Anyone who is not familiar with the British audio brand Leak may think that we have bought a speaker from the 1970s with the Leak Sandwich 150. You know, those heavy box-shaped speakers with a sleek wooden housing, a woofer and a tweeter inside, behind a bass port and that’s all it should be. No artistic pieces of furniture in high-gloss lacquer with voluptuous, elegant curves. But make no mistake, the Leak Sandwich 150 is a brand new speaker. Although with a bold nod to the past.
Leak Sandwich 150
The Leak Sandwich 150 speakers are delivered to us by courier by Bram Mouton of Mika from Lisse in the Netherlands. Mika has evolved from a traditional distributor to a complete ‘brand fulfillment partner’ that utilizes the full potential of a brand in the Benelux market. One of those brands is Leak Audio.
The courier has its hands full because the Leaks carry quite a bit of weight. And to think they did this bookshelf speakers to call. No luxury packaging with bells and whistles, just a sturdy box and safely packed speakers. That really shouldn’t be anything more, the rest just costs more money.
The story of Leak Audio starts in 1934 in London with sound engineer Harold Joseph Leak as a manufacturer of high-quality audio components. Together with engineer Ted Ashley, who joined later, Harold Leak built the British company into a market leader in the field of affordable but high-quality tube amplifiers, turntables and speakers for home use. Yet the now legendary Leak TL/12 tube amplifier even became a BBC standard.
The first Leak Sandwich speaker was launched in 1961. A speaker with a ‘piston effect’ that, thanks to a process of continuous innovation, grew into an internationally acclaimed speaker.
The Leak range
Leak Audio has disappeared from the radar in our region for a number of years. Fortunately, the brand has been back on our market since 2020. The British company is part of the International Audio Group and is ready to build on its glorious past with a full range.
Leak Audio’s range currently includes two speakers: the Leak Sandwich 150 and its big brother the Leak Sandwich 250. Leak also offers two integrated amplifiers, a CD transport and a speaker stand. There are whispers in the corridors that a streamer is coming.
The Leak Sandwich 150 is a 2-way speaker with bass reflex that is best placed on a sturdy speaker stand. As a bookshelf speaker, it seems a bit oversized to us with a housing with a 19.6 liter capacity. That sturdy housing, about which more later, contains a 170 mm low-frequency aluminum/foam core ‘Sandwich’ driver for the low tones and a 30 mm with textile dome tweeter for the high tones. The tweeter has a damped rear chamber to absorb its rearward output. This isolates it from the rest of the speaker.
The Sandwich 150 speaker can easily be controlled by amplifiers with a power between 25 and 150 W.
The Leak Sandwich 150 is the smaller of the two speakers that the British brand carries. It differs from its big brother the Leak Sandwich 250, which has an additional mid-range driver and more power. Namely 2 x 250 W at 6 Ohm compared to 2 x 150 W at 6 Ohm for the Leak Sandwich 150.
Sandwich speaker
The Leak speaker was given the designation ‘sandwich’ because of the so-called ‘piston effect’ of the speaker cone. The membrane of the cone is made of expanded polystyrene sandwiched between two outer layers of aluminum. In other words, the driver with a sandwich structure, also called a ‘waffle structure’, has a cone that is made up of several layers of light but stiff materials stacked on top of each other. Hence the comparison with a delicious British sandwich.
The big advantage of this driver is the fact that the different layers improve the stiffness of the cone. The result: less distortion and accurate, transparent sound reproduction. The Leak Sandwich 150 that we listen to today is the rebirth of the original Leak Sandwich from 1961. While retaining the original design, albeit of course seamlessly integrated with contemporary techniques. At Leak they like to call it innovations that unite the past and the present in a harmonious mix of form and function.
Classic housing
The Leak Sandwich 150 is characterized by its classic-looking housing as we remember it from the speakers we used to find in the living rooms of our fathers and grandfathers and to which we listened with great respect. Because yes, it sounded really good then too.
The real walnut veneer housing is part of the acoustic performance of the Leak Sandwich 150. The design may be 60 years old, but the structure has evolved into a carefully layered, refined ‘sandwich’ of MDF and composite board with internal reinforcements. In a bold nod to the past, the rear wall of the housing into which the double bass reflex ends and on which the sturdy speaker clamps are mounted is attached to the housing with countersunk screws. Those dual bass ports provide an improved bass response that is reflected in deep, well-defined bass.
