After a forty-year break the revered Great British brand, LEAK, has returned under the International Audio Group umbrella which is now home to brands such as Quad and Wharfedale, to name but a couple.

The first product to be launched is the suitably retro-styled Stereo 130 integrated amplifier which is priced from £699.

LEAK Stereo 130 and LEAK CDT Now Available

LEAK Stereo 130

Taking its cues from the 1963 LEAK Stereo 30, you find a real wood walnut enclosure and fuss-free front panel layout complete with bypassable bass and treble tone controls. Under the hood, the DNA of the LEAK Stereo 130 can be traced back to its predecessor too, thanks to it featuring a number of the original engineering principles in its circuit design.

With all that said, the Stereo 130 is an integrated amplifier from 2020 that pushes out 2 x 45 W at 8 ohms, or 2 x 65 at 4 ohms, and is equipped with a Class AB power amp that boasts a 200VA toroidal transformer. Additionally, the preamp section is protected by the use of low-noise power supplies. The quoted frequency range of the Stereo 130 is stated as being 20Hz-20kHz (+/-0.5dB).

    
Something that LEAK amps of old never did, the LEAK Stereo 130 supports files of up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256 through its USB input, along with three S/PDIF inputs (one coaxial and two optical), plus Bluetooth aptX support.

Doing all the digital unpacking is an ES9018K2M DAC from the Sabre32 Reference family and so sports the brand's 32-bit HyperStream architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator skills.

Naturally, the LEAK Stereo 130 handles your analogue sources too. Firstly, there us a moving magnet cartridge phono stage as well as two line-level analogue inputs. There's also a dedicated headphone amp stage with current-feedback circuitry.

LEAK CDT

Partnering the LEAK 130 is the similarly-styled LEAK CDT.

The slot-loading CD transport sits within its own electromagnetically shielded enclosure and is provided with a dedicated power supply, states LEAK proudly. Furthermore, the digital clock is controlled by a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator, says the revived brand. It goes on to state that this ensures the digital output from both the coaxial and optical sockets has minimum digital distortion.

The LEAK CDT plays from other digital audio sources too, thanks to its USB storage playback functionality. This hands you full transport controls as well as folder/file navigation. The LEAK CDT is compatible with FAT16 and FAT32 formatted devices and will playback media in the format of WMA, MP3, WAV and AAC.

Being a CD transport and having no onboard DAC, there are no analogue outputs, rather you get optical and coaxal out to go to a DAC or integrated amp, such as the Stereo 130, funnily enough.

The LEAK Stereo 130 integrated will be available from July, priced at £799 with the walnut enclosure over the aluminium casing, or £699 without. The matching CD transport, the LEAK CDT will also arrive in July, but we're still waiting for pricing.

Head over to LEAK for more information.