Leben RS-30EQ phono stage

Over achieving MM? Is that possible? LOL. Sorry to say I have not. But now I am. I will have to look into this one. Thanks Downunder for bringing it to my attention.

Wow, I too am interested, the gain spec is about the lowest out there, it scares me a bit.

I've heard it, loved it from what I could tell. It was with an all leben system, my first listen to one. Highly seductive, plays music very very well. Looking forward to a stepup from leben...then I might take the plunge.
Look at reviewer Jeff Day's writings on this piece.

The SUT for the Leben RS-30EQ is made by Auditorium 23 for just south of a grand. More cord is needed too...

Notec, there's not a stepup made by Leben yet. The Auditorium is made to be used primarily with Shindo, although it does pair nicely with Leben. Hopefully a Leben will be available sometime.

I had it for a little while in my system. I compared it to my ASR Mini Basis, plugging into my ASR Emitter II Exclusive.
ASR is a bit darker, warmer, richer sounding. Leben has very nice clarity, sweet but a bit thin sounding. However my Leben dealer did warn me right from the beginning that looking at impedance input of ASR and impedance output of Leben, he did not think it was a good match.
However my biggest complain is that with Leben, it was working as a tuner as well. My ASR did pick up any stray radio frequency at all. Where I live, there are so many radio stations to fill all the available frequency for FM so if you live in a major city with lots of radio stations, Leben may not be so great. I tried Leben with Ortofon SPU-T100/Dyna XV-1s. ASR was also used with Ortofon SPU.

Opps, I meant to say my ASR mini Basis did not pick up any stray radio frequency at all. Leben did regularly.

Hmm, when we got to demo the Leben it was as quiet as a lamb, and we're prono to rf as well....

has anyone used this particular phono pre-amp with just an mm cart ?
Did it have enough gain ?
The published gain for this phono pre is just 21.5 db of gain.
That is kinda lowish.
Which mm carts did you try this unit with ?

The published gain for this phono pre is just 21.5 db of gain.

Gain is 23.5dB for the RS-30EQ

23.5 db is still fairly low compared to other mm phono stage that has a gain of 40 or 49 db.

Sorry, that's a no for mm use...look at jeff day's review on positive feedback...I believe he used a mm...

I am not sure how similar dB gain is measured or if it is standardized. My ASR Mini Basis was set at 36dB to use with Ortofon SPU. When I tried Leben unit, I did not notice significant drop in sound level from what I remember. I would love to try Leben SPU. However my local dealer has been waiting for well over a year now for it and so far no shows....

Chas, has you been around a lamb, in my experience, lamb is anything but quiet :) bahhhh bahhhh...

Suteetat,
I guess our lambs are quiet over here....no bahhhing...or rf out of them...

I have one running along with my ARC Ref 3 and it is very nice. I have only been using it for about 40 hours so I'll get back when i have more information.

I have one in my system with a Bent audio step up. I plan to get a London decca so then i will be able to comment on its performance sans step up but i am very happy as is. Having said that I had an Allnic 1500 in my system for a few days and did think it had a touch more richness which I loved made me wonder what the Allnic 3000 must sound like. On MM phono stages your choices are limited maybe an Audio Note (would love to hear one as i have a Audio note M3 Line stage) or Tron. I enjoy the seperate step up - one can really taylor the sound.

I have a chance to pick up one of these (still on warranty, but used) for the same price of a new EAR 834p. Unfortunately I don't have th e option to listen to it.

Any thoughts of how they compare soundwise?

Thanks