Leben and Zu not a good match

[dirtbag]

My brother has a pair of Zu Essence that he ran with a Cary SLI80 integrated.
It sounded wonderful until some deadbeat broke into his home one day and stole the Cary. He was deciding what to buy to replace it, so I took my Leben
300XS over to try out with the Essence. It just didn't work. I'm not a technical guy but the midrange was very forward and overwhelming. Bass was ok but there was a harshness that surprised me. I had heard the Cary and Zu combo and that worked much better. When I brought the Leben home and put it back in place with my DeVores the chemistry was there like always.
After I left my brother ordered a Cary 300B integrated.

[DonBattles]

Not saying I know what or if it actually could sound good but I'm guessing that some tube rolling could be in order.

[joeling]

Also for some reason, the CS300 also did nothing for my vintage Rogers LS3/5a.

However, it does like the ProAc D1's & also heard a friend mention that it matches well with Harbeth P3ESR (or something like that - the latest P3 model).

[CFz]

There is such importance on buying components that match. Two weeks ago I auditioned a Harbeth SHL5 speaker with Leben CS300XS and this system made music. We swapped out the Leben with the Shindo Vosnee Romanee (preamp) and Montille (amp) combo and the Harbeth's sounded totally anemic, lacking life in comparison with the Leben...and that combo is 5x more than the Leben I believe. Just goes to show, spending more money doesn't always get you the best results.

Glad to hear your brother found an integrated that matched.