Leema Pulse II - now just have to wait :)

[atanakata]

After a month of reading and trying to decide between Marantz PM6004,PM7004 or CA 650 A , a moment of Xmas madness finally made me to put my money on Leema Pulse II . Now I just have to wait for it till after the New Year . I`ve paid for it, based purely on what I`ve read about it ( and that was pretty good stuff ) as I didn`t have any chance for audition. Hopefully it will do justice to my floorstanders as now they are kind of wasted driven by my AVR . I had them attached recently to a Marantz PM7200 amp and the difference was very noticable . Hopefully the Leema drives them even better

Merry Xmas to ME ...and to all of you guys, of course

 

[plastic penguin]

After a month of reading and trying to decide between Marantz PM6004,PM7004 or CA 650 A , a moment of Xmas madness finally made me to put my money on Leema Pulse II . Now I just have to wait for it till after the New Year . I`ve paid for it, based purely on what I`ve read about it ( and that was pretty good stuff ) as I didn`t have any chance for audition. Hopefully it will do justice to my floorstanders as now they are kind of wasted driven by my AVR . I had them attached recently to a Marantz PM7200 amp and the difference was very noticable . Hopefully the Leema drives them even better

Merry Xmas to ME ...and to all of you guys, of course

Nice one! Which floorstanders do you have?

 

[kevinJ]

From what I read that amp should be really nice, if it partners well with your speakers.

Do let us know how it works out.

 

[atanakata]

The Mezzo 6 by M.Short . I thought they were very musical , yes, but that was until I heard the rears ( Mezzo 1 ) on the main stage. They sounded much better. Then I decided to go for a better and more capable amp ( than the £ 300-500 ones I was lookint at ) for the Mezzo 6`s... and hope that the Leema is that amp ...

 

[plastic penguin]

The Mezzo 6 by M.Short . I thought they were very musical , yes, but that was until I heard the rears ( Mezzo 1 ) on the main stage. They sounded much better. Then I decided to go for a better and more capable amp ( than the £ 300-500 ones I was lookint at ) for the Mezzo 6`s... and hope that the Leema is that amp ...

For me - true I'm very biased - the Pulse MKII is the classiest sounding amp I've heard below 2k. Won't have any problem driving MSs.

 

[atanakata]

I`ve read few articles and the verdict of a group test about it, and to be honest - all of your post for the Leema and really hope that it will be very good. I hope I am happy with it as you are ... By the way,when you were choosing your one, which other amps in that price bracket had you compared it with ???

 

[plastic penguin]

I`ve read few articles and the verdict of a group test about it, and to be honest - all of your post for the Leema and really hope that it will be very good. I hope I am happy with it as you are ... By the way,when you were choosing your one, which other amps in that price bracket had you compared it with ???

Roksan Caspian, Naim XS and Audio Analogue. The speakers were MA GS10, Spendor SA-1 and and my RS6s (this was two auditions over a 7 month period). Since then I've heard it with PMC DB1i and Totem Arro speakers. Both very impressive with the Leema, but I keep coming back to PMC (probably GB1i).

TBH, there's very little difference between the Leema, Roksan and Naim, apart from the pace and the Leema, IMHO, has a slightly sweeter tonal balance.

It took me close on two years to upgrade from Arcam amp... that should speak volumes.

 

[atanakata]

Yes ,it does, indeed....That is a lot of time and attetntion invested by you, and being a novice in the Hi-Fi , I deeply depend on opinions like yours before making a choice . From what I understand now you`re using the MA RS6`s with the Leema. My Mezzo 6`s are from the same class - size and pricewise ( with the difference that RS6 are more bassy and Mezzo 6 are a bit brighter probably ) , so hopefully the results are similar. That liveleness in the high end of the Mezzo 6`s partnered with the Pulse II worries me a little bit ,though .....

 

[plastic penguin]

Yes ,it does, indeed....That is a lot of time and attetntion invested by you, and being a novice in the Hi-Fi , I deeply depend on opinions like yours before making a choice . From what I understand now you`re using the MA RS6`s with the Leema. My Mezzo 6`s are from the same class - size and pricewise ( with the difference that RS6 are more bassy and Mezzo 6 are a bit brighter probably ) , so hopefully the results are similar. That liveleness in the high end of the Mezzo 6`s partnered with the Pulse II worries me a little bit ,though .....

