When I got the new LEAK Stereo 130 amplifier with matching LEAK CDT CD transport was first seen a while ago in a press release, my hi-fi heart jumped happily. In 2011 a colleague gave me an old LEAK Delta 30 integrated amplifier. That stubbornly designed little amplifier from the late days of the transition between tube and solid state still worked, and despite showing a few signs of aging I wrote this enthusiastic vintage review about it. LEAK had not existed for a long time, but now this iconic brand is back on the market. Not with the crazy high-end price tags, but affordable and equipped with a number of interesting modern gadgets. I had to and would put it to the test, and so it happened.

A Little History Harold Joseph LEAK founded the brand named after him in 1934 and he became one of the pioneers in high-quality music reproduction. Some of his feats were sadly lost in the dusty recesses of hi-fi history, but it was one of his designs – the Point One amplifier series from 1961 – which was the first to have harmonic distortion below 0.1%. The company also innovated in speaker technology. The successful LEAK Sandwich loudspeaker out 1961 had a Mercenary Don Barlow developed a woofer whose cone consisted of a layer of foamed polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum foil, resulting in an extremely light and rigid speaker membrane. A similar principle is still used today by brands such as Podszus-Görlich and Zellaton.

The Classic LEAK Stereo 30 (photo: Rene van Es)

In 1969 the brand sold to the Rank Organization, a British entertainment company that made films and television productions as well as radios, televisions and copiers – the Rank in Rank-Xerox, for the older youth of readers. End Years 95, competition from the Japanese audio industry became too fierce, and the LEAK brand name quietly disappeared from the market without much residual glory. Definitely it seemed, but nothing could be further from the truth and a ball can roll in a strange way in hi-fi land. After 40 years in deep slumber, the LEAK brand name was acquired by IAG (International Audio Group). This Chinese investor has the hi-fi heart in the right place and was previously successful in bringing other British hi-fi classics back to the market, including Quad, Wharfedale and Mission. And now LEAK.

LEAK Stereo 130 Integrated Amplifier In the past, LEAK amplifiers could have type number the power to 8? read: so had the Stereo 32 from 1963 rated at 2x 15 Watt. The new Stereo 192 breaks with that tradition and delivers 2 x 48 Watts per channel in Class AB. I mention the Historic Stereo 32 for good reason, because the design of the new Stereo 130 is based on that in detail. The narrow housing, the black band at the bottom of the otherwise aluminum-colored front, with the original name logo at the bottom left. The rotary knobs with a ribbed black plastic cylinder around an aluminum-colored heart, the volume and source selection knobs on the right and left outside with the knobs for tone control and balance in between, even the (now available at an extra cost) walnut casing. It ‘new ones’ design is really unbelievably retro, but I am amazed how current it is now 2020 actually still looks, certainly the version without wooden casing that I received for review.

There are also differences. The original rotary knobs had a small tip that made it easier to read the position from the listening seat, and the headphone output – which, by the way, is only available on the LEAK Stereo + appeared – was hiding behind a small ‘twist knob’ that was more like a ‘twist cap’ that you had to remove in order to pierce the headphones. Furthermore, the new Stereo 192 a ‘direct’ button with which you bypass the entire – by the way nicely subtle – tone control, which also results in a slightly more transparent reproduction. On the far right is the standby button, which lights up softly in red at rest and lights up brighter when switched on. The source selector now features a ring of small orange LEDs that indicate which source you have selected. The amplifier comes with a remote control with which the functions of the accompanying CDT CD transport can be operated, more about this later.

