Hello from Cornwall

[Gordon Steadman]

That amp is magical, I have only just replaced mine in the main system after 25 years of pleasure. What pre-amp will you be using or did I miss something? Mine sounded very fine with a Creek passive although the Quad 34 was pretty good too.

Its a pity space is a problem as the 20 sounds really good with my Quad ESL57s. I also ran it into Kef 101s which were pretty nice too. You can get those for very little when they come up, unlike the LS35a which, to my ears at least, don't sound quite as 'musical' ie when they are playing I tend to hop up and down less in time to the music. I would think a system based on the Leak/Kefs would suit your choice of music quite well. Wouldn't suit headbangers of course.

As ever, the problem with buying second hand / eBay is that you can't listen extensively before you buy which is the only real way to buy hi-fi.

Shouldn't go wrong with the little Kefs though.

[ashleyk]

It's good to hear another positive bit of feedback on the Leak. I really have no idea what the situation is for a pre-amp. To the best of my knowledge my father just had the Linn or the Arcam plugged straight into the Leak amp but I know he had a Creek amp and tuner so perhaps I've missed something.

Thanks for the speaker suggestion. I've just started a thread on that very subject and I'll have to do some research.

[Gordon Steadman]

You would need a pre-amp. I don't know if the Arcam has a variable output but I doubt any phono amp (needed with the record player) would. Otherwise output would be on max all the time - not ideal for ears or speakers

[ashleyk]

Going back many years ago I remember we had the three sets of speakers. There were the huge Monitor Audios that went through various upgrades and sounded pretty wonderful when married to the Leak. Then we had some much cheaper and smaller Castle Clyde speakers that were wall mounted in the breakfast room that could be politely described as OK while ironing. Finally I had a pair of budget priced JPW speakers linked up to a Rega Planar 3 and a Nytech amp but all of that is long gone.

[ashleyk]

You would need a pre-amp. I don't know if the Arcam has a variable output but I doubt any phono amp (needed with the record player) would. Otherwise output would be on max all the time - not ideal for ears or speakers

The volume was definitely controllable so I'll have to ask my father how he did it. He's getting on a bit now and struggling to remember anything technical so he may not have much useful information.