Like any set-up it depends on room acoustics and the type of source you have. Personally speaking, to me, the Leema isn't bright: It's neutral, very fast, accurate bass with a lovely organic tonal balance. The biggest plus point for me is how it images voices and music. Play some Joan Armatrading, Labbi Siffre and it is staggering how real it all sounds.

 

[atanakata]

Vocals of the Mezzo are very good IMO , so very excited now ! Room is not very big unfortunately ( around 20 sq m. ) , but We`ll have to wait and see.... Will definitely let you now how it works out

 

[plastic penguin]

Vocals of the Mezzo are very good IMO , so very excited now ! Room is not very big unfortunately ( around 20 sq m. ) , but We`ll have to wait and see.... Will definitely let you now how it works out

My room is 17' x 13' with the speakers firing across the narrow side. The speakers are about 12" from wall and once sitting down I suppose there's a 9' space between my ears and the speakers.

 

[atanakata]

Ours is 15`x 11`, and again speakers firing across the narrow side. 10 " from the rear wall and around 8-9 `betwen me and speakers. I`d love to have biger room , or at least to b able to separate the speakers one from another a bit more ( 5 ` now ) , but simply there isn`t way of doing that . Will have to put up with what we`ve got ...

 

[plastic penguin]

Ours is 15`x 11`, and again speakers firing across the narrow side. 10 " from the rear wall and around 8-9 `betwen me and speakers. I`d love to have biger room , or at least to b able to separate the speakers one from another a bit more ( 5 ` now ) , but simply there isn`t way of doing that . Will have to put up with what we`ve got ...

Should be fine: similar dimensions to my room and the Leema is very controlled at both ends of the frequency.

Be interesting to hear your views.

 

[atanakata]

Yes. will certainly do. Now there is another question . Once the amp arrives I`ll have the floorstanders used for both : Hi-Fi and AV . My idea is to have them mainly connected to the amp, but when I watch movies , I`ll have to unplug the cable from the amp and plug the one from the AVR . It is not a big deal, but it may get annoying after some time. I know there are 2-way speaker switches ( from one source to 2 pairs of speakers ) , but are there switches that work the other way around - from 2 sources to 1 pair of speakers , in my case from Amp and AVR to 1 pair of speakers ?? Any views on that . Thank you very much for your thoughts

 

[plastic penguin]

Yes. will certainly do. Now there is another question . Once the amp arrives I`ll have the floorstanders used for both : Hi-Fi and AV . My idea is to have them mainly connected to the amp, but when I watch movies , I`ll have to unplug the cable from the amp and plug the one from the AVR . It is not a big deal, but it may get annoying after some time. I know there are 2-way speaker switches ( from one source to 2 pairs of speakers ) , but are there switches that work the other way around - from 2 sources to 1 pair of speakers , in my case from Amp and AVR to 1 pair of speakers ?? Any views on that . Thank you very much for your thoughts

No idea. Sorry. I have the DVD player, video and TV plugged directly into the Leema and everything is two-channel.

 

[atanakata]

Not to warry.Thanks anyway. Will find a solution to that somehow

 

[Crocodile]

I'm beginning to sound like Beresford's PR man when replying to these threads but they have a speaker/amp router switch called the TC-7220 that will happily share two amp & two sets of speakers if need be.

However, if you AVR has pre-outs then there is even better news, as the Pulse has a fixed gain AV input. So you can have the speakers permanently connected to the Pulse for stereo & also use it for the front pair in AV.

 

[Anonymous]

Recently I exchanged few emails with Leema's Service/ Production Manager regarding a niggling problem with the headphone-out of my Pulse amp and I happened to ask the difference between Pulse 1 and Pulse 2.

The Leema's Service/ Production Manager confirmed there is only one Pulse model with machined aliminium face plate and two aliminium knobs before to Pulse 3. There is no Pulse 2 in between.

