Vintage gear sure looks cool. Classic looks are fun. But good performance, ah, NO.
The problem with vintage gear is, that it’s OLD! So am I. I started selling audio gear in 1971 in college. The electronics of that era ran hot and broke frequently, even when new.
The truth is, cool as it was, the gear we sold back in the 60s/70s, wasn’t very reliable when it was NEW. Now that it is 50 years old… precious little of it works properly, if at all. It’s a waste of money to try to repair because it needs a heart transplant instead of a Bandaid.
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t get a call from someone wanting us to repair a Marantz or Pioneer product they picked up at an estate sale. And of course they want it fixed cheap. Sorry, we’re not interested. It’s guaranteed to be money wasted.
Yep, we know of profiteers taking advantage of the unsuspecting on eBay. It’s one thing to buy a Mickey Mantle baseball card for a lot of money to LOOK AT. With hi-fi gear, we expect it to WORK!
Some McIntosh products are an exception to the rule. We have had a fair number of those through our doors and guess what? Even THOSE need service. New Macs are $7-8k per box.
While that’s a great solution, it costs real money.
For those of you who would like a vintage look, without the money pit of expense with guaranteed heartbreak, I recommend NEW gear from Leak Audio. Don’t waste your money on old gear that will NEVER BE RIGHT.
Let’s take it a step further. Suppose you find “a guy” willing to take your money and patch up an old something or another. It still has dried up electrolytic and ceramic caps, a heat attracting phenolic PCB and a boatload of cheap wire with a thousand solder points to go bad.
Leak is an iconic UK company that has just brought out a gorgeous integrated amp and CD transport. Both pieces are quite modern in performance. They come with REAL walnut cases to look like what we had in the 70s. If you pull the walnut cases off, you have the STEEL look that was popular before the walnut cases took over.
The integrated amp even has pre-outs and a marvelously well weighted Alps volume control. You can connect it to a bazillion watt power amp hidden in a cabinet- and all you’ll SEE is the vintage clothing of the Leak preamp/DAC. The matching CD transport is a serious, high performing, buffering player. My point is, this is not flimsy audio gear like a Crosley record player at Best Buy. This is great hi-fi KIT, as the Brits call it, at fair prices with vintage cache.
Don’t waste your time with vintage gear unless you want to waste money and just LOOK at it.
Leak Audio (click here for link)
Leak is an iconic British brand of audio gear, founded 1934. Leak has now introduced a short line of modern gear, in vintage clothing.
You can use Leak with its lovely real walnut cabinet. Or, remove the cabinet for a classic steel look. Either way, you’re back in the 60s with contemporary performance!
Stereo 130 Integrated Amp: $1195: 45×2
(45×2, 8 ohms, 20-20k: 5.7h, 12.8w, 11.1d, 16 lbs)
The amp section is 45×2 of classic AB design. THD is .005%, 20-20k. While not a behemoth of an amp, Stereo 130 is a solid, punchy amplifier. It will drive some pretty substantial speakers without complaint. How about the Wharfedale line with matching walnut finish?
Stereo 130 features a 32b Sabre DAC to shake hands with Leak’s CDT or your digital sources. It has Bluetooth for your phone as well.
Stereo 130 has bass, treble and balance controls. It also has a DIRECT switch to bypass them. It has a fine headphone amp on board as well. The headphone jack is ¼ inch.
Analog inputs:
MM Phono
Two RCA analog inputs
Analog outputs:
Pre out. Yes!!
Digital inputs:
USB-B
Coax
Two OPTs
Digital outputs:
> Coax
> OPT
CDT CD Transport $899
CDT is a solidly built, slot loading transport (no DAC on board) to mate with Stereo 130. It is the same size as Stereo 130 and the ideal partner for playing your silver discs. Outputs are coax and optical. Running CDT into Stereo 130 will sound cleaner than using some CD player into it!
Being a transport instead of a CD player, CDT isolates its laser electromagnetically with its own power supply. It features a crystal oscillator to reduce jitter. It has read-ahead buffering so it will play all but the most damaged CDs. In short, CDT was made to be a serious quality player of compact discs, instead of generic throw in.
The Combo
Leak offers iconic looks in a modest size, with real hi-fi performance for less than ballroom sized applications!