Leema range

[Dean Morris]

I was looking at the pulse and stream but a dealer near me has offered a good price on the element intergrated amp and cd player. The amp I think has a DAC built in.

Im yet to try out any leema products but will do very soon. There is only reviews on the phono element.

Has anyone got experience of the element range? Looks powerful, compact do on paper you have the power of Cyrus but the smooth sound of arcam.

Also how does compare with the rest of the leema range?

 

[Fulci]

Nothing like asking your dealer to make an audition. Compare it with other products he sells and might interest you. But if you look around, the Pulse and Stream can be had for a fairly low price, making it the obvious option.

 

[Dean Morris]

Yeah sure, Just wonderIng if anyone had heard the elements range?

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I have the Leema Elements DAC. I had to sell a Benchmark DAC-1 USB to raise some money when I was buying a house and bought the Leema when I'd recovered financially. I've been very impressed with it. It has broadened the soundstage of my system and there's loads of detail. Definitely worth auditioning.

 

[Dean Morris]

They do the dac and intergrated amp... Any good compared to the stand alone dac?

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I haven't heard the integrated amp. Reports are that it is a very good.

 

[Dean Morris]

Damn! You have some serious kit! So you think the leema range matches monitor audio well then? Have you tried lots of brands before ending up with leema and MA?

 

[plastic penguin]

Damn! You have some serious kit! So you think the leema range matches monitor audio well then? Have you tried lots of brands before ending up with leema and MA?

Certainly Leema and MAs sound the business.

 

[Dean Morris]

Cheers PP. I know you like the combo. Did you ever look at the elements range?

 

[VoodooDoctor]

A few years ago, I tried the Leema Hydra and Pyxis combination with some Kudos speakers (no idea which model as I already had my PL100s on a Tucana). I also heard the Altair's with those speakers and Pyxis. Needless to say they sounded great, which is why I bought what I have now. I auditioned a fair amount of stuff but I think I was always going to buy the Leemas and MAs.

Depending on budget, Leema have just announced the Elements Power Amps so you could get the Standalone DAC, which can act as a preamp, and a power. Later on, you could get another Elements power amp and use the pair as monblocs.

 

[Inter_Voice]

Just to add that I love my Leema Tucana II and Antila IIS combo :dance:

 

[plastic penguin]

Cheers PP. I know you like the combo. Did you ever look at the elements range?

The Element amp could make a cracking match with MA GX100. Like Voodoodoc's MA PL100 the GX range has a ribbon tweeter. Not heard the GX100 with Leema but have with Cyrus 8XP and it sounded pretty impressive.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the elements CD player and amp, used with KEF R100 floorstanders. The sound is clean, punchy and versatile enough to handle a number of music types very well - jazz, classical, older stuff like the Beatles, whose remastered series sounds tremendous. I auditioned Roksan Kandy & M2, both had compact warm sound but not the clarity or detail of the Elements.

I previously auditioned much more expensive Cyrus kit which, like the Leema's Pulse & Tucana kit, is above my budget. Using Vienna speakers, the sound was amazing on new recordings, but mince on, say, the Who Live at Leeds or more compressed efforts like Amy Winehouse. The system I eventually chose gives me the middle ground in terms of versatility. Other speakers I tried with the Elements - Dynaudio for example, returned characteristics more like the Roksan gear.

I haven't tried the amp borne DAC yet. My complaints would be that bass could be a little more dynamic. The controls on the units don't feel solid and the CD load isn't the fastest, and the remote is old fashioned, if that counts for anything. Other than that I like the sound very much and recommend trying lost of speaker combinations to get the best result.

 

[deepak]

Hi

Following a 3 year self-debate and after numerous HiFi magazine purchases, I decided to venture into the realm of a real HiFi setup. Armed with the 2012 awards copy of the mag, I walked into the Adelphi mall solely dedicated to Audio/HiFi products in Singapore with a plan to buy the Roksan M2 kit. it was a toss up between that or Cyrus products, based on the reviews. Before I could find the dealers for these products, i popped into a store that was playing beautiful music, without knowing what the products were. They were auditioning a Leema Tucana II amp through PMC 22 speakers; the source were a demo CD playing through the Elements CD player. I was blown away. The price brought me back to earth and I moved on to the rest of the stores. I managed to audition Naim Uniti/Superuniti as well as one of their preamp-poweramp combos through Naim speakers and also Cyrus kit through Mordant short speakers. I was not impressed, having heard the Leema products. I could not audition the Roksan M2 amp as it was not available. Two independent stores advised me to go for the Cyrus over the Roksan. Even the Roksan authorised dealer for Singapore whom I phoned has given up on the Roksan brand and is no longer carrying it.

I dished out some serious money and bought the Leema amp, even though it is a 3 year old model, as the musical quality and the amp's power is phenomenal. I bought the PMC 24 floorstanding speakers over the 22's as they sounded brilliant too and I wanted floorstanders, even though they cost a lot more. I am now playing high quality audiophile quality digital music from my hard drive and it's truly musical.

I think you should audition the Leema products before you take a decision (if you haven't already). The PMC speakers are a great choice with this set up.

Deepak