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 At
the era of the cheap Chinese Hi-Fi,
some Japanese are still obsessed with
music and still produce audio “jewels”.
Japan is certainly
“saved” in our memory as a high-technology
paradise due to the giants of consumer
electronics but also consumer cars it
disposes. Thus we tend to believe that
Japan’s oldest face, the one encompassing
dedication to principles and ideals
has been abolished at the benefit of
profit, but this is a mistake. This
far away country disposes of an exceptional
cultural scene, with its own school
of cinema and music (especially jazz)
that flourishes steadily since many
decades. We see that Japanese people
are not only workaholics but also productive,
great appreciators and consumers of
works of art; in a nutshell, it is a
people that do not leave anything to
chance. Having said that, it is not
a wonder if the audiophile scene in
Japan includes some of the most fanatical
and fastidious audio lovers on the planet.
Their appetite is generally soothed
by local production and their preferences
tend more towards lamp ideals and easy
feeling speakers. Extremely demanding
as they are they despise the old fashioned
lamp sound, the slow bass, the coarse
middle fields and the cut primes.
Mr. Taku Hyodo is
one amongst the most eminent Japanese
audiophiles, a musician with a long
musical experience. Leben Hi-Fi Co is
his personal company that produces audiophile
parts, in the frame of which a limited
number of fine amplifier models are
designed and produced at good prices
like the full-fledged CS300X, with a
power of 15 W/per channel. Mr. Kenjiro
Matsumoto is the president of Mactone,
one the most historical audiophile companies
in Japan. Active since 1964 in the manufacture
of OTL circuits, the company disposes
of a great range of lamp amplifiers,
eminently push pull triodes, which are
renowned for combining the single-headed
idiom with the technical qualities of
the push-pull. On the contrary of Leben
the Mactone products belong to the super-expensive
categories and the XM-IIA has a performance
of 15W/per channel is Mactone’s less
expensive product.
We decided to proceed
to the co-existence of these two fully
fledged amplifiers in a common trial
for reasons that go beyond their place
of origin and their lamp composition,
for reasons related to their retro appearance.
Nevertheless, beyond this trial’s “light”
aspect, one thing is certain: these
two amplifiers open before us a new
way of thinking, different from the
western perspective, offering a new
dimension to the dominant issue as to
how music should be reproduced at home.
 LEBEN
CS300X
The Leben company gives us a strong
taste of the Japanese way of thinking
with a full-fledged amplifier based
on EL84 which does not cost much. Also,
the amplifier is produced in a simpler
and cheaper version, CS300, with the
same frame and external appearance,
but inferior material, from lamps and
capacitors to power supply transformers
and finishing. Leben’s basic visual
characteristic, apart from its beautiful
retro look, is its small size which
allows its products to fit almost everywhere.
Manufacture
Being used to the simple layout of the
audiophile amplifiers, I insatiably
looked at the exuberant – from the “regulators”
point of view – golden appearance of
the small CS300X. It is constituted
as follows: earphones output with a
selector switch of airplane type between
it and the sound box output. Channel
balance under the “Balancer” unique
inscription. Also, amplifying in two
steps, +3 and +5db, with the obvious
name “Bass Boost”, adequate for night
listening at low sound level. The back
has also an unusual regulator. Instead
of different outputs with plugs, obviously
in order to spare space, there is a
selector with three positions (4, 6
and 8Ω) for the best possible adaptation
with your sound boxes. Finally, there
is an extra earth terminal. It does
not imply the use of an optional phono
stage, but the need of an amplifier
to earth its frame, when the single
ended signal that will come to its inputs
does not carry an earth wire (as happens
with many sources that do not have an
earth wire in the plug or that have
one but do not send a signal). Pay attention
at this point and pull the wire to an
earth wire to the multi plugged device
if you become aware of static load on
the CS300X’s frame. As this is also
what happens with Mactone, too, I assume
that the Japanese tend not to earth
their frames through power supply.
 The
“X” version, as I mentioned before,
is great as to materials, starting with
the wood of the sides that is a Canadian
white ash and the buttons are gilded
with 24K gold. The main upgrading points
are the power supply transformer, the
two output transformers of increased
response and better diode. Of course
the four Mullard EL84 are the “highlight”
while for the control the two General
Electric 5751 (a special type of 12AX7/ECC83)
are also found in the simple version.
Nevertheless, the base covers here are
gilded. Also we find the RMG-F resistors
with gilded terminals, the OSCon (Sanyo)
and Silmic (ELNA) capacitors for supply
decoupling, while on the signal there
are some polypropylene metal elements
with mesh type armor. The internal manufacture
is faultless. The amplifier is divided
in two levels with a big metallic partition.
On top of it, under the cover, there
are lamps and transformers as well as
some capacitors and resistors covered
with taps with the Leben logo. Under
this there are connections without a
plate, with rectangular copper bars
that contribute to the order of the
wiring. Finally, the level potentiometer
as much as the channel balance are materialized
with blue Alps.
Music
The CS300X exploits as much as it can
its small power, only the sound box
must bear a cared for resistance. At
the start I listened to it with a Harberth
Super HL5 and the result was really
magic in timbre and clarity, three-dimensional
while the fact that the Harberth disposes
of a full and absolutely controllable
and clear bass must have helped. Then
I connected it to a device personally
manufactured the main characteristic
of which is its use in parties (104db/8Ω),
a fact fully exploited by the Leben,
demonstrating healthy ends and poweful
performance.
The CS3000X can do
anything with sound texture and easily
succeeds in surpassing its competitors
in this field, leaving a very good taste
of what the Japanese school can do with
lamps. At the same time, its sound is
modern or western, as to ends, dynamics
and detail.
This texture could
be described as extremely sleek and
delicate, with great density of harmonious
data and flexibility. Naturally, I refer
to the widest middle area where Leben
teaches us with its timbers, micro fluctuations
of ton and rhythm against Manley Stingray,
for example, and PrimaLuna Prologue
Two. The first presents many similarities
as to the timber with the Japanese full
fledged, due to the EL84 it uses, while
it is more dynamic with more ends and
maybe, more detail. The latter is “superior”
to Leben in those fields (let us not
forget that the aforementioned are 40W).
However, both cannot possibly have the
brio, description and clarity of the
middle CS300X. Its keyword is range
homogeneity and time continuity that
rules before any detail or “beat”. In
short, the Japanese “organize” their
sound in order for the auditor to listen
to it effortlessly and to feel it calmly
and deeply, while Americans and most
Europeans prefer to … feed the “hunter
ear” and the ear that collects data.
Thus, compared to the other two, Leben
sounds more focused and dense, with
more refined musical imports. But, listening
again to the much more precise Mactone
I realized that it really follows two
masters, with as many similarities as
differences with the western sound models.
I would say then that Leben, with CS3000X,
makes the Japanese way of reproducing
sound accessible to Western consumers,
as much as for price as for sound physiognomy.
But its way of achieving it is so extremely
charming…
Specs
Power: 2x15Wrms
Response: 15 Hz – 100KHz
Sensitivity – resistance: 600 mV/-
Inputs: 5 line, 1 tape
Outputs: 1 tape, 4/6/8 Ω
Dimensions (……): 35x13, 8x22, 5 cm.
Weight: 10 kg
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