Leben Owners: which speakers do you use?

I owned both the Leben CS600 and now the CS300 and prefer the latter powering my Living Voice OBX-RW speakers. The upbeat spirited nature of the CS300 created a better synergy with the agility and even tonal balance of the Living Voice. The CS300's 12 watts power was not a issue at all in my medium size room. In comparison, the CS600 (32w) had more than enough power but was a little slow in momentum for my taste. I haven't heard the Devore Nines but from what I understand from the many reviews and comments the Living Voice with its greater sensitivity (94db) should provide a smoother but just as natural and refined presentation.

When I auditioned the DeVore Super 8's and Leben integrateds, I preferred it paired with the CS600. I found the CS300 a bit too energetic (harsh) to my ears. I really like the Winged C 6L6GC tubes with these DeVores. I'm happy with the results. I've read that your Nines are very good with the Leben CS300. Best of luck in your search.

I'd love to hear the Orangutans, and the Living Voice too. Interesting what you say, Glenalan and Randyk, about the 600 versus the 300, and the Nines v. the 8s. I heard the 300XS with the Super8s and some Dynaudios. Can't remember exactly what I thought of the Dynaudios versus the Super8s, but I wound up liking the Super8s better... And then I tried the Nines and it just sounded right. I don't like to listen very loud, and bass isn't so important to me, so it was something else about the Nines. For what it's worth, I also brought along a Rowland SS amp and hooked that up to the Nines, with a Shindo Aurieges on top. It sounded beautiful-crystalline, shimmering-- and the soundstage, imaging etc was superior to the Lebens, but after listening for a couple hours back and forth I decided that for me, the Leben was preferable.

I use Merlin TSM MMe's with my CS600. I use Reflecter 6N3C Tubes and find the result to be really synergistic. great soundstage with really good mids and a really good tonality

I´m using a Leben CS-300 with Zu Druids loudspeakers and Zu Method subwoofer.

The rest of my rig consists of Esoteric UX-1 as a transport and Yamamoto YDA-01 as DAC and cables are Zu Libtec, Zu Varial and Zu Mother -these last ones bettered the whole resolution of the system in terms of space between instruments, a more 3D presentation and the saturation coming, for instance, from a Hammond organ through a Leslie speaker (I must admit that I was not a believer in any improvement when speaking of power cables. But my ears tells me the contrary).

The Zus are great in the way they show the sound of the electric guitars. You can feel they sound like in real life.

Other very important thing are the tubes inside the Leben. Right now, I´m using Sylvanias all the way.

My 2 cents.

Daniel