[shabta]

Quote:

I will look forward to hearing your thoughts. Or maybe I should be afraid of hearing them

I am definitely afraid of hearing them,,,
 
 

 

[Peece]

Hello Anders,
 
Seems we are on the same page. To me, the differences between power transformers let alone step down transformers is rather large. I don't claim to have super hearing but quite frankly I find it hard to believe that a power cord or power conditioner in a high quality resolving system can make little or no difference. I'm not super tweaky and don't obsess over minor changes, I'm more of a set and forget kinda guy. When I do get into a tweak mode, my wife often can here these changes from the next room. Granted, not every change is an improvement, actually I find I dislike most of the aftermarket cords and conditioners. They all make a substantial change to the presentation, just not always for the better. A power amp is a modulating power supply, if we change its source impedance, we change its output. Better connections at the wall outlet result in lower impedance source and then the amp does more of what it was designed to do. 
 
As to the question about the power company brought up earlier- the point is moot, we have no control outside of our walls. If we think this way, then we all should purchase Yorx gear and be done with it. We get what we get and then make the best of it with what we can control. I'd also assume that the huge transformer on the power pole is quite a bit beefier and lower in output impedance than the usual junky step down transformers we find for home use. Most of which are mass produced in China and Taiwan with no sonics in mind, just electric for houseghold appliances. Maybe, just maybe, if we had a really super well built transformer that happened to gel with a 100V amp, it might be an advantage with additional filtering. A big maybe and a high quality custom transformer not only takes up additional space but the cost negates any savings of a gray market amp. The chances of finding one that happens to work as an advantage rather than a disadvantage is a difficult quest. So I'll stick to my guns here- 120V for 120V, 100V for 100V and 220V for 220V.
 
I also wanted to mention the 100V into 120V idea- a transformer does just that- transforms one voltage to another. If we increase the primary by 20%(!), the transformation will also be boosted by the same 20% at the other end. Lets assume 120V in = 300V out to the tubes and cicuit. If we use a 100V unit with the same 300V output and plug it into a 120V outlet we have 360V on our tubes and circuit!! This is huge and will destroy the entire amp rather quickly. Tubes will be highly overbiased and fail much more quickly, capacitor limits are pushed, transformer is out of its operating range and running hotter, resistors are closer to their maximums, output transformers also out of operating range and running hotter... not a very good idea, even for a few minutes. I was rather shocked when I saw a post this AM while searching for Leben discussions. It seems a few guys suggesting to do this. Very ignorant suggestions!
 
I'm going to spend some quality time with my HD800's this weekend, they keep improving in ways that I like. Great combo with the Leben.
 
 
Peece

 

[Skylab]

I haven't seen anyone on head-fi recommending to plug a 100V amp directly into a 120V socket. That would indeed be very foolish.

As for power cords, I don't even use exotic power cords in the context of my $30,000 speaker hi-fi, so I'm not likely to in the context of a headphone rig. I've never found them to make a difference that was meaningful.

My basic opinion is that what comes before the component's power transformer doesn't matter much, with a few exceptions. I do have a separate AC circuit to the main panel for my hifi to keep noise pollution on the line to a minimum. That will have a much larger impact that changing one power cord for another. And if AC line pollution is bad enough, then an isolation transformer can be just the ticket

 

[godog]

how does the luxman sq38u compare to cs300xs?

 

[Skylab]

how does the luxman sq38u compare to cs300xs?

Been wondering that myself a little lately. I thought I recalled someone saying the Leben was better for headphones, but couldn't find the reference.

Anyone compared the two directly?

 

[godog]

let me see if I can bring my cs300xs to the luxman showroom in hk to have a direct comparison

 

[RedBull]

Quote:

I would love to hear a CS600 one day. Congrats, Duckman.

Oh, NOOO, another amp to buy again .........
Please, don't review CS600 Rob  

 

[RedBull]

Quote:

I do have a separate AC circuit to the main panel for my hifi to keep noise pollution on the line to a minimum.

I was thinking too, this would probably the BEST, purist idea, but impossible, too costly for me

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

how does the luxman sq38u compare to cs300xs?

