Κώστας Φ.
Truth hurts. Here's a teddy bear.
- Μηνύματα
- 8.978
- Reaction score
- 895
"The Leben RS28CX is a two-chassis, full-function (with valve phone stage - yippee!) active preamplifier. The first chassis, the RS28CX, includes all the vacuum tube audio circuitry, inputs, outputs and controls. A dedicated vacuum tube power supply is housed in a second chassis. That RS28PX powers the RS28CX via umbilical cord long enough to place the power supply well away from the control unit and maintain maximum separation to minimize power supply noise contamination of the sensitive vacuum tube line and phono circuitry.
The back panel of the RS28CX includes four RCA line level inputs and one phono input. There is one fixed output and one variable output. The variable output is handy to trim output to a subwoofer or optimize the main output to match amplifier sensitivity and noise to high-sensitivity loudspeakers. A side benefit is that it allows use of the full range of the volume control steps so you aren't restricted to a few coarse adjustments as is often the case with preamplifiers. The RS28PX has a removable power cord should you desire to do a little power cord rolling. I found both the Acoustic Revive Power Max II and Furutech G-320Ag-18 IEC cords to nicely complement the Leben's overall voicing.
Its build quality is outstanding, with nice touches and high-quality parts abounding. The overall effect of the sage-green highlighted golden faceplate, the gold controls and wood side panels is tasteful and drop-dead gorgeous - elegance personified. Both the RS28CX & RS28PX include high quality footers for isolation.
The front panel of the control chassis has a selector to choose between five RCA inputs (one phono), a tape monitor loop and a balance control. When the power switch is depressed on the RS28CX, it illuminates and another indicator lights on the RS28PX to confirm when it is fully powered up. A warm-up indicator flashes on the RS28CX until the audio circuitry has stabilized and then goes out as a green light illuminates to confirm that the RS28CX is ready for operation.
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Hyodo San's Leben RS28CX is equipped with a CR RIAA equalizer of NOS General Electric JAN 12AT7s and the finest parts quality available for an RIAA accuracy of +/-0.3%. Hyodo San voices the circuit by ear to provide the most musical, natural and pure presentation possible so the listener gets both the best of both worlds: natural sounding high-performance sonics and engaging musicality.
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The Leben RS28CS has very high output voltage via the dual-triode NOS GE 6CG7s used in the shunt-regulated push-pull (SRPP) Linestage circuit and can provide power amplifiers with up to 80 Volts of clean output, more than double that of most preamplifier designs to easily drive amplifiers with even very low input sensitivity if need be.
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Wrapping Up
The beautifully crafted $5795 Leben RS28CX Premium Vacuum Tube Stereo Preamplifier from the design studio of Mr. Taku Hyodo is a music lover’s dream component. Exquisitely voiced, it unfailingly gets the music right regardless of medium. The Leben RS28CX is always musically expressive in the way music is in real life. I bought the Leben RS28CX for my own personal musical enjoyment and to serve as a benchmark in preamplifier design for the Music Lovers series. I wish there was something above a Blue Moon award because this component certainly deserves it. But a Blue Moon Award in the Music Lovers category will have to suffice. Absolutely, freakily good and as such, most highly recommended to music lovers everywhere!"
Full Review: 6moons.com