At the back you will find the bigger differences. So is the Stereo 130 with a secured IEC net entrance with the real on / off button above it. Where the old Stereo 32 (+) had two inputs for record players is that on the Stereo 130 only one (MM), and the microphone inputs (!) are also gone. Instead, there are two analog Aux inputs and a stereo pre-out, one pair of speaker connections and an extensive digital connection panel that includes not only a coaxial, two optical and a USB-B digital input, but also a coaxial and optical. digital output. A network connection is missing, the LEAK Stereo 192 does not have a streamer on board. The da-converter in the Stereo 192 via USB supports resolutions up to 384 kHz (PCM) and DSD 256, but no MQA. The coaxial and optical connection are capped at 256 kHz. A USB-A port for updates and a 12 Volt trigger input and output top it off. Allows the LEAK Stereo 130 are the heart of every modern hi-fi system. As icing on the cake, the Stereo 192 an onboard Bluetooth receiver (with external antenna) that supports aptX and Apple AAC.

LEAK CDT CD-Transport The LEAK CDT CD transport is not a CD player, but a transport . That means that there is no da-converter and that it therefore has no analog audio outputs. On the rear panel, next to a secured IEC net entrance and the on / off button, we find a pair of trigger connections to synchronize it with the Stereo 130 on and off, and an optical and coaxial S / PDIF digital output. The CDT uses a smooth-running and extremely silent ‘slot-loading’ Red Book CD drive. G éé one CD-ROM drive, as is more or less usual nowadays, but therefore also g one one buffer in which the read data is first stored. Using so ‘ One buffer can be an advantage when playing a badly damaged CD ‘ s or CD recordables that have become less legible over the years, but I have not encountered any CD in practice that did not play properly .

On the front is a relatively small but easy to read monochrome dot-matrix LCD display with a very wide viewing angle. The control buttons are accurate to use, but I feel that a very little intuitive operation has been sacrificed to the sleek design. It will take some getting used to, but I pressed the eject button several times when I actually wanted to start playback with the play / pause button next to it. To the left of the control buttons is a USB-A input where you can insert a memory stick with music files. There are a few caveats to this. The stick must be FAT 16 or FAT 32 are formatted, and may only contain WAV, MP3, WMA or AAC format files, with a maximum resolution of 48 kHz.

This is a surprising and nice extra function, but the operation is a bit unclear . Playback starts as soon as you insert the stick into the USB-A socket and select the USB input with the ‘input’ button. Choosing a favorite album or song before playing is therefore not really an option. Via the remote control you can choose with certain buttons to search or skip within the main folder or within the currently playing folder, but the display does not show which mode you are in and the displayed metadata is not always clear due to the limited space. My advice is to use this function, for example, for a stick full of background music, whose songs are all in one folder, and thus ensure uninterrupted background music enjoyment for a whole party. However, playing files on a well-stocked external drive in a folder structure can cause some frustration.

In-use and Listen Most of the sound assessment took place in my office, because that’s where I listen to music most hours a day. My KEF LS 50 speakers in nearfield setup were connected to the LEAK Stereo with AudioQuest CV-4 speaker cables 130 connected, I connected the CDT with a coaxial AudioQuest Hawkeye digital interconnect, my Mac mini with an AudioQuest Carbon USB and and the Bluesound Node with an AudioQuest Vodka Optical. The devices were within reach in this setup, so I hardly used the remote control. Of course I took a look at how it worked and I noticed a few trifles. That the remote control for both the Stereo 130 if the CDT can be used provides a mixture of control buttons that takes some getting used to. With the bottom two buttons you first have to choose whether you want to operate the amplifier or the CD transport, which is not useful if you want to change the volume on the amplifier after starting a CD or skipping to another track. I can understand why: some buttons have a double function – for example ‘volume +’ for the amplifier, which is also used for ‘file up’ during playback from a USB stick – but you quickly get it wrong and that is a shame. If you buy both devices you have o Incidentally, two remote controls that you could use separately. Make sure to mark which squeeze cat is for which device. Anyway, the operation is of course a bit subordinate to how things sound.

