Hi-Fi Choice
GROUPTEST
PHONO STAGES
£700-£1,350
www.hiichoice.co.uk REPRINTED FROM FOR GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION
candle of phono stages, this is the one
wearing Nike Air Presto trainers. It’s
fast, agile, remarkably light on its feet
and wonderfully transparent.
Tonally a little cooler than the
Leema, it sounds less romantic and
obviously ‘analogue’. However, the
upsides rush to the fore with Dire
Straits’ Private Investigations from
Mobile Fidelity’s half-speed mastered
45rpm reissue of Love Over Gold.
Mark Knoper’s barely whispered
jaded PI monologue sits so far back
in the mix, it would be easier to hear
a pin drop. Yet the Black Cube is a
regular Dyson Cyclone when it comes
to vacuuming detail dust from the
noise oor, so even when Knoper
nally sighs out: “in-vest-i-gat-tion”,
you don’t have to lean as far forward
in your chair as you do, say, with the
Musical Fidelity. If clarity and
resolution are what you crave above
all else, the Lehmann is a gift.
But while there are pros there are
also some cons. John Coltrane’s
Locomotion moves along with
unprecedented pace and pep, Lee
Morgan’s magnicent, scene-stealing
trumpet solo sounding super-spry
yet temporally tethered to Jones’
industrious drumming and Chambers’
subtle bass gures. But no favours are
paid to the thin and anaemic sound
of Kenny Drew’s otherwise dextrous
ivory tinkling – always a problem for
late fties recording engineers – and
it’s here that fatter-sounding phono
stage offerings from Primare, Leema
and Musical Fidelity are perhaps a bit
kinder to the material
l
1
Lehmann Audio
Black Cube SE II
£850
hough the Black Cube SE
II’s separate power supply
is bigger and heavier than
the unit itself, as a package
this is still a relatively bijou combo
with a modest footprint that’s easy to
accommodate. Indeed, because of the
small form factor, Lehmann Audio
recommends the SE II’s audio section
can be placed next to the turntable,
minimising loss due to cable length.
But size is no guide to sophistication
and, although the Black Cube in its
various forms has been around for a
few years now, it packs a lot into its
diminutive form, including the option
to accommodate custom-specied
resistors for ultra-ne system matching,
which Lehmann Audio will supply at
no extra cost. Out of the box, however,
the nine DIP switches per channel on
the unit’s belly used to set impedance
and gain are more than adequate for
most common settings. Lehmann
Audio says that 16 different lter
curves can be realised and recently
added to the SE II’s skillset is a wholly
passive bass lter, which offers further
control for tailoring bass frequencies.
Under the lid, plenty of care and
craft is obvious. The German company
claims that the input stage components
it uses can also be found in top-notch
mixing consoles and well-known
professional microphone preamps.
They include surge-proof and narrow
tolerance polypropylene foil capacitors,
additional modules for an efcient
hum, HF and random voltage
suppression and a double-sided
circuit board to optimise trace layout
for low interference.
The separate power supply has a
custom-designed toroidal mains
transformer with a static shielding
and an XLR connector with gold-
plated pins. Like the main unit, it’s
made from aluminium, completely
free from frills in the Teutonic way
and crisply nished. Both casings are
coated with a special anti-resonance
treatment for better suppression of
microphonic effects. A smart and
understated-looking duo for sure.
Sound quality
My listening session with the Black
Cube ends up being lengthier than
anticipated, but it’s for the right
reasons. I can’t quite believe how
good it sounds. If the Leema is the
seductive ‘analogue magic’ scented
DETAILS
PRODUCT
Lehmann Audio
Black Cube SE II
ORIGIN
Germany
TYPE
MM/MC
phono stage
WEIGHT
600g/1kg (PSU)
DIMENSIONS
(WxHxD)
114 x 50 x 124mm
93 x 45 x 233mm
(PSU)
FEATURES
l
MM/MC input
l
16-stage bass ilter
l
Custom
loading slot
DISTRIBUTOR
Henley Audio Ltd.
TELEPHONE
01235 511166
WEBSITE
lehmannaudio.com
The smallest phono stage has a redoubtable
German pedigree and is keenly priced
T
LIKE: Outstandingly
fast, dynamic and
detailed sound quality;
compact size
DISLIKE: A little
feature-lite
WE SAY: It might be
dinky, but it’s as deftly
musical as it is dynamic
OUR VERDICT
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
FEATURES
OVERALL
3
1
Earth grounding post
2
Stereo RCA output (right channel)
3
Stereo RCA input (left channel)
CONNECTIONS
2