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 with my Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers that I bought it from importer Jonathan Halpern (Tone Imports) after I reviewed it almost 12 years ago now, in 2007.

To this day the Leben CS600 has been one of my most cherished hifi possessions. The Leben CS600 has been in my amplifier stable longer than any other amplifier I own, and never once have I been tempted to part with it for something else.

In fact, that Leben CS600 was a life changing experience for me, because its superb musicality & visuospatial performance in combination with my Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers provided a relaxed musical ease that just allowed me to melt into the music, and it completely reset my benchmarks for what I wanted in my home hifi performance.

It reset my benchmark musical expectations so much that the Avantgarde Duos and collection of SET amplifiers I had at the time went up for sale. 

I was smitten with the Leben CS600, and I still am to this day. The Leben CS600 performs as great with my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers in my AV system as it did with my Harbeth Super HL5's that used to occupy that space, whether its playing movies or playing records from my Thorens TD-124 turntable via the Leben RS-30EQ phono equalizer, which I also dearly love.

If that isn't a ringing endorsement I don't know what is!

By necessity the CS600 is being phased out and replaced with the CS600X because of the limited availability of the NOS 6CS7 vacuum tubes originally used in the CS600's design.

Personally, foreseeing the potential availability issues of the 6CS7 years ago, I had stocked up on enough 6CS7 tubes to last as long as I do, as I hold the CS600 in such high regard I want to keep it playing music as long as possible. 

However, in order to provide long term customer support for the new Leben CS600X, it now now utilizes modified circuits with the NOS 6CS7 vacuum tubes being replaced by the combination of 12AU7A and 12BH7A vacuum tubes, which are readily available, and guarantees that the owners of the new CS600X can keep it going long after my residence on Planet Earth has expired. 

When I unboxed the new Leben CS600X the wonderful aromas of a new amplifier excited my senses. The aroma of a fresh paint job, the woody aromas of the sides of the chassis, the aromas of the new transformers, and all those new components inside.

While the CS600X maintains its attractive appearance of a gold finish front & back, the handsome wood side panels, and the charcoal grey top cover, I've noticed a few subtle differences on the exterior like the contrasting gold screws holding the top plate in place (above), and new footers that are very attractive (below)!

The back panel of the Leben CS600X has all of the familiar features of the CS600, with transformer taps for 4 Ohm speakers all the way up to 16 Ohm loudspeakers like my vintage Altec's.

There's also 6 pairs of RCA inputs for all the sources one might want to use.

The new Leben HiFi Stereo Company CS600X integrated amplifier is imported to North America by Jonathan Halpern's Tone Imports, and retails for $7995 USD.

For other places on Planet Earth, please contact Mr. Yoshi Hontani of muSon Project, Inc. HERE. 

The feature review of the SC600X for Positive Feedback is quite a ways out, as there are a number of items ahead of it in my review queue, but I'll be installing it into my AV system shortly so it gets plenty of run-in time, and I'll be posting about it, with more technical details, listening impressions, and so forth, here at Jeff's Place until its turn comes up in my review queue.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the über Leben enthusiasts who have discovered an easy capacitor swap hot-rod mod for the CS600X that is supposed to provide a nice performance boost.

Yoshi-san knows my fondness for swapping a cap here and there in hifi gear, so sent me a set of the hot-rod caps so I could give the mod a try for myself.

I'll review the CS600X in the stock form that you would buy it in, and then at a later date I'll perform the hot-rod capacitor swap, tell you all the details about it and how to do it in case you are curious to try it for yourself, and then follow up and let you know what I think of it.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!