The photograph shows a Leben CS-600 integrated tube amplifier from above with its top plate removed, revealing the amplifier’s transformers alongside two rows of glowing tubes next to a damper tube, a design component that’s rarely seen today, but was very common in the era of tube-based television designs.
First, four 6CS7 tubes from Raytheon, and behind them, four EL34 tubes from the East German manufacturer RFT, branded 'Philips'.
The 6CS7s sit in the row nearest the viewer, with the EL34s in the row behind. At the far right is a so-called damper tube, a 6CJ3.
The Leben CS-600 was designed by Taku Hyodo as a classic integrated amplifier, to which one can connect a turntable (via a phono stage), a CD player, a DAC or a streamer.
The photograph is part of Objects for an Ideal Home, a series that also includes sea urchins, modems and teapots.
It was taken with a Zeiss 50mm Makro-Planar lens on a Nikon D3.
Until 1979 Taku Hyodo worked at Luxman, where he was responsible for the design and production of tube amplifiers.
When Alpine took over Luxman and moved production to northern Japan, Hyodo, then 30, founded his own company, Kouri Denki Co.
On the side he built amplifiers under the KFH brand, mostly to order for bars and restaurants (there's a touch of Murakami about the origin story of Leben).
The first commercial KFH model was the Triode 33, a power amplifier using 3C33 tubes, from around 1991–92.
Under the Leben name, followed the RS-35a power amplifier with 6L6GC tubes in 1995 and the RS-28c preamplifier with E288CC tubes in 1998.
In the years that followed came the CS-200 (6V6GT-based) power amplifier in 2001 and the CS-250 (6K6GT) in 2002.
2003 brought the CS-300 integrated amplifier with EL84 tubes, and 2004 a limited-edition power amplifier, the CS-700, with eight 6CK4 tubes.
In 2005, the same year as the CS-600, came the CS-300X with Mullard EL84 tubes.
The Leben CS-600 was succeeded by the CS-600X when the market began to run dry of 6CS7 tubes, whose price also rose sharply: from one or two dollars apiece to 200–300 dollars for a matched quad.
Sources on the CS-600 & RS30-EQ
I’ve documented the following the Leben products for Swiss Radiomuseum.
Stereo Phonic Integrated Amplifier CS-600
Phono Preamplifier RS 30EQ
