drarthurwells

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $655.00 from Earthshaking Music i

Summary:
I bought my Lehmann Black Cube Linear headphone amp to use with my iRiver IMP 400 portable CD player and Etymotic 4S earphones, in a car. I also use it with my home CD player a Nad 240. This is a very good CDD player - best for the money and the newer 242 offers better capacitors with some slight sound improvement. With this combo off Etymotic/Lehmann/NAD I heard inner detail, lightening fast transients, clearness of tones, and a natural timbre that was magical on a well recorded CD. The Lehman is the best headphone amp for under $1000 and competes favorably with any headphone amp regardles of price. The car set up requires the use of an inverter that puts out 1 amp or more of 110 Voltage on a continuous basis - I paid $20 for mine. The Etymotic 4S earphones reduce ambient noise by about 24 DB and thus are perfect for cars. They are small and can't be readily seen from outside the car in case it is illegal to use them. Using earphones is no more danger relative to listening to a good car system turned up to a satisfying sound level - you drive by sight and not sound in either case. The car system is really great - the best sound possible in a car. The homw system is even better though the sound quality of the iRiver is not far behind that of the NAD. The Lehmann is the heart of the system and is a truly remarkable discrete zero global feedback Class A output amp that serves also as a single input pre-amp. You could use the sytem above without the Lehmann amp if you use the Etymotic 4P instead of 4S earphones, since the 4Ps are more efficient and the external amp is less necessary. The sound will be fine though not as good as with the Lehmann.

Strengths:
Noted

Weaknesses:
None significant.

Similar Products Used:
Headroom Cosmic

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This is easy - The standard Cube is average. With the PWX power supply, it leads it''s price class.

Price Paid:  $745.00

Summary:
I have been using the Lehmann Black Cube for a while. As much as I tried to convince myself that it was a great phone stage, I always found that the bass was a little lacking (when comparing to the sound coming out of my CD setup). The sound stage was a little thin (front to back). It got to a point when I even second-guessed my analogue setup, which consists of a VPI Aries turntable, the 10" JMW tonearm, and a Goldring Elite (MC) cartridge. While this setup is not astronomically priced, it is not too shabby either. I do expect that the sound to be better than my digital setup, which is basically a SONY 7700 DVD player connected to the Parasound DAC 2000.

Then comes the Lehmann Audio PWX Power Supply upgrade for the Black Cube. I took a chance to have my unit upgraded, and, oh boy, what an improvement!!!! I am now in analogue heaven. All of my previous complaints about the Black Cube are gone. What I got is a glorious sound, which is what I expected from the Black Cube in the first place. If you already like the Black Cube, you should do yourself a favor to have the power supply upgraded. If you are thinking of buying a Black Cube, get the SE version, which includes the PWX power supply. Somehow, I am convinced that the Black Cube should have had the PWX power supply to start with. Why bother with the standard version???

Other equipments used in review:

VPI Aries Turntable
VPI JMW 10" tonearm
Goldring Elite cartridge
Audio Research LS7 Preamp
Audio Research VT60 Power Amp
Von Schweikert VR3 speakers
MIT Terminator 2 speaker cables
MIT MI-330 interconnects
MIT Terminator 2 interconnects
Kimber Kable Silver Streak interconnects
Harmonic Tech Pro Silway Mk II interconnects
Elco GI-999R interconnects
MIT Z Cord II power cords
Harmonic Tech Pro AC power cable with Schurter IEC
Audio Prism Foundation III power conditioner
Harmonic Recovery System

Price Paid:  $600.00

Summary:
This is one of the most musical and most notable upgrades for my audio systems. The first Black Cube that I buy substitute the built in phono preamp of my Adcom preamp, and the improvement in sound was very noticeable since the begining. When the unit brake up, the sond was better instead.
I try with three different Cartridges (Clearaudio Arum Beta, Benz-Micro's LO and Glider) and with all of them the sound was very nice, full bodied, and better than CD's sound. I have a little problem with the gain adjustement, my Glider M2 is medium aoutput (0.9mV), if I put the Black Cube in lo gain, I have to go upt with the volume control of the pre, however if I put the gain in hi-gain, the effect is all the contrary, to much output with a little turn of the volume control. I got better results with low output Cartridge-hi gain adjustment, and hi output catrridge (2.4mv)-low gain adjustment.
I have no experienced with other phono preamps, however as an upgrade from ordinary built in phono preamps, the result in sound is very a noticeable improvment.

My System:

Preamps: Adcom and Acurus
Amps: Pass Aleph 3, Counterpoint NPS-100, and Bryston 3B-ST
Loudspeakers: B&W CDM1-SE and Totem M1
CD players: Rotel And Marantz
Cables: Interconect by Audioquest, Speaker by Audioquest (Forest and Indigo) and Kimber (4TC and Monocle XL).
Turntables: Rega Planar 3 and 25 upgraded with VTA Easy Riser tools and WBT's RCA plugs.

Strengths:
Clean, natural sound, good bass.

Weaknesses:
Little box that some times is difficult to place, bacause the RCA's cable in and outs. Some times is difficult to get a opitimum gain, dependig cartridge's output.

Similar Products Used:
None, only phono preamps built in preamps.

Price Paid:  $650.00 from SOUND II AUDIO

Summary:
My next phono stage will be the $12000 LCR-X1 from WAVAC...when I hit the big one...

My current system comprises of WAVAC MD811, AUDIO NOTE AN-TT1/ARM2(RB300 with all silver audionote internal wiring)/IQ2 ofcourse the LEHMAN CUBE PHONO, ALL CABLES are
GOERTZ SILVER (INTERCONECTS AND SPEAKER)
SPEAKERS ARE THE ELLINGTONS(SINGLE DRIVER HORN LOADED LOWTHER custom built by DSM AUDIO 20kh-33hz ), CAMBRIDGE CD4SE CDPLAYER.

There is nothing like ANALOG ...The black cube helped me realise this

Strengths:
Very good detail, image focus, very dynamic, very good clarity (improve clarity, attack, focus, leading edge with Versalabs wood block before the power supply and good power cable I use Cardas hexlink).

Weaknesses:
I cant stand the sound of CDs
I am having to come up with more money for good LPs
Sleeping too late at night

Similar Products Used:
EAR PHONO STAGE