Quote:

I would love to hear a CS600 one day. Congrats, Duckman.

just took a quick look at some prices, yikes!

     at music direct the lux sq38u at $6000 is 2x the price of the lux sqn100.

 
per 6 moons the cs300s is $3300 and the cs660p is $9500. not sure about the cs600 though.
 
the more expensive amps are el34 based while their less expensive (but still pricey) bretheren are el84 based.
6 moons take on the general sonic differences:
"Luxman's own SQ-N100 is another very good can amp whose output rating for speaker drive halves just like the sticker. Its EL84s are lighter and faster than the EL34s in the SQ-38u and if you favor energy, élan and resolution over weight and a lower acoustic center, you could even prefer the smaller sibling."

 

[MuppetFace]

It's a shame that 6moons reviewer says he can't comment on how the Leben CS-300XS compares to the Luxman SQ-38U. That's the comparison I'm most interested in right now.
 
As for the prices, yeah, imported amps are going to be really pricey stateside. I paid $3600 roughly for my CS-300XS, and I was told the price went up right after I ordered. Apparently there's a huge backorder on the CS-300XS right now.
 
The price of $6000 for the SQ-38U is a little absurd in my opinion. It's about $4800 direct from Japan without the usual importer fees (source: Audiocubes2). Similarly the P-1u is $3000 on US importer sites, while only $2100 direct from Japan.
 
You can get a Leben CS-600 from PriceJapan for about $4,400. The CS-660P will cost you $7,300 there as well.

 

[Clayton SF]

Once again the "little" Leben has won the Diapason Gold Metal award. This can only contribute to its current backorder status:
 
Leben CS300XS Winner of Diapason Gold Metal 2010
 
"Yoshi Hontani sent me word that the wonderful little Leben CS300XS vacuum tube integrated amplifier was a winner of Gold Medal for 2010 from the French magazine Diapason. Here’s a little excerpt from the review: “Faithful to the look and spirit of the end of the 1960’S, this small integrated tube amplifier is full of charm with its large controls and its ‘bass boost’ (which allows us to increase the low frequency level 3 or 5 dB, for low level listening). ..."

 

[godog]

just wild guess, for hp output I guess the cs600 and the cs300xs are more or less at the same level and which are better than the sq38u by a small margin
I will confirm this soon by directly comparing cs600 vs cs300xs and cs300xs vs sq38u in the hk distributor showrooms. They have sources worth of at least 10K USD, so I guess the amps could be fairly compared

 

[godog]

Quote:

It's a shame that 6moons reviewer says he can't comment on how the Leben CS-300XS compares to the Luxman SQ-38U. That's the comparison I'm most interested in right now.
 
As for the prices, yeah, imported amps are going to be really pricey stateside. I paid $3600 roughly for my CS-300XS, and I was told the price went up right after I ordered. Apparently there's a huge backorder on the CS-300XS right now.
 
The price of $6000 for the SQ-38U is a little absurd in my opinion. It's about $4800 direct from Japan without the usual importer fees (source: Audiocubes2). Similarly the P-1u is $3000 on US importer sites, while only $2100 direct from Japan.
 
You can get a Leben CS-600 from PriceJapan for about $4,400. The CS-660P will cost you $7,300 there as well.

 
can't believe the cs300xs price is still going up from $3600. Fortunately I bought it several months ago at around USD 2200 before the appreciation of Yen/drop of USD

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

just wild guess, for hp output I guess the cs600 and the cs300xs are more or less at the same level and which are better than the sq38u by a small margin
I will confirm this soon by directly comparing cs600 vs cs300xs and cs300xs vs sq38u in the hk distributor showrooms. They have sources worth of at least 10K USD, so I guess the amps could be fairly compared

godog, why are you betting on the leben besting the lux?  if you're walking into an audition with that expectation your bias might just turn that up.

 

[godog]

thanks daveDerek, I will adjust my mind before I walk into the showrooms, and I guess I will probably be distracted by the loudspeakers and the high-end sources there lol
don't know why, that is why I call it wild guess......perhaps the lower price tag in hk, more functions/electrical components, the use of pcb make me feel that sq38u is inferior for hp output...the cs600/cs300 is basically a power amp with attenuator, but sq38u can be used as a pre-amp
I read from reviews that cs600 is a high power version of cs300(xs), the idea of design is derived from cs300. So I guess it is just a matter of taste(different types of tubes used), the output power of cs300 is already high enough for headphones.
 
the so-called 'Mullard circuit' of luxman sq38u is interesting though, I will have a serious demo before I make any comment.