Leben CS-300 compared to Red Wine

You might want to contact Vinnie Rossi at Red Wine and ask him, or maybe inquire about a loaner. I can't speak for Vinnie, but I've met him at a couple of head-fi shows in the NYC area, and he's a really nice guy.

John Devore was very helpful when I wrote to ask about amplifier options for my Devore 8's.

Thanks guys. I emailed Devore, haven't heard back yet. Vinnie was very nice, but hadn't heard the Leben. At one point he supposedly used the Nines himself to voice his gear (or so I read online), and his reviews are so phenomenal... makes me very curious. Of course, the RWA combo is more than twice the price of the Leben.

The Leben CS600 should also be consider with it's greater power (32w or 28w/ch) and flexibility to use different flavoured tubes to fine tune your preferred sound.

I own RW 30.2 and owned PrimaLuna Prologue Two before and to tell you the true, Prima is more powerful and offers you the endless tube rolling to your liking, however, as always, this is about the match and you should try it first, imo, cos like you wrote, to make such step and invest blindly isn't ideal, for any of them.
Me, bought RW blindly, ha-ha, but my main use of it is for AKG K1000 ear speakers, however my Canton CD100 sound simply wonderful through RW. I loved Primaluna to, but because of her limited volume attenuator it draw me away from her, but my Cantons were great through PL, think even better than RW, gave more dynamics and tighter bass. Have to mention, I upgraded to NOS GEC KT88 plus all my pre amp tubes were NOS Mullards as well and it changed the tonality dramatically, from an very good amp to amazing sounding one. The delicacy of RW makes people say about their capability to sound like SS/Tube amp, but this is very personal and from my impressions RW do not sound like tube one, its still SS amp, which have the delicacy that makes him sound bit like tube one, but than again, its not the same at all.
Going to keep RW for a while and see how the things will be developing after another 50 hours of burn in, its still a fresh sounding, but have to become more ripe/fully developed and when I am on his 100 hours I will start to listen more critically, but so far so good, great amp from Red Wine.
Just a little advice. You may want to check the used market or contact Vinnie about some trades he have and maybe you can score a nice set up for 50% of the new costs, but than with fully check&warranty and new batteries as well.

Good luck.

By the way, you can ask Vinnie to send you one and if you don't like it, you can always send it back, its quite fair, just ask, he is a very nice and flexible gentleman.

The RWA gear is great. The Iasabella is their best product. I do have one for sale but I might hold off and A/B it to the new Dude coming my way.

Sorry for late response. I had the Red Wine 30.2 power amp and it had issues driving my Devore 9s to very loud levels. The 30 watts did not provide enough power to the 9s, and the telltale compression of highs ensued. Plus, the Red Wine seemed to have a mid-bass emphasis and had problems controlling bass in general compared to other Class D amps I've had in my system. However, soundstaging and imaging were very nice, and it was dead quiet.
Good luck!

@Watercourse, what preamp did you use with the RWA 30.2? And
what did you end up to for an amp after the RWA?

@Price (the OP), did you make a decision on the amp and preamp? I heard the CS300 with Super 8s fill a loft space 20ft x 30ft x 18ft ceiling. I want to try a CS600. I would love to hear it in my own place.

I had the Super8's and now I have Nines with a 30.2 amp and a modwright 9.0 tube amp in a 19 x 13ft x 8 ceiling. Turning my preamp knob past 4 dots (12 o'clock) would be extremely loud....too loud. I listen at half that typically. The 30.2 amp comes in two different gain settings. I have the 24db amp, and a 30db is also available. I find the bass extremely tight and precise on electronic and acoustic music. If the Highs are rolled off--they definitely are not emphasized-- I do not know if that is my tubed Brick DAC, the tube pre, the amp, or the speaker design. But I know that my system is not bright or shrill and I can listen to it for 8 hours. Ah...

I still would like to hear the CS600 in my system someday.

Cheers,
ed

After a while of owning RW 30.2 integrated, like 6 month, I switched to the tubes again, missed them a lot at the end, so I bought Cary CAD 300B and no regrets so far. I believe we are talking about preferences and best match up here rather than just a quality. One of the things I were missing, at least I felt so, the realism and bit of magic tubes offer. Of course there are other things that you may find better or differ, but thats only if you settle the things one next each other and listen, listen and enjoy.
From my expirience you will know what ever you like RW or not only if you use it for some longer term than one time or even a week or two try.
Regarding LEBEN, man, things I could find online, read and hear from users, its a stunning amp, which offers lots of tube rolling options, which again, offer you a lot of fun time, but be prepair, some NOS arent cheap at all, but still fun...

@Ed---I ended up getting a Leben 300 SX, and very happy about it! Excited to enter the world of tubes for the first time. Thanks to everyone who has been posting.