Leema Pulse v Leema Tucana

baldy38

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Hi all

Has anyone compared these two amps? Is the Tucana worth the extra money over the Pulse (MkI) or is the Pulse close enough that you might as well not bother (one mag described it as "remarkably close to the sound of its big brother" not so long ago)?

(Source: Rega Saturn; Speakers: B&W 805S)

Thanks
 

Cold Roses

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Baldy38 - whilst I can't give you any insight as to a direct comparison of these two amps (as I've only heard the Pulse, which was great by the way), I'm interested to know what price you've seen the Tucana for?

As you probably know, the Pulse 2 is available brand new at heavily discounted prices and I've personally only seen the Tucana at full rrp. If that is still the case, the price differential is huge.
 

Inter_Voice

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I picked up this old thread and hope I can shed some lights on the subject as I have just ordered a brand new Leema Tucana II which will arrive next week :bounce: .

My existing Pulse II is excellent and there is nothing wrong with the entire hifi set up. As an audiophile and music lover I strive for excellency. I know Tucana II is having very similar characteristics as Pulse II but with much better control in bass and highs and the mid range is more sweet with a very clean background (according to various reviews). The price tag of Tucana II is a few times more than Pulse II and I hope the jump in performace can match with the huge price difference. With fingers crossed I ordered the Tucana blind as I cannot arrange an audition in my area.

I think I will be busy in the coming weeks to tune in my new system to achive its best performance :) .
 

Inter_Voice

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My new Leema Tucana II in black has just arrived :dance:

My first impression on this new amplifier was really heavy thought it does not look huge. I think it has 18-20 Kg.

I spend half an hour to hook up this new amplifier in the afternoon and have a try run.

OMG the sound it reproduces completely blow me away. I can hear more clear highs and the bass is extremely tight and under control. The vocals are very pleasant to my ears and the backgrounds are extremely quiet. It produces extremely good dynamics with very fast response. Overall Tucana II does not add any color to the music and I can hear much better sound staging than my previous Pulse. That said this amplifier does not cause any fatigue even though I can hear more highs than the Pulse.

Tucana II costs 3 times more than Pulse at retail price but TBH IMHO it worths every penny and I can only say Tucana II is a different league to that of Pulse.

I am sure the performance of this new amplifier will much improve after burning in. I will take some measurements and take some pictures when I have the time.
 
Inter_Voice said:
My new Leema Tucana II in black has just arrived :dance:

My first impression on this new amplifier was really heavy thought it does not look huge. I think it has 18-20 Kg.

I spend half an hour to hook up this new amplifier in the afternoon and have a try run.

OMG the sound it reproduces completely blow me away. I can hear more clear highs and the bass is extremely tight and under control. The vocals are very pleasant to my ears and the backgrounds are extremely quiet. It produces extremely good dynamics with very fast response. Overall Tucana II does not add any color to the music and I can hear much better sound staging than my previous Pulse. That said this amplifier does not cause any fatigue even though I can hear more highs than the Pulse.

Tucana II costs 3 times more than Pulse at retail price but TBH IMHO it worths every penny and I can only say Tucana II is a different league to that of Pulse.

I am sure the performance of this new amplifier will much improve after burning in. I will take some measurements and take some pictures when I have the time.

Congrats I/V. Sounds like a sonic dazzler...
 

Inter_Voice

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Well, I spent the whole evening listening to different CDs with different volume level setting. The Tucana got a lot of juice and is very powerful which drives my Spendor SA1 with extreme ease. So far I am very pleased with this new amplifier and actually I bought it in the Bay for just over 2000 pounds, what a bargan for a brand new unit !!! :bounce:

I notice that Tucana operates quite hot even when the volume knob is at 9 o'clock position that Leema mentiones in its manual is mainly due to its design because Class A and Class B amplification is adopted in the circuitry. In comparison Pulse runs much cooler as it uses AB amplification circuit design I believe.

If you ask me I can only say Tucana is a wonderful amplifier.
 

Inter_Voice

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brendonw said:
Sounds like it's impressed you. Good price too :)

Yes, I am really impressed by this amplifier. As Tucana II has great control on bass and got lots of power I need to turn down the subwoofer to avoid too much bass after measuring the Freq Response by a software and a laptop with a mic.

Having played a number of CDs I also noticed that there are very faint sounds in the music that I had not heard before (by the Pulse II). I can only say Tucana II reproduces all the details in a CD. I am now running in the circuitry and the performace of this great amplifier will certainly improved in a few week's time.
 

Inter_Voice

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Inter_Voice said:
I notice that Tucana operates quite hot even when the volume knob is at 9 o'clock position ..... In comparison Pulse runs much cooler ....

I wrote to Leema Acoustics about the heat issue and the required run in time for my Tucana II. I have the following quick reply:

"The Tucana does run a bit warmer than the Pulse. The Pulse has two output transistors providing all the audio power but the Tucana has twelve so its power dissipation is a bit more.

As far as run in times, we recommend about 70 hours."
 

Crocodile

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Inter_Voice said:
I wrote to Leema Acoustics about the heat issue and the required run in time for my Tucana II. I have the following quick reply:

"The Tucana does run a bit warmer than the Pulse. The Pulse has two output transistors providing all the audio power but the Tucana has twelve so its power dissipation is a bit more.

As far as run in times, we recommend about 70 hours."
Sorry to take a diversion but when you say wrote I assume you mean by e-mail? In which case I'd be grateful for the address you received the reply from as I can't get them to answer me. :(
 

Crocodile

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Thanks - tried that & a direct e-mail but got no response to either. No problems yet but just wanted to check something regarding warranty as their "support" pages are mostly blank.