I have the Stereo 130 first two days at soft level the I played the unsurpassed Isotek Burn-in CD to rinse off the novelty and to stabilize the digital part of the circuit, and then I got down to it. The Stereo 192 may have a typical retro British look, from a dark brown retro appearance that has been used in the years 60 and 70 typified the British hi-fi, however. The LEAK Stereo 192 sounds dynamic, fast and extremely transparent. I can imagine that with a somewhat cooler speaker cable and strictly neutral speakers you would go a little bit in the analytical direction, but with the CV-4 and the LS 50 ‘s the result was infectious , nice and open and wonderfully spacious. The presentation was a bit more forward than I was from my Peachtree Decco 65 am used to this place, and if maybe something could have had just a little bit of extra color, it was low. But you can easily change that with the tone control – albeit with a minimal loss of transparency. Also rhythmically the whole was excellent.

I started with the Bluetooth playback, because that function is especially appreciated by younger users today. The pairing went very smoothly and the reproduction was in my ears pretty good for what you would expect from a compressed digital signal. Tonally it was fine, with a slight emphasis on the midrange, a fair amount of detail and a decent dynamic. However, it was no surprise that it could be even better via an uncompressed digital source, I had not even expected otherwise. The significantly better playback via the Bluesound Node and the CDT drive did not differ much from each other, but I still preferred CD playback via the CDT quite quickly.

A favorite CD to test new hi-fi is still… And Poppies From Kandahar by Jan Bang. This wonderful and fantastically produced album has the war problem in Afghanistan as its underlying theme, but it never becomes finger-pointing or violent. Very exciting, because it is one big musical radio play that takes place in 12 plays mostly instrumental tracks and leaves much to the imagination of the listener. Favorite track? Passport Control, in which a subcutaneous but uplifting beat drives an increasingly full sound image to a long climax at the end of the more than nine minutes long track. Due to the nearfield arrangement of the LS 50 ‘s created a beautiful and strong bubble of sound that completely surrounded me and which I was completely absorbed in.

The somewhat forward placement and generous spaciousness also held up well in the large set downstairs on my prototype Kharma speakers. Given the enormous price difference, this is no small achievement. In the big set I tested the MM phono stage, with a simple but excellent performing AudioTechnica AT 95 E element in the Thorens TD 125. I am delighted to say that the discreetly constructed phono stage in the Stereo 130 is of excellent quality, close to the level of the digital inputs. With a better element, even better results can undoubtedly be achieved, but of course also with an external phono stage of some stature. The built-in headphone output is excellent, but here too it is not comparable with a separate headphone amplifier. However, on my AudioQuest NightHawk Classic it performed well, with a sound that resembled the reproduction through speakers: detailed and dynamic, with a slight emphasis on the midrange and a nice smooth low that was just a tad on the slim side.

Conclusion The LEAK Stereo 192 and the CDT CD transport form a classic looking but fully performing two-unit by today’s standards at a surprisingly affordable price. Future price increases aside, you will have for less than 1500 euro – just a little more if you want the stunning walnut console around it – a set that, in combination with the right speakers, really plays the stars of the sky. Obviously, the purchase of the CDT drive is not mandatory, but if you still play CDs, it is certainly worth considering. It works fast and smooth, runs really quietly and in combination with the da-converter in the Stereo 130 for a contagious, spacious and light-hearted display. Due to the somewhat clumsy operation of the USB playback option, it unfortunately loses n é t half a star score.

The Stereo 130 integrated amplifier is a treat to see and hear. It is well built, sounds modern and open, and offers plenty of digital and analog connectivity options including Bluetooth. As icing on the cake, he has an excellent MM phono stage on board. However, here too, just half a star off, mainly due to the somewhat clumsy mix of functions on the otherwise beautiful remote control with a metal front plate, and the small note regarding the combination with certain cables and speakers. Nevertheless, a more than excellent and well-deserved score. Don’t let its compact dimensions fool you, this punchy performance set has what it takes to become a true retro classic just like its illustrious predecessor.

LEAK Stereo 130

LEAK Stereo 130 Silver: 799 euro

LEAK Stereo 130 Walnut: 899 euro

LEAK CDT Silver: 549 euro

LEAK CDT Walnut: 649 euros

Rating: 4.5 / 5

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