[InnerSpace]

Quote:

My Leben CS-300XS arrived ... there's some audible buzzing with the HD800 ...

That's very disappointing.  Mine is dead quiet, stock or rolled.  No consolation, I know, but you should be aware that silence is a realistic and achievable baseline.

 

[vert]

Bought Skylab's extra 300x.
 
The Leben is as advertised - the music is effortless. I have it hooked to a Chord QBD76 dac, playing lossless files.
 
The things is, the Leben is so transparent it's exposing a brightness issue in my setup. I have HD600s, and I had to swap out the Cardas headphone cable because it was so bright. I'm thinking of getting another aftermarket cable, ie Stefan Art. It's either my interconnects or the HD600s that are causing the problem. The Sennheisers might not even be broken in yet - are they know to be bright?

 

[DC5Zilla]

HD600s are certainly more bright compared to the 650 IMO.  in regards to cables, look up the Double Helix Cable.  They seem to have very nice OCC cables that adds warmth for pretty nice price.  I myself have Stefan Audio cables and although I do love them, they are bit steep in price.
 
EDIT: changing tubes may be more beneficial per money 

 

[MikeLa]

Quote:

Using the stock tubes for now. They actually sound very nice to me HD800 buzz aside, and since I despise tube rolling I probably wont be messing with them for a few weeks.
 
I suppose if changing them eliminates the buzz on the HD800, then I'll end up doing it eventually though as that's one of my favorite pairs nowadays.

I would send Leben an email, you shouldn't be hearing any buzz.

 

[Anders]

Quote:

Bought Skylab's extra 300x.
 
The Leben is as advertised - the music is effortless. I have it hooked to a Chord QBD76 dac, playing lossless files.
 
The things is, the Leben is so transparent it's exposing a brightness issue in my setup. I have HD600s, and I had to swap out the Cardas headphone cable because it was so bright. I'm thinking of getting another aftermarket cable, ie Stefan Art. It's either my interconnects or the HD600s that are causing the problem. The Sennheisers might not even be broken in yet - are they know to be bright?

I agree with a previous post that changing tubes would be more cost effective, and the change could also be more substantial than cable swapping. For the price of a Stefan Audio Art you can get some nice sets of tubes.
 
Wow, I see that the Stefan AA pricing is now so elevated that you can get MANY nice sets of tubes instead, $699 for a 10 foot cable!

 

[Skylab]

@ Vert, I am glad you are enjoying the Leben you got from me.
 
The tubes that are in there are certainly serviceable, but the 12AX7's especially would make good rolling targets.  Something to consider at some point.  You can get smoother driver tubes, for sure.
 
@ MuppetFace - do your Edition 8's hum with the Leben?  If they do, I'd try a tube change for sure.  If they do NOT, then it's really odd that the HD800 would.  My first Leben hummed with some very high sensitivity headphones.  Nothing you could hear with the LCD-2, but slightly audible with my DX1000 and the Edition 8.  I changed driver tubes, and no hum.

 

[MuppetFace]

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the buzzing, I'm not too concerned since I've heard several other Leben owners report buzz with various sensitive headphones. I'm sure Skylab and others are right about it being a tube issue. I'll make trying a different set of tubes a priority. If there's still buzzing with a different quad of tubes, then I'll get in touch with whoever handles the warranty.
 
Today I experienced a truly amazing setup: the Leben CS-300X paired with the Ultrasone Edition 10. Sweet, sweet euphony. There was no buzz with the Edition 10, but I'll try the Edition 8 as well.
 

 

[dminches]

Are you using the speaker outputs or the headphone output?

 

[vert]

Thanks to everyone for all of the input. The Leben is highly resolving and transparent, and the Chord is the same. So this is a pretty ruthlessly revealing combo.
 
The Leben is a piece of art though. Looks like a one-off piece. Definitely gives you that pride of ownership when you look at it.

 

[arnesto]

Mine has a hum, but I can only hear it before I play any music.
 
Doesn't bother me and I knew about it before I bought it.
 
I think this is normal.

 

[vert]

Well I can safely say all you guys and girls who get to listen to this amp every night are pretty spoiled.
 
Resolution and transparency are quite amazing. The Chord DAC I'm using extracts every last bit of detail from CD format, and the Leben relays that information beautifully. And of course the music just flows.

 

[Clayton SF]

Quote:

Mine has a hum, but I can only hear it before I play any music.
 
Doesn't bother me and I knew about it before I bought it.
 
I think this is normal.

My Leben hums when with the DT990 600Ω. Tubes are Mullard EL84 and GE 5751. I can hear a hum when the 990 is paired with the Woo 22 as well.

 

[RedBull]

My Leben doesn't hum with HD650, LCD-2 and SR-60

 

[Henerenry]

WOw, I didnt realise the Leben was so tiny!
 
Quote:

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the buzzing, I'm not too concerned since I've heard several other Leben owners report buzz with various sensitive headphones. I'm sure Skylab and others are right about it being a tube issue. I'll make trying a different set of tubes a priority. If there's still buzzing with a different quad of tubes, then I'll get in touch with whoever handles the warranty.
 
Today I experienced a truly amazing setup: the Leben CS-300X paired with the Ultrasone Edition 10. Sweet, sweet euphony. There was no buzz with the Edition 10, but I'll try the Edition 8 as well.
 

 

[dminches]

This Leben is one incredible sounding amp.  I spent some time with it listening to my office speakers (Totem Mites which are not every efficient speakers) and they have never sounded so good.  My NOS tubes are finally burning in after about 15 or so hours and the Leben is signing.  And it sounds equally wonderful with the LCD-2s.