Leben CS600 or ARC VSi60 with Harbeth Compact 7's

To the OP,
Some good, and funny, responses, as usual.
Both are great.
To the lfd added posters, you could compare how the music is presented between the lfd and cs600 or vsi60....the sweet lil leben300, while musically great, can't compare power wise to the others, and IMHO is not a good match with c7's, unless you listen at very low volume. Very low.
Good luck!

Have not heard the VSI60 with that speaker,
but have heard it with similar efficiency
speakers and it sounds far beyond it's 55
watts especially with the KT120 tubes
it ships with now. It is the best bargain
ARC has ever produced.

I've had one for 1 year and the only reason
I'm parting with it, is it's just not enough
to drive my new Revel Studio IIs in a 28x17 room

In the past I owned a vsi60 but never listened to them with Harbeth. On the other hand my brother owns the Harbeth HL5 and CS600 and it is a heavenly combo, extremely musical, one of those great synergies. Go to Jeff Days blog at: jeffsplace.me/wordpress/ he writes for 6 moons and Positive Feedback and he has this exact system. On his blog (many pictures) you can look at this system and he gives a great review and makes many cogent comments about this set-up, much more factual than some of the comments here. Oh, and by-the-way, I like the Leben much, much, more than the ARC vsi60.

But the 7 is a vastly different speaker to drive than the 5's.
With the 5's I've watched people divide between Leben or ARC.
With the 7's it's a different kettle of fish entirely.
All about context, and synergy.

I had the Harbeths for about two years and after trying several tube amps I came to the conclusion that they work better with SS amps. I had a better match with a Quad 909 amp. About 3 weeks ago I had the opportunity to listen to aLeben 600 amp and a Shindo Moonbrison, speakers were Proac (forgot the model, they were big floor standers. The cost was $12000). Anyways, the sound was ok, but it lacked real dynamics, it was kind of soft and mellow, very colorful and rich sound, but after a while you missed the impact of low frequencies. The Leben 600 I believe is 32 w/c. The integrateds are less powerful than the amp. I would try a Rogue Stereo 90. 90 w/c and you can use KT 120's for a more powerful and richer sound.

I own the Stereo 90 and a Perseus combo. For me, it sounds better than the Leben. Just my humble opinion.
Dan