Leak CD transport

I saw Steve Guttenberg mention this one on his Instagram post the other day. He mentioned it was a decent sounding player, not comparable as a transport to the Jay's CDT2 but still good nonetheless. Not that I consider his word as Gospel but just mentioning it for what it's worth. The player looks killer though. I guess Leak is gonna ride the 'heritage' wave as well. Hope it is not just another repurposed player with the internals of other IAG products.

Let us know how you find its performance. It would be good to see if you can draw a comparison with any other transport that you were using till date.
 
Last edited:
Priced well. Hope this turns out to be a surprise. Which DAC you will be using with this CDT.
Thanks. Will be using a DIY Soekris build

I saw Steve Guttenberg mention this one on his Instagram post the other day. He mentioned it was a decent sounding player, not comparable as a transport to the Jay's CDT2 but still good nonetheless. Not that I consider his word as Gospel but just mentioning it for what it's worth. The player looks killer though. I guess Leak is gonna ride the 'heritage' wave as well. Hope it is not just another repurposed player with the internals of other IAG products.

Let us know how you find its performance. It would be good to see if you can draw a comparison with any other transport that you were using till date.
The Jays is $2400 ex China, Indian price would be north of Rs2.3l if it had an importer. Not surprised its better

I suspect the Leak shares internals with the Audiolab CDT 6000, maybe some minor upgrades over that. The reasons I ordered the Leak is a) it came recommended by someone who'se opinions I respect and b) I dont currently have a working dedicated cd transport (using a budget denon player as transport for when I listen to CDs) and c) I like the look

I've tried a range of CD transports over the years. Best of the lot was a Teac VRDS one (plays in the same league as the Philips CD Pro ones). The issue is none of the really good drives are still manufactured so I dont really see the point of acquiring one. I think the exception to this is Esoteric, who still make some (if you want to spend that kind of money). You'll find some old experiments with CD transports here: https://www.hifivision.com/threads/on-transports.28655/ . Eventually I got the PC transport close to where that Teac was (see the last post in the thread). Even post that my primary listening was mostly CDs. Its only the last 2-3 years that the pc became my primary transport (after a lot more software and hardware optimisations, including a linear power supply and an excellent external USB SPDIF converter).

.
 
Makes sense Jai. I think it is for the retro looks and the supposed additional EM shielding that the Leak gets for which one pays a premium over the Audiolab CDT. Good luck with this one. Please do share your impressions. Although I dont need a dac in a cdp but still because of the brilliant value proposition and the pure robustness of the player, I am eyeing getting the Denon DCD-2500NE at some point in the future. If this Leak CDT is good enough, I may consider it too. Cheers.
 
Leak electronics is increasingly being mated with Linton Heritage as I see on the Wharfedale Facebook group. The heritage positioning, I guess. Cute looks.
 
The CDT and the matching amp looks like a re-skinned Audiolab 6000. Only the amplifier output is different. Same manufacturer also makes WD Linton, it's all in a family now :cool:
 
Coincidently this turned up on YouTube today
Notice the spidf out connector at 3:48 in this video. It is bent!! QC issues or exaggeration at my end or perhaps parallax? Anyway, if they really wanted people to drool over this model, apart from the retro looks, I wish they had introduced an AES/EBU out as well.
 
Notice the spidf out connector at 3:48 in this video. It is bent!! QC issues or exaggeration at my end or perhaps parallax? Anyway, if they really wanted people to drool over this model, apart from the retro looks, I wish they had introduced an AES/EBU out as well.
Good eye, Kartick. It indeed seems at an angle to the back panel which isn’t 90 degree. Also I wonder what makes these experts select an equipment (among the hundred others) for review! They aren’t users like us who are smitten with their gear. This senior reviewer’s exuberance at something that seems nothing out of ordinary is not understandable to me.
 
Good eye, Kartick. It indeed seems at an angle to the back panel which isn’t 90 degree. Also I wonder what makes these experts select an equipment (among the hundred others) for review! They aren’t users like us who are smitten with their gear. This senior reviewer’s exuberance at something that seems nothing out of ordinary is not understandable to me.
Your guess is as good as mine!! I am sure this was all driven by commercial motives. I am not saying everything he says is biased because of that but I am sure the more they make from a brand, the more excited they are about the products in their reviews. Also, SG is known to be a blatant sales person at heart. I would take everything he says with dollops of salt!!
 
I think it is for the retro looks and the supposed additional EM shielding that the Leak gets for which one pays a premium over the Audiolab CDT.

This one supports playback from USB drives too. Audiolab CDT does not do that, right?
 
This one supports playback from USB drives too. Audiolab CDT does not do that, right?
Yeah that is there, though not a selling point for me. I am also not sure if reads all uncompressed formats, at least wav and flac via USB. But I remember reading/watching somewhere that the USB implementation is buggy. So if that is swaying someone's decision, worth looking into more details on that one.
 
Initial impressions after running the transport in for around 20 hours.
Overall pretty good - no obvious brightness / bass boost or midrange suckout. Transparency is pretty good. Tone is spot on.
My approach to selecting components is simple - will this make me listen to more music or less. So far, this seems to be in the more music camp.
Its good enough that I'm going to hold off on detailed comparisons etc till my new DAC arrives and gets settled in.

Looks quite nice on the rack too!
 

Attachments

  • 20210209_193433.jpg
    20210209_193433.jpg
    841.9 KB · Views: 129
Last edited:
Get the Wharfedale EVO 4.2 3-Way Standmount Speakers at a Special Offer Price.
Back
Top