It's an exciting Saturday afternoon here at Jeff's Place with the arrival of "Today's Fresh Catch", the new Leben HiFi Stereo Company CS600X Integrated Amplifier! Those of you who have been reading my writing about hifi for a while know that I love integrated amplifiers, and the original Leben CS600 impressed me so much in combination... Read More »

THE DUELUND-ALTEC PROJECT! I am so inspired and pleased by the way the Duelund-Altec Project turned out that I practically have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming! Be sure to get out and read the feature article at Positive Feedback at the above link, as I think you'll really enjoy it, and it will... Read More »

Have you ever had one of those periods of time where everything goes wrong? I'm in one of those periods now. Usually it seems like things go astray in triplets, for same strange reason. Usually, I sigh with relief after the third mishap, because things are about to get better, but this time it appears... Read More »

To get my mind off the plunging stock market and my plunging retirement savings, I thought I'd do something edifying like give my Thorens TD124 a try on my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers. I've wanted to revisit the Leben CS-600 integrated amplifier and Leben RS-30EQ combination that works so well together... Read More »

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! The snow is really coming down right now, so it's a classic White Christmas here in Washington State. I'm bringing my Mom over to share Christmas with, have a nice Christmas dinner together, sip a hot toddy, and listen to some jazz! For me it's not only... Read More »

I reported originally on Robbie's Leben CS-600 lid mod a few weeks back, here. I immediately ordered the “120Pcs M3 Male Female Hex Brass Spacer Standoffs PCB Board Screws Nut Assortment” from eBay seller huanshop2015 ($4.99 USD), and it arrived today, so I thought I'd give Robbie's Leben lid mod a try. The stock Leben lid... Read More »

As most of you know, I've been a long-time fan of the Leben CS600 integrated amplifier, for it's rugged & reliable build quality, it's superb appearance, its great sound & musicality, and its flexibility in accommodating a lot of different power output types for tube swapping entertainment. The only nit I have to pick with... Read More »

It's been far too long since I've done some tube rolling, so I was delighted to hear from Sue & Richard at Sophia Electric that they wanted me to give their new Sophia Electric EL34-ST vacuum tubes a review for Positive Feedback. I'm a real pushover for the ST bottle shape, I just love the way... Read More »

I've got today off from work so I'm playing hi-fi games with my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre project loudspeakers, and I have a ton of fun things to tell you about! Facebook also informed me that today is my one-year anniversary of starting my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre project, and guess what,... Read More »

Back 10 years ago now when I first tried the combination of the Leben CS600 integrated amplifier (and RS-30EQ phono stage) with my Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers, I was so impressed with the immense musicality of their combined performance that I sold the much more expensive reference system I had at the time, and replaced it with... Read More »

I've picked up some new albums from Acoustic Sounds that I think you jazz cats will enjoy. First up is the 45 RPM Bill Evans Paris Concert Edition 1 from the Original Recordings Group (ORG), which was recorded live at L'espace Cardin in Paris, France, November 1979, about 10 months before Bill's death in September 1980. The album... Read More »

It's always good to get home and fire up the stereo after being off on a long week of work travel. The first thing I did after getting home from a long day of flying was to plug in my vintage McIntosh vacuum tube electronics and vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based system to... Read More »

It's always a pleasure to meet a like minded music lover like Jesper, who loves music and is having fun putting cool hi-fi gear throughout his home. Jesper has a nice mix of vintage and modern gear that fits right in with me and my pals here at Jeff's Place! Jesper told me: "At the... Read More »

I've had a couple of ideas for reviews that I've been wanting to write up for Positive Feedback Online for a while now, but time just hasn't allowed for it, as life has been incredibly busy both on the day job and on the personal front. Now there appears to be a little window of... Read More »

It was another mighty fine Vintage Sunday at Jeff's Place, with Ron (back), Pete (middle), and Leo (front) stopping by. The reason Leo has such a big smile is because he just bought a pair of beautifully restored vintage McIntosh MC30 mono amplifiers from Yves Beauvais at Vintage Vacuum Audio and they were sounding absolutely stunning on the... Read More »

Ever cool guy Yoshi Hontani released more information about the new Leben CS-1000P today. Yoshi San's message said, "A first production lot of 5 units have already been sold out and the next production lot of 10 units is scheduled at early June. (6 units have already been sold out as of today)." The new Leben... Read More »

While the full details have not yet been released, Leben has announced that they will be offering a new amplifier: the CS-1000P, which is based on the KT120 vacuum tube (click on the photos for larger images). Stylistically, the CS-1000P power amplifier is on a chassis similar to the CS-660P, which in my opinion is... Read More »

Those of you who have been following my posts know how much I've enjoyed using the 6n3cE tubes in my Leben CS-600 amplifier. Almost two years ago I posted about my experiences with this tube and recommended it to fellow Leben CS-600 owners. You can read that post here. I've been buying my tubes from... Read More »

In last year's 7th Annual Positive Feedback Online's Writers' Choice Awards for 2010 I managed to squeeze in an extra Award for a total of four: My first choice was a no-brainer, and it went to my all-time favorite loudspeaker, the incredible Tannoy Westminster Royal Special Edition. The Westminster is so good that I still... Read More »

I had forgotten to mention it earlier, but in the October 2011 'Recommended Components' issue of Stereophile there's a couple of notable mentions: The EMT TSD 15 moving coil phono cartridge landed in 'Class A' by virtue of Art Dudley's earlier review of it. I have become increasingly impressed with my own EMT TSD 15... Read More »

I just got the November 2011 issue of Stereophile and all you fellow Leben CS300 & RS30EQ fans out there will be pleased to know that Art Dudley reviewed the pair and really liked them. In the November issue Art writes a mini-survey that compares three nice tube integrated amps: the aforementioned Leben gear, the... Read More »

I've been having a lot of fun listening to music this weekend while making a few blog posts and doing some review writing. My Hi-Fi rig is sounding really good right now, and I thought you might like to see what's making it sound so good today. First up is my EMT TSD-15 MC cartridge... Read More »

I ordered a quad of EH KT90 vacuum tubes from Jim McShane a couple of days ago to try in my Leben CS660P stereo amplifier. I was thinking that I'd tried KT66, KT88, EL34, KT77, 6L6G, 5881, 6n3cE, 350B, and 6550s, so I thought I'd better add KT90s to the list. My favorites so far... Read More »