Network Audio Players/Servers

When does a Leak become a stream? Well, it’s when the revived British audio brand, with roots going back 90 years, takes a leap firmly into the 21st century with the landing of its first network player, the £999 TruStream. This is the latest arrival in what’s become, if not a torrent, then at least a solid trickle of products since the Stereo 130 amplifier appeared in 2020 under the ownership of IAG, the company now behind the likes of Audiolab, Quad and Wharfedale.

Slight return

In creating its tribute to the Leak Stereo amplifier of 1963, IAG brought back to the market a brand dormant since the late 1970s, retaining the styling and much of the engineering of the classic products, but with a decidedly modern twist – not least because the newcomer had not only digital inputs and Bluetooth integration, but also a partnering CD transport, the CDT.

In a clever act of marketing, IAG supplied a Stereo 130 to London’s Handel Hendrix House museum, enabling the system Jimi Hendrix used when he lived there to be recreated, complete with a period Bang & Olufsen Beogram 1000 turntable [Vintage Review, HFN Aug ’25] and restored Lowther Acousta 115 speakers. To this day, visitors can hear Hendrix’s record collection as he would have done – possibly even as loud!

The Leak brand had disappeared all those years ago under the ownership of the Rank Organisation, once also the owner of Wharfedale, distributor of camera brands Nikon and Pentax, and with interests in cinema and theatre equipment. Almost half a century ago, technical requirements for school plays in which I was involved always meant a trip to the Rank Strand Electric lighting company under the flyover in West London, where men in brown warehouse coats would fish out lamps – never call them bulbs! – to get the school’s ageing lighting kit up and running again.

Above: Decked out in matching walnut-veneered cases, the TruStream [top] includes Wi-Fi/Ethernet and (PC) USB-C input selection, a headphone socket, and volume rotary. The Stereo 230 [bottom] has a motorised volume alongside (defeatable) tone and balance. A matching rotary serves digital/analogue input selection

Anyway, increased competition from overseas signalled the end of manufacturing of Leak equipment, but since that 2020 relaunch the Leak line has expanded to include the TruStream streamer/DAC we have here, along with its partnering Stereo 230 amplifier. The latter sells for £1099 (or £1249 for the walnut-veneer clad review sample) and has a rated 75W/8ohm output [see PM's Lab Report], which is comfortably more than either the Stereo 130’s 2x45W, let alone the original Stereo 30’s 15W [Vintage Review, HFN Oct ’10].

Modern makeover

If the Stereo 130 of 2020 was a leap from the 1960s amp, with its Bluetooth and digital inputs, the Stereo 230 goes even further, having both a USB-C input for computer audio, and HDMI ARC for sound from a TV. It’s a modern wolf in vintage sheep’s clothing, and available in its walnut casing for that full old-fashioned look, or plain silver for a 1960s retro-modern feel.

Think the amp’s wood finish is a retro step too far? The TruStream network player is only available in walnut, as that’s what Leak customers are buying. And if those customers want to build an all-Leak system, there are now revivals of the company’s classic Sandwich speakers – IAG has done similar with Mission [HFN Jun ’22], Quad [HFN Mar ’24] and Wharfedale designs of the past.

Above: The power amp comprises a pair of STMicroelectronics TDA7293 Class AB modules per channel [on heatsink] with the linear PSUs at either side. Note motorised volume [bottom left], XMOS/Qualcomm digital input PCB [top right] and MM phono stage [bottom right]

By the standards of many a rival, the TruStream is a simple-looking product. For starters there’s no display, although with network players often being mainly app-controlled, there’s an argument that these are not strictly necessary (and it helps manage the cost of the design). Similarly, controls extend to no more than a power button, a volume rotary, and a button to switch between network playback and the unit’s USB-C ‘computer audio’ input.

On which subject, the TruStream has two USB-A ports to which storage devices can be attached (these double as USB audio outputs to suitable DACs), digital outputs on optical and coaxial, and analogue outs on both RCAs and balanced XLRs. The last of these may seem a little odd, as neither of the current Leak amplifiers offer balanced inputs, but then the volume control here would allow the TruStream to be used straight into a power amplifier or active speakers, in which case the balanced output might make sense for those longer cable runs.

The player includes a front-panel headphone socket, driven by its own amplifier, so those with a penchant for ‘head-fi’ could create a simple personal listening system (maybe with a pair of those wooden Grado headphones for the full mid-20th century look). Remote handsets provided for both units only slightly differ in function and button layout. In the case of the TruStream the handset is only of passing interest, as all the action here will be on the associated app [see boxout].

