Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Has anyone else seen this, or am I dreaming?

https://www.leak-hifi.co.uk/

Mark

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Completely bogus operation trading on a dead name. Hear that whirring sound? That's Harold Leak spinning in his grave.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Audio_Group

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

People bought the name and using it. It doesn't offend me so long as the product is good. And let's face it, what's better, a modern, faceless black box with no tone controls or something that has a vintage vibe and name to it?

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

J-Arthur paid good money for that name, but he also bought the factory etc as a going concern. His merry men changed things around a bit and moved the base, but the amplifiers and tuners were decent enough. Rank's gone and IAG bought the ashes of Leak and several other companies. At the moment they seem to be keeping Quad operating as and where they used to be, but the link to Leak was severed years ago.

Domestic entertainment stuff became just a commodity years ago, and the names of yore, well they're commodities, too.

Hifi went completely barmy with people believing in fairies dancing at the bottom of their gardens.

Just how do you buy something which isn't targeted at the delusional and is actually made by people related to the name on it?

There are but two escape routes:

1) Buy and restore something from the age of reality
2) Build your own.

David

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

IAG is now run in this country from Quad's premises in Huntingdon, with manufacturing in China. If anyone recently has needed either parts or needs anything Quad servicing or repairing - it is business as usual. ie excellent. So it would appear that IAG, although Chinese, is a safe pair of hands.

They own Quad, Wharfedale, Audiolab, Mission, Luxman, Leak and Castle. And pro-audio brands too.

But Quad and Wharfedale were on their financial knees due to serial mismanagement. It was down to Stan Curtis limping them to some sort of viability and selling them to IAG that saved them from becoming a footnote to a very long list of British audio defunct companies.

Leak was owned by Wharfedale (from Rank days - it was known as Rank-Leak-Wharfedale), and became a moribund brand with no products for decades. That IAG have unshelved it and started making product has to be applauded.

I don't know the circumstances relating to the other brands, but I note that the waste of a desk that used to run Wharfedale and drove it pretty much into the ditch then moved to Castle.

That they manufacture the Quad ELS loudspeakers in China says something for their ability to build very difficult products.

Craig

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

IAG are certainly high end if anything. Nobody could accuse them of churning out cheap tat. It's the bogus branding and marketing that irritates me.

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Wasn't this discussed on the forum a few months ago?

Aub

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Not sure what you mean, Paul. The original Leak stereo 30 had questionable performance (probably OK for the day), and was £49 10s when it was introduced in 1963 https://www.keith-snook.info/manufac...-Stereo-30.pdf

That is £1000 in today's money.

The relaunched Leak stereo 130 harks back in styling to the original (in just the same way that Jaguar does) but with massively improved performance, and copes with digital I/O too. And at £800 it is cheaper in real terms than the original.

I know for certain which one I'd buy.

Craig

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Price, performance, OK, but I'd rather deal with people who put their own name on their products.

It just seems so much more honest.

David

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

#8:
I agree, but there's no continuity between this amp and the much earlier Leak amps regardless of performance. It's just a (not very accurate) logo printed on the front of a modern amp with vaguely Leak inspired styling. Am I seriously upset about this? Of course not, but I'd be happier if the amp had an IAG logo on it.

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Dont IAG own the Ekco name too?
Im sure they produced some very high end Valve amps recently?

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

I'm reluctant to circulate anything for which I don't have first-hand evidence, but I have had recent contacts from a couple of customers who've told me that Quad no longer offer to service their 22 control unit (and presumably its mono predecessor the QC II too). One customer who was used to having his 22 looked at every few years by Quad said that the cessation followed the retirement of a particular specialist, whom he named.

As I say though, I haven't spoken to Quad about this myself, and my experience (lastly a few years ago) of contacting them was a positive one then.

Cheers,

GJ

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

When I was CTO of Wharfedale, during the last of its salad days, I relaunched the Leak brand as a series of products that owed nothing to Leak's history, in function or appearance. A CD transport, digital preamp, and monoblock power amps. They never saw the light of day, other than a demonstration at the Heathrow show, attended by Harold Leak's widow. And she was most complimentary. Wharfedale went into a death spiral before I could ramp up manufacture.

But should I have called them a Wharfedale product? Of course not. Should IAG brand Leak, Wharfedale, Mission etc products IAG? Of course not.

Should Jaguar brand their products Tata? Of course not.

Richer Sounds owns Cambridge Audio - and doesn't have a Richer Sounds logo on the CA products.

A brand is a brand - if you legally own it you are perfectly entitled introduce products under that brand name.

Craig

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

I agree with Craig. The politics of it are - to me - less important than the fact that it's a nice looking, vintage inspired amp that has a decent performance. And the umbrella company does own the name, they're quite entitled to use it having bought it, and I'd rather the name carry on in way that is interesting to me and others with a similar mindset. Better than an Ekco hostess trolley.

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

...to say nothing of the fact that Leak nicked the design from Dinsdale in the first place.

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

Who wouldn't mind seeing inside each unit? ;D

Sadly I've no pictures, but am intrigued. A shame this isn't on the website, as I've seen many original pictures of Leak equipment, lid removed. No chance of a schematic in the back of the user guide either by the looks of things, though not surprising.

The CD Player would likely compliment my Stereo 70, Stereofetic & large Sandwich loudspeakers rather nicely.

Mark

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

I think the problem is that a schematic would only be partially useful. There is an image of the circuit around the D-A converter on the Leak site, and of course it is a forest of surface mount parts. The little promotion video on this shows that bit of the board https://www.leak-hifi.co.uk/stereo130/

The analogue bits would be worth a look though. Or a lids off view. I'm hoping that might appear in due course. If I had one, I'd be taking the lid off for sure.

Craig

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

I wonder if there would be 700 pounds worth of amplifier inside the Stereo 130? Also, I notice that the 'walnut' case adds another £100.

Alan

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

I turfed this out of the archives. This is the launch prototypes of the Leak products that we developed under my watch at Wharfedale. Unfortunately I never took any pictures of the guts.

This was 1991. The CD used the Philips CDM-pro mechanism.

The preamp, well ahead of its time, was digital domain. It used state of the art (of then!) A-D converters. All the processing was then done in the digital domain, and then A-D to the audio outputs. Two circuit boards, with one being power supply and regulators, with Tektronix-style interconnections directly to the chips.

The power amp was designed by Steve Sells - currently chief engineer at Naim. It would be an excellent product even now.

The Leak logo was stuck on stencils on these prototypes. The plan was to machine it into the front panel, but we never got to do that in the death spiral.

Craig

Re: Leak HiFi returns(!)
 

That is hardly a fair comparison. The general rule of thumb, is that the parts cost is around 20% of the selling price. The rest is made up of manufacturing cost, design overheads and marketing, and then the majority in shipping, distributor margins and sales margins.

It was a massive gripe at Wharfedale that we made less margin in real money than the distributor (30%) and the sales channels (35% on top). Not counting packing costs, warehousing, and all the overheads of operating a manufacturing plant.

So for the Stereo 130 the actual cost of all the parts, including the casework, power supply, controls, plugs and sockets etc etc will be around £140-ish.

And if the sleeve costs £100 extra, what is the problem? Suppose you charge the same as a garage mechanic. That gives you ten minutes to build and finish it, ship it half way round the planet, and pay all the margins. And make a profit. For a selling price of £100.

Craig