Just wondered what address your reply came from?
 

Inter_Voice

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Crocodile said:
Thanks - tried that & a direct e-mail but got no response to either. No problems yet but just wanted to check something regarding warranty as their "support" pages are mostly blank.

Just wondered what address your reply came from?

Have checked my e-mail in-box and found that I have already deleted the message.

As to the warranty period a friend of mine has asked Leema Acoustics about it and he got a reply that it was extended from 3 to 5 years since last year. My friend also told me that the warranty is transferrable eventhough he bought his Pulse III second handed. My friend sent to Leema Acoustics the serial number and model of his Pulse III and asked them to change the name of the product holder which has been done.

It is strange that you did not receive any reply from Leema Acoustics as myself and my friend used Leema's online contact page and both of us receive a quick reply. May be you should try once more.

Hope the above could help.
 

Inter_Voice

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I have phoned my friend about your case and luckily he got Leema Acoustics' contact e-mail regarding his warranty issue.

Try contacting Mallory at the following e-mail and hope it helps:

mallory@leema-acoustics.com
 

CnoEvil

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Fantastic amp at a great price.

I suspect it's also like getting a substantial upgrade in your speakers as well....at least that has always happened to me. The temptation is to blow the money on expensive speakers instead, which imo isn't always wise.

Enjoy

Cno
 

Crocodile

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Contact established & I now have confirmation that the warranty is transferrable.

Thanks again IV, your help is greatly appreciated. :)
 

Inter_Voice

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Crocodile said:
Contact established & I now have confirmation that the warranty is transferrable.

Thanks again IV, your help is greatly appreciated. :)

It is really nice to hear you have solved your problem. To me Leema Acoustics' service has always been GREAT and I always got a very quick reply and helpful advises :clap:
 

Inter_Voice

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CnoEvil said:
Fantastic amp at a great price. I suspect it's also like getting a substantial upgrade in your speakers as well....at least that has always happened to me. The temptation is to blow the money on expensive speakers instead, which imo isn't always wise. Enjoy Cno

Yes temptation is always there but so far I am very happy with the SQ of my Spendor SA1 coupled with a subwoofer. Unless I can hear something really GOOD I don't think I will change my speakers in the very near future ;)
 

CnoEvil

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Inter_Voice said:
CnoEvil said:
Fantastic amp at a great price. I suspect it's also like getting a substantial upgrade in your speakers as well....at least that has always happened to me. The temptation is to blow the money on expensive speakers instead, which imo isn't always wise. Enjoy Cno

Yes temptation is always there but so far I am very happy with the SQ of my Spendor SA1 coupled with a subwoofer. Unless I can hear something really GOOD I don't think I will change my speakers in the very near future ;)

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. :oops:
I was saying that the money was better spent on a great amp, than on speakers....and that it would make your speakers sound as if they had been upgraded.
 

Inter_Voice

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CnoEvil said:
Inter_Voice said:
CnoEvil said:
Fantastic amp at a great price. I suspect it's also like getting a substantial upgrade in your speakers as well....at least that has always happened to me. The temptation is to blow the money on expensive speakers instead, which imo isn't always wise. Enjoy Cno

Yes temptation is always there but so far I am very happy with the SQ of my Spendor SA1 coupled with a subwoofer. Unless I can hear something really GOOD I don't think I will change my speakers in the very near future ;)

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. :oops: I was saying that the money was better spent on a great amp, than on speakers....and that it would make your speakers sound as if they had been upgraded.

Totally agreed :) and it has proved to be 100% correct.
 

Inter_Voice

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I have taken some measurements on my Leema Tucana II/Spendor SA1 and generated some graphs (see the link in my signature). You can see from the FR curves that basically the characteristics of Leema Pulse II and Tucana II are very similar but of course Tucana II can provide more power and music details which could not be shown in the measurements. At the end of the day this needs to use our ears to determine the differences. My ears told me that Tucana II is a much much superior amplifer than its little brother Pulse II. In conclusion if you like the sound from Pulse I am sure you will certainly like Tucana even more. :cheers:
 

Inter_Voice

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So far I have been runing in my Tucana II for about 20 odd hrs and my ears convinced me that the SQ is getting better and better. I trust the SQ can stabilize in about 70 hrs running in time (as told by an engineer from Leema Acoustics).

I just wanted to highlight one thing here. Normally I enjoy music using my Spendor SA1 and seldom used headphone for music listening. Yesterday I plugged in my (low quality) £30 Sennheiser HD 202 II Closed Back On-ear Stereo Headphone and was extremely surprised that the music reproduction is so unbelievably GOOD. Actually I tried the same with my Leema Pulse II before but could not hear the same music quality. I found that Tucana II has its independent headphone amplifier which is separated from its main amplification circuitry and that might have explained the reason. I also notice the background noise from the headphone is a complete silence even when I turned the volume to its max (of course without playing any music at all). I have to be careful when doing this to avoid my ears being damaged ;). This also applies to the speakers. When I turn the volume setting to its max. and put my ears closed to the grids I cannot hear any slight noise at all and it is dead silent.

I can only say Tucanna II is such a wonderful Integrated amplifier that I am totally satisfied with its performance even though I bought this amplifier without audition. It is really lucky that I have made a right decision and a right choice.

My other halves can also hear a big improvement in SQ and therefore she did not complaint on the kind of money that I spent on this new amplifier. :)
 

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