very well, given that I'm keeping it at a pretty sane listening level. Beautiful music flowing!

 
Thanks very much! 
 
I bought the Leben without much reference nor research. But after purchase and reading this thread completely, I knew I was onto a winner seeing your enthusiasm for it...........

 

[Makube]

Hi everyone! I just got my Leben CS-300, bought a used one. When testing it with my speakers, I found that the bass boost control made a scraping noise while switching it to 3db and 6db. It also made the volume level differ from speaker to speaker, increasing overall volume on one speaker at 3 db etc. Any idea of what the reason for this could be?

Best regards,
Makube

 

[ardilla]

The scraping might just be that there is bad contact due to dirty connections (dust and stuff gather in the strangest places). Don't know if that can explain the imbalance though. Try some electrical cleaner spray if you can find a way of spraying into the switch.

 

[Makube]

Thanks! Feels incredibly irritating. The previous owner only usel it for headphones and probably hasnt tried the bass boost... If it is a real problem with the hardware, would it be possible to fix it with the hela of an engineer used to tube gear? Wouldnt want the leben to sound different after having someone repar it. Since the sound goes through the bass boost, would the problem affect the normal set sound in time if worsened?

 

[Raaf]

The sound would not be affected if the electronic components are not changed .
But as the switch is most likeley the problem there is no need to change any resistor or cap .
You could first try to operate the switch 50 times or so, if that doesn't help try some ( mild ! ) spray as ardilla suggested, the switch is easy to acces if you unscrew the top cover.
If all that doesn''t help, you have to take it out and have it utrasonic cleaned or replace it.

 

[migasson]

Has people run orthos like the LCD-X off the headphone output? Or used the speaker taps?
 
What does it sound like together?
 
Thanks

 

[Skylab]

I've never heard the LCD-X, but I have heard the Leben with the LCD-3, and the combination is terrific. I used them only from the headphone out, and for the LCD headphones this is plenty.

 

[LarsHP]

Speaker out will give you more power, but also (more) noise. I even use headphone out with my HE-6 ...

 

[Xenophon]

  Speaker out will give you more power, but also (more) noise. I even use headphone out with my HE-6 ...

Errr...does that actually produce good sound on the HE-6?  What's the output on the headphone tap?
 
side note:  I don't own a Leben but am fascinated by this congregation of what I'd call 'the golden sound masochists'.  It must be really special for you guys to put up with the deficiencies such as the noise floor on the speaker out (obviously mainly an issue with headphones), low power, technical issues....  I could purchase a used 300 model for 1500 EUR (been on sale for a long time on a Belgian site) and admit to being curious but it's just a bit too risky for me as I listen exclusively with headphones and love my HE-6.

 

[migasson]

I've never heard the LCD-X, but I have heard the Leben with the LCD-3, and the combination is terrific. I used them only from the headphone out, and for the LCD headphones this is plenty.

Nice. Thanks! Do you know what the output impedance is? Just concerned the X's bass will go to muck with it's 22 ohm impedance..!

 

[Skylab]

The headphone output is a 32 ohm secondary winding from the main output transformer.

 

[migasson]

The headphone output is a 32 ohm secondary winding from the main output transformer.

Thank you!
 
I'd imagine it's worth listening to it first in that case! Just that there is a second hand one for sale here in Australia.. I won't take the risk until I've heard it first... 
 
Regards.

 

[2359glenn]

The headphone output is a 32 ohm secondary winding from the main output transformer.

Are you sure ?
 

 

[Skylab]

That's what I had been told by Leben. You're the engineer - does the schematic say otherwise?