The problem with my Pulse amp is while using my headphones when I switch the amp to stand-by immediately in couple of seconds I hear a loud popping noise for more than a second from headphones. When I communicated about this to Leema the Service Manager advised me to unplug the headphones before I switch-off. He told they have included the following sentence in Pulse 3 manuals but unfortunately it was not included in the Pulse 1 manual.

"It is advisable to unplug headphones before powering down the amplifier.

Never wear headphones while powering down the amplifier, as noise may be produced in the headphones as the power supplies drop."

Can someone confirm if the popping noice from headphones is common with their Pulse amps as confirmed by Leema?
I was confirmed this is normal and all Pulses exhibit this behaviour during power down on the phone output. But when I insisted to send me a copy of Pulse III manual to read the causion given for headphones the Service Manager side tracked me in two differnet instances saying the manual wouldn't work for Pulse amp blah blah....

Can someone confirm if the popping noice from headphones is common with their Pulse amps too as confirmed by Leema?

 

[plastic penguin]

Recently I exchanged few emails with Leema's Service/ Production Manager regarding a niggling problem with the headphone-out of my Pulse amp and I happened to ask the difference between Pulse 1 and Pulse 2.

The Leema's Service/ Production Manager confirmed there is only one Pulse model with machined aliminium face plate and two aliminium knobs before to Pulse 3. There is no Pulse 2 in between.

The problem with my Pulse amp is while using my headphones when I switch the amp to stand-by immediately in couple of seconds I hear a loud popping noise for more than a second from headphones. When I communicated about this to Leema the Service Manager advised me to unplug the headphones before I switch-off. He told they have included the following sentence in Pulse 3 manuals but unfortunately it was not included in the Pulse 1 manual.

"It is advisable to unplug headphones before powering down the amplifier.

Never wear headphones while powering down the amplifier, as noise may be produced in the headphones as the power supplies drop."

Can someone confirm if the popping noice from headphones is common with their Pulse amps as confirmed by Leema?
I was confirmed this is normal and all Pulses exhibit this behaviour during power down on the phone output. But when I insisted to send me a copy of Pulse III manual to read the causion given for headphones the Service Manager side tracked me in two differnet instances saying the manual wouldn't work for Pulse amp blah blah....

Can someone confirm if the popping noice from headphones is common with their Pulse amps too as confirmed by Leema?

I had a problem with MKII Pulse with the headphones: There was a distinct hum on headphone socket only, regardless of volume. I contacted Leema Acoustics, as opposed to sending it back to the dealer, and they informed there was a few from a batch that had this problem. Anyway, Leema collected, repaired and returned it within two weeks Free of Charge.

The problem was earthing, and they also replaced the circuit board with the new MKIII version only, resulting in slightly better performance. Result!

 

[atanakata]

Thanks ,Ravid. I`ll bear that in mind ,although I am not using headphones, but how knows in the future. It`s good to have that nfo. xxx

 

[atanakata]

Hiya,Crocodile . A BIG Thank you for that post. At frst glance, this looks exactly what I need. I`ll have a detailed inspection of their web-site , once I come back from XMas at my parents . Merry XMas to you . All the best :cheers:

 

[atanakata]

By the way, on a second thought, using that kind of switch might reduce the sound quality . What are your thoughts on that ??? IMO , the manifacturers must`ve thought about that while designing it , don`t you think . I am a bit crossed ...

 

[Crocodile]

According to all the reports I've read, the Beresford switch has no discernable impact on sound. Unfortunately, due to this sites apparent fear of other AV sites, I can't link to them. Google should help you find them.

I can confirm that the Pulse III manual does include the warning about headphones & power-down.

It is also my undertsanding that there is no Pulse II. There was a Stream II CDP & when they launched the new CDP & amp, they wanted the versions to match, so both were designated Mk III.

 

[atanakata]

Ok,thanks again.I`ve found it already. With regards to the AVR`s pre-out, my one doesn`t have them. I am quite happy with it, but if an AVR with pre-outs would be a better option than the dedicated switch , then I might as well consider upgrading my AVR. But don`t no if it`s worth doin it...

 

[Crocodile]

I would think that the pre-out route would be tidier from a cabling perspective but whether that's enough of a reason to upgrade something you're otherwise happy with, only you can say!