New valve user!

[dmg]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a while, great forum this and nice laid back attitude. I've picked up some great info so far and thought its time to contribute a little.

I'm an ex-naim user, now almost in full remission, after the purchase of a Leben CS300x. The rest of the system is a Garrard 401, Jelco tonearm, Shure V15 III cart and the Neil James 322 phono boards in a stripped down Naim NAC 32.5 with TeddyCap III providing the power. Digital is an Apogee ONE usb dac on the end of my Mac. Speakers are Tannoy Eaton, in need of a little TLC and Linn Kans which work surprisingly well with the Leben, even though they shouldn't :scratch:

Cheers

Dan

[Firebottle]

Hey Dan a very big welcome :)

You might have noticed I am a keen valve user also.
Pictures of your kit are (virtually) essential, we all like to drool from time to time :drool:

Cheers

[dmg]

Thanks for the welcome, I'll take some photos later!

[walpurgis]

Hello Dan. Welcome to AOS.

That's an interesting selection of equipment you have. The Leben must be a bit of a culture shock after Naim gear.

I love Tannoy Eatons, had five pairs. Tell us what plans you may have for them. AOS is a great source for Tannoy upgrade info.

What music do you listen to?


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[SquireC]

Welcome to the world of valve amps. You'll never miss your Naim.

[dmg]

Hello Dan. Welcome to AOS.

That's an interesting selection of equipment you have. The Leben must be a bit of a culture shock after Naim gear.

I love Tannoy Eatons, had five pairs. Tell us what plans you may have for them. AOS is a great source for Tannoy upgrade info.

What music do you listen to?


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

Thanks guys,

I love the Eatons, I haven't gone through a whole lot of different speakers, but they have so many of the good qualities that the Kans have; they are fast in the mids and airy in the highs but have real texture and tone in the bass. Although they might be a little bass shy from what you would expect of a modern 10" speaker, what you do get sounds like a real instrument and not just a monotone. They need a bit of work to bring them up to scratch, so I'm saving up to send the crossovers to Paul at RFC. I'd love to hear from anyone who has had the drivers put into custom cabinets, from what I understand the Tannoys of this era didn't have the best designed ones.

I expect the 12 and 15"ers have a lot more impact, but I've probably pushed things size wise as far as they are going to go for the time being, my wife was not impressed as I sheepishly carried them through the front door mubbling about how they looked much smaller in the photo...

I listen to most styles of music, but a lot of jazz recently, mostly classic hard bop of the Art Blakey variety, and a lot of 70's jazz / jazz funk / space jazz, Herbie Hancock, later Miles Davis, Sun Ra, anything good really!

Classical is one area I'm saving until I can really do justice to it, most systems I've had have been fairly unusable due to being unable to handle the shear scale of big orchestral works, but I have high hopes for the Leben with the Tannoys :)

[walpurgis]

I love the Eatons, I haven't gone through a whole lot of different speakers, but they have so many of the good qualities that the Kans have; they are fast in the mids and airy in the highs but have real texture and tone in the bass. Although they might be a little bass shy from what you would expect of a modern 10" speaker, what you do get sounds like a real instrument and not just a monotone. They need a bit of work to bring them up to scratch, so I'm saving up to send the crossovers to Paul at RFC. I'd love to hear from anyone who has had the drivers put into custom cabinets, from what I understand the Tannoys of this era didn't have the best designed ones.

Nothing bass shy about the Eatons. They are capable of an excellent performance for their size and that's the only limiting factor. The HPD 295A driver needs a bigger box. They do like a bit of grip from a clean punchy amp though. One of the later Creeks should be just the thing and sound superb with them. You might find a smaller Leben struggling a bit.

[petrat]

Welcome, Dan ... you have a system after my own heart!

IME, the Leben CS300 is a gutsy amp with great clarity. I preferred it to the CS600 by quite a margin. I found it made a surprisingly good partner for some 15 inch Tannoys, so I'm not surprised it's impressing in your system. I also found it better on the 6 ohm taps with those Tannoys btw. Keep an eye out for the matching phonostage, which is very good, but rather scarce here in the UK.

[dmg]

Interesting about trying it on the 6ohm tap, Petrat, I'll have to give that a go on the Tannoys. I tried it with the Kans but it's a lot punchyer on the 8ohm. I have to say, I'm a little confused about matching impedances, whats important and why there is so much variation - if there's a right way to do it then why are there so many different values of input and output impedance of equipment out there?

PS, yes seen the phono stage, trying to put that out of my mind at the moment!

Travelling with work at the moment but will put some photos up when I get back.

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AoS

[Ali Tait]

Interesting about trying it on the 6ohm tap, Petrat, I'll have to give that a go on the Tannoys. I tried it with the Kans but it's a lot punchyer on the 8ohm. I have to say, I'm a little confused about matching impedances, whats important and why there is so much variation - if there's a right way to do it then why are there so many different values of input and output impedance of equipment out there?

PS, yes seen the phono stage, trying to put that out of my mind at the moment!

Travelling with work at the moment but will put some photos up when I get back.

No wrong or right, just use the tap that sounds best to you.

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Dan.

I'm interested in your "Neil James 322 phono boards in a stripped down Naim NAC 32.5", as I have a (slightly fettled) Linn LINNK phonostage which I believe uses a circuit based on the Naim 323 boards. Can you tell us a little more about them? Your Leben amps are well regarded by many here and recently I was able to hear one myself.

Good to welcome another 'jazzer' to AoS; we're in the minority here, especially lovers of Sun Ra and of 'be-bop'. Saw Art Blakey in London many years ago and he was an absolute joy.

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

[dmg]

Hi Barry, very jealous you saw Art Blakey! There's not a lot of opportunity to see great live 'bop at the moment, as far as I can tell. I'd be happy for any recommendations of current performers though. I know the Arkestra still tour, so I'm hopping to catch them next time they are in London.

The 322 boards are in their normal positions in the Naim 32.5. I simply take the output from one of the tape in/out DIN sockets with a DIN to phono cable that I rewired. Theres nothing else in the 32.5 case apart from the small relay board that provides the soft power up, but I could wire that out if I wanted to as well. The power comes from a TeddyCap, basically a HiCap replacement. It's a temporary arrangement, I'm going to just put the cards into a small box and hand wire the whole thing up, so I can use both power rails of the TeddyCap, one for each channel.


18541