The intention with this one is to be a versatile tube amp for headphones and speakers, with the flexibility to tube roll. I’m also told that you can get a bit more power by using a 12AX7 for those who need that.
For those who remember the ZMF Pendant, that was a rectifier tube amp that was originally based on the Leeloo. Since then, the Pendant SE revision changed a few things, like going to 8 and 100 ohm outs for Low and High Z respectively.
The new Leeloo is essentially that, with a few extras and additional improvements, like speaker outputs on the back, a redesigned choke and bigger power supply to name a few.
I’ve spent some time listening to it, but since this is a collaborative product with Headphones.com, my commentary will be predominantly non-evaluative. The one thing I will say though is that the improvements have also led to much better noise floor handling with more sensitive headphones. For example I was able to run the low impedance Focal headphones, including the closed-backs with zero noise floor, which is in keeping with making sure it’s versatile for a wide range of headphones.
That’s pretty exciting, I was sad to see ZMF move away from A&S (although their new amp stuff looks sick). I absolutely love my Mogwai. Great amp from a great company.
I know people who will use these amps don’t really care about measurements, but do you guys (headphones.com folks) plan to measure these? I always wanted to see what frequency response, and different harmonic distortions look like in high end tube amps that many find very pleasing to listen to. And how different tubes change those measurements.
@netforce is bringing a unit to T.H.E Show this weekend in Long Beach if anyone is heading there and wants to check it out.
Outside of that, I believe we will have a table at Pacific Audio Fest this year with the Forge and Leeloo and we will definitely have a couple at CanJam SoCal as well!
Will you or someone from ampsandsound (or gear) be at the Phoenix Audio meet in early September? I believe you have been at one of the past meets.
I would love to hear the Leeloo, Forge or the Jynx that I saw you added to your site.
