Ok, now with that general comparison of the CS-600 and CS-600X, let's move on to listen to some LPs.
I let the system warm up for about an hour while I practiced my guitar, then sat down for a little listening.
Listening to Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfa's Jazz Samba Encore! LP with the Leben CS-600X and RS-30EQ combination provide an engaging presentation, with Stan Getz's tenor sax sounding articulate, but a little bit too forward, although very dynamic. That was with 0 dB of bass boost, but when I dialed in 3dB of bass boost on the CS-600X, Getz's sax sounded just right, and it warmed up the tone of Luiz Bonfa's guitar a bit too, so his playing sounded natural and articulate, where with the 0 dB of bass boost it sounded a little lean.
For those familiar with the Getz / Gilberto LP, the Jazz Samba Encore! LP is in a similar vein, but not quite at the same level as Getz / Gilberto, as the vocals of Maria Toledo and the guitar playing of Luiz Bonfa don't quite match the magical combination of vocals of Astrud Gilberto and the guitar playing of João Gilberto.
Jazz Samba Encore! was recorded in February of 1963, and Getz / Gilberto was recorded in March of 1963, so maybe they figured out a few things between the two recordings.
The Leben CS-600X really excelled on the sonics of imaging, sense of acoustic space, and resolution on Jazz Samba Encore!, and some audiophiles may prefer Jazz Samba Encore! for that reason, although I thought the vocals on Jazz Samba Encore! sounded a little gimmicky and synthetic compared to Getz / Gilberto, but still, the album is worth having in your collection if you are a Stan Getz fan.
Getz / Gilberto sounded the most natural with the bass boost of the Leben CS-600X set to 0 dB, giving a liquid and natural sounding presentation overall.
I noticed there was a "micro-roughness" in overall tone with the stock power tubes, which completely disappeared when using the higher quality Sophia Electric KT-88ST or EL34-ST vacuum tubes, but more on that topic in the Sophia Electric feature review that will follow after this review.
Listening to these two albums, that were recorded within a month of each other with some of the same recording engineers, and with a number of the same musicians, is a good example of how different two albums can sound, and the utility of the bass boost switch in dialing in the sound.
On Getz / Gilberto, from a musicality perspective, the Leben CS-600X sounded timbrally correct with a natural amount of richness, presented tone color beautifully and articulately, with rhythm, tempo, melody, and dynamics all sounding very live-like and engaging. Straight A's across the board for the CS-600X in terms of musicality traits on Getz / Gilberto.
To continue my Stan Getz album tour, I put on Getz's Getz au go go LP that was recorded live at the Café Au Go Go in Greenwich Village by Rudy Van Gelder on August, 1964, a little over a year after Getz / Gilberto.
Getz au go go is probably my favorite of these three albums, and the Leben CS-600X scores a knockout performance both musically and sonically on Getz au go go. If you enjoy Getz / Gilberto you owe it to yourself to get a copy of Getz au go go, it is an incredible album of Brazilian infused jazz.
The overall tone is superbly natural, and the appreciative live audience makes for exciting listening. The perspective puts you close to the performers, so you can hear all the tonal and timbral aspects of their instruments, and Astrud Gilberto's voice sounds even more gorgeous than it does on Getz / Gilberto, which is altogether amazing.
For those audiophiles who really go for imaging, a sense of space, soundstaging, resolution, etc., I think they will really find a lot to like on this album as well, and the Leben CS-600X does a superb job across the board with all those elements to create an exciting and engaging musical performance. Imaging has a lot of "living presence," and the overall recording has a spacious feel to it because of the live venue. Soundstage performance is excellent, with images spread across the stage, as well as layered into the stage.
All in all, this album is an excellent example of getting the combination of musicality and sonics in perfect balance, which will delight both audiophiles and music lovers equally, and the Leben CS-600X presents it beautifully on both counts.
Like Getz au go go, Chet Baker's Peace is another great album, featuring David Friedman on marimba & vibraphone, Buster Williams on bass, Joe Chambers on drums, and of course Chet Baker on trumpet.
Peace is more of a music lovers' album, as there isn't much soundstage width in evidence, although imaging is first rate and with a lot of presence, which makes it exciting to listen to. Tonally Peace is gorgeous, timbre is rich and natural sounding, dynamics are just right, with Williams' bass being articulate and tuneful, with excellent pitch definition (no plodding one- note bass here).
Chet's trumpet sounds gorgeous, being liquid and full in tone, Friedman's marimba & vibraphone are a delight to hear with their beautiful tonal characteristics, and the Leben CS-600X just makes the music sound gorgeous and engaging to listen to.
One of the things I always enjoy with my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre audio-visual system is listening to a little rock & roll, like the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits album. The vintage A5's are fantastic on rock & roll!
I particularly like the song, "I Won't Back Down," from Tom Petty's first solo album, Full Moon Fever. "I Won't Back Down" applies more than ever in 2020 with the world in chaos, even more than when it was released way back in 1989:
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground, and I won't back down
Well I know what's right, I got just one life
in a world that keeps on pushin' me around
but I'll stand my ground, and I won't back down
Contributing to the grandeur of Full Moon Fever is Tom Petty's vocals and acoustic guitar playing, with Mike Campbell on slide guitar, George Harrison on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Jeff Lynne on bass and backing vocals, Howie Epstein on backing vocals, and Phil Jones on drums.