The Leak Sandwich 150 speakers are supplied as a matched mirrored pair. This means that you have a specific left and right speaker because the tweeter is placed away from the center of the baffle. The speakers are optimized for their specific channel to ensure accurate stereo reproduction with a deep and wide soundstage. Of course, you don’t see this with the removable front, a fabric-covered grille that is held on the baffle with magnets. The placement of the speakers is therefore of the utmost importance.
We hesitated for a moment whether we should also request a Leak amplifier on a trial basis. But why would we if we are used to a Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 here? Not that we doubt the qualities of the Leak amplification, but we give the Lyngdorf the opportunity to get the best possible out of the Leak speakers. Together with the 432 EVO music player, the power supply from IsoTek and the cabling from AudioQuest, we thought this could be very surprising.
The British Sound
It turned out to be the right idea. The Leak Sandwich 150 speakers are 100% British style. And you hear that immediately. That typical British sound, to put it with a cliché. What exactly is that British sound, some, especially the younger ones, may ask themselves? That’s easy to say. British audio equipment has been known since time immemorial for its warm and clear sound that also appears very natural. With a tight but controlled bass, a rich midrange and a high frequency range. This kite of course also applies to other, non-British brands, but it remains characteristic. The often classic looks of British audio equipment are also characteristic. In the case of the Leaks, this is abundantly clear.
Over the years we have put together a large stock of playlists here with music from all times and all genres. Vinyl and CD as well as streaming audio are available, and both gems and little ones. With a recording quality that varies from flat commercial to absolute high end. But with one common denominator: we all think it’s nice music. The neighbors sometimes think differently when we let ourselves go again. But hey, we don’t care about that, it’s for a noble cause and the neighbors are nice people.
Leak Sandwich 150 and bigger brother 250
We start the listening session with Let’s clean up the ghetto from The Philadelphia International All-Stars from 1977 in the wonderfully long 12” version. This epic piece of music starts with an instantly recognizable and endlessly sustained bassline, supplemented by the cellar-deep voice of Lou Rawls that introduces the story. The song gradually builds up with wonderful back vocals, brass instruments, violins and relentless percussion. Lou Rawls is assisted by Billy Paul, Archie Bell & The Drells and The O’Jays, among others.
The Leak Sandwich 150 speakers bring the music to life, just as we remember it. With a wonderfully rich depth and lots of detail. This is more than eight minutes of enjoyment.
We continue with another classic, Hotel California (live on MTV in 1994) by the Eagles from the album Hell freezes about. The acoustic guitars of Don Henley and his associates burst out of the Leaks. With a great sense of realism that also characterizes the vocal work. Thanks to the spaciousness that is so important for a live recording, we get a feeling as if we were there at the time. It shouldn’t be more than that, should it?
When the lights go down
Let’s take a quick look from the seemingly endless series of top music that we review When the lights go down by Prince from the album The Vault – Old friends for sale from 1999. The wonderful combination of the impressive piano, in combination with excellent electric guitar work and a stirring rhythm, interspersed with Prince’s unique voice, form an eclectic mix for which the Leak Sandwich 150 has to pull out all the stops. That works extremely well, by the way. Even if we increase the volume to the level that makes the neighbors’ glasses shake in their cupboards, the performance of the Leak remains intact.
At no point is there any emerging listening fatigue, on the contrary. When we turn off the lights, we end the day with a wonderfully relaxed feeling.
Conclusion
The British have clearly not yet forgotten how to build good speakers. It is a fact that they stick to traditions. We can only be happy about that. Nevertheless, we note with equal pleasure that traditions can go hand in hand with new insights and technologies. However, it requires a lot of knowledge and experience to achieve this successfully. And that is exactly what the boys and girls of Leak Audio do passed with flying colours. These Leak Sandwich 150 speakers bring music to life. Not only the music of the past, but also that of today and probably also that of tomorrow.
These speakers are not intended for listening to a music system. They are intended for listening to music. And that is perhaps the biggest compliment we can give the Leak Sandwich 150 speakers.
Leak Sandwich 150
A pair of Leak Sandwich 150 speakers costs 1,199 euros. For that money you get a lot of musicality and quality. In short, highly recommended in its price range. | Rating 4.75 / 5 | www.leakstore.nl