One of the things I really like about Tom Petty's music is his well-crafted lyrics, and the driving energetic beat of the music.
The Leben CS-600X is superb on this album, beautifully portraying the driving beat, the excitement, and the emotional impact of Tom Petty's music.
The Leben CS-600X provides dynamic impact, lots of physical presence of images, a wide soundstage, a billowing and enveloping acoustic, and superbly natural tone that makes Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits album an ongoing joy to listen to.
It doesn't take LPs for the CS-600X to sound great, it is equally adept at getting the best out of whatever source your using.
For example, one of my favorite treats during the Covid-19 pandemic has been listening to the great jazz guitarist Frank Potenza's live performances streamed over Facebook on Sunday afternoons (above), which I've been watching and listening to on my MacBook Pro. Thank you, Frank, for treating us to your live performances!
The CS-600X makes Frank's live performances a joy to listen to, with full and rich harmonics, while superbly capturing the nuance and "feel" of Frank's superb playing, even without a fancy DAC doing the decoding—just straight from my Philips TV.
Whether streaming Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., from my Apple TV, or spinning DVD or Blu-Ray movies on my OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player, the Leben CS-600X always delivered maximum sonic impact and excitement for video.
Ok, well you get the idea. The new Leben HiFi Company CS-600X integrated amplifier is fantastic whether it is playing vinyl, streaming digital content, or playing DVD or Blu-Ray movies.
Over a decade after having bought my original CS-600, I still marvel at the tremendous audio accomplishment that the CS-600 and CS-600X represents for music and audio enthusiasts, and it never disappoints!
Highly recommended to music and audio enthusiasts everywhere!
Summary and Conclusions
Like the Leben HiFi Stereo Company's CS-600 integrated amplifier, the new CS600X integrated amplifier is a terrific product, and is a welcome update to the CS-600.
The new CS-600X goes the CS-600 one better by switching to readily available vacuum tubes in the first stage of amplification, which has also serendipitously resulted in an improvement to the already superb balance of musicality and sonics of the CS-600.
The result of changing to the new vacuum tube complement of 12AU7A and 12BH7A for the first stage of amplification resulted in additional warmth and richness during music playback, with the new Leben CS-600X sounding a little more like a classic tube amplifier, and with an increased level of overall musicality that I found delightful.
One of the great strengths of the Leben CS-600X integrated amplifier is the ability to set it up to best match your system needs and personal tastes, which you can do by selecting the transformer taps from the back panel that best match your loudspeakers' impedance, or using the adjustable bass boost switch on the front panel for dialing in bass response to best match different loudspeakers (or albums), and the flexibility of being able to use a multitude of vacuum tubes from the 6L6GC and EL34 families.
Another strength of the Leben CS-600X is that it is really easy to take it to a higher level of performance by utilizing high-performance vacuum tubes, like the Sophia Electric KT88-ST or EL34-ST in the output stage, for example, which I will be describing in full in my next feature article for Positive Feedback.
Also, I am rather excited by the prospect of experimenting with coupling capacitors in the Leben CS-600X, as I've had dramatically positive results by optimizing coupling capacitors for my tastes in other amplifiers.
Generally speaking, larger uF values of coupling capacitors give a bit more warmth, color, and body in the midrange, and of course whether the capacitors are polypropylene or paper-in-oil makes a big difference too.
Want to richen up the Leben CS-600X a little more in the classic valve amplifier tradition? Try a set of paper-in-oil coupling capacitors. Want to make your Leben CS-600X sound a little more like its CS-600 predecessor? Try going with smaller polypropylene film capacitors.
I will be exploring the use of different coupling capacitors in the CS-600X, and maybe my CS-600 too, in the future at my Jeff's Place blog, so stay tuned for more on that topic!
I highly recommend the Leben HiFi Stereo Company's new CS-600X to anyone wanting an moderately powerful integrated amplifier, with a superb balance of musicality and sonics, that is beautifully crafted, totally-reliable, has an extremely flexible and user-friendly design, a classically attractive appearance, and will bring decades of satisfaction to its owners.
I would like to thank Mr. Taku Hyodo (Leben HiFi Stereo Company), and Mr. Yoshi Hontani (Leben exporter), for making this review of the Leben HiFi Stereo Company CS-600X integrated amplifier possible.
The new Leben HiFi Stereo Company CS-600X integrated amplifier is imported to North America by Jonathan Halpern's Tone Imports, and retails for $7995 USD.
Contact Information
Leben HiFi Stereo Company: www.lebenhifi.com
Mr. Yoshi Hontani (Muson Project, Leben exporter) email address: [email protected]
Importer to the USA is Mr. Jonathan Halpern of Tone Imports: www.toneimports.com
As always, thanks for stopping by to read my audio articles here at Positive Feedback, and may the tone be with you!