Network services and file format handling is thoroughly modern. Connected via wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi, Leak’s TruStream is compatible with the Connect versions of Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify, and the TuneIn Internet Radio platform, as well as UPnP/DLNA streaming from music on a computer or Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. It also supports AirPlay 2 and is Roon Ready. Depending on input, file support runs to 768kHz/32-bit PCM and DSD 512.

Let it flow
Fresh from the box, the TruStream/Stereo 230 duo deliver a sound as rich and harmonious as all that walnut veneer might suggest. Choose a pair of weighty sounding, but still crisply detailed speakers, and you’ll give these products plenty of opportunity to let the music flow.

That was definitely the case with ‘Purple Haze’ from The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced [2010 remaster, Experience Hendrix/Legacy/Sony Music 88697648252]. I couldn’t resist cueing up this 1967 album, given Leak’s early links with the artist, and the TruStream/Stereo 230 combination did it full justice. The dense wall of sound created by the trio – Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell really thumping those drums and Noel Redding’s sonorous bass – was a well-defined onslaught. Yes, this Leak pairing sounds warm and rich, but it still delivers sufficient bite and freshness to bring music to life. Clearly, the Stereo 230 amplifier is more than powerful enough to drive contemporary speakers to period-appropriate levels without signs of distress.

Above: Linear PSU [top right, and standby below] feeds XMOS USB board [bottom centre] and Silent Angel-based wireless/Ethernet/USB streaming platform [under heatsink], with ES9038Q2M DAC-based preamp [below]

Sticking to this theme, the Avison Ensemble’s recording of Handel’s Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 [Linn Records, 88.2kHz/24-bit] proved a delightful combination of mellifluous flow and speed and detail. There was nothing over-lush or lazy here, despite the richness of the Leak sound – instead, rhythms were tight and crisp, while instrumental textures were well-realised.

Having a swell time

Having just seen the winning combination of singer Liza Pulman and pianist/performer Joe Stilgoe in the theatre, I found myself listening to their A Couple Of Swells album [Highfield Productions HIGHFICD 2], and loved the way the TruStream/Stereo 230 brought out not just the amazing musicianship, but the warmth and easygoing nature of their pairing. This is one of the most intimate and live-sounding sets I know, and it was deliciously played via Leak’s walnut-clad duo.

Talking of live ambience, the recent remaster of Thelonious Monk’s 1959 Thelonious Alone In San Francisco [Craft Recordings; 192kHz/24-bit download] has a wonderfully vibrant ambience to it, courtesy of the city’s historic Fugazi Hall. The atmosphere is almost as big a part of the sound as the performance itself, and the blend of warmth and openness the TruStream/Stereo 230 delivered was perfectly suited.

Above: The TruStream [top] offers Wi-Fi/wired Ethernet and USB-C inputs (to 768kHz/DSD512), two USB host ports, coax/opt digital outs and RCA/balanced XLR analogue outs. The Stereo 230 [bottom] also has coax/opt in/outs, an HDMI ARC in, plus three line and one MM phono input. Speaker outs are on 4mm binding posts

Playing the title track from the Eagles’ Hotel California – the 2017 40th anniversary release [Asylum Records 081227933234] – the Leak duo made a fine fist of the rich, multilayered mix, reminding ears over-familiar with the stripped-back version just how much of an impact this album made when first unleashed. And switch to something even harder-driving, in the form of the 2023 release of Thin Lizzy’s much-overdubbed Live And Dangerous [UMC/Vertigo/Mercury 0819035], and it’s clear that Leak’s oh-so-refined-looking amplifier can drive even compact floorstanders into serious thunder with the ‘Cowboy Song’/‘The Boys Are Back In Town’/‘Don’t Believe A Word’ sequence. Who cares how many times it was ‘finessed’ after the event when it sounds this big, bad and hard-hitting?

Above: Both streamer and amp (and CDT) share a similar system remote. Volume, mute, direct, random, repeat and track select work with the former, and volume, mute and input select with the latter

Turning on the orchestral thunder with the opening of Mahler’s first symphony, from the Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov Symphonies 1-9 box set [Pentatone PTC5187490; 96kHz/24-bit], the Leak duo handled the gentle opening with sensitivity, with its distant horns and pastoral flow. There was space and air in the sound, then weight and control as the first movement built to its climax, with superb texture in the brass, punch in the percussion and yet still that same open and expansive soundstage image.

Sweet streams

That’s the appealing nature of this Leak network player/amplifier combination: just when you think it’s sweet and refined in a kind of reverie of how we all think old-style hi-fi used to sound, it can surprise by rolling up its sleeves and powering out largescale music with more than sufficient brio and vitality. But then Hendrix himself used to wake up the neighbourhood in London’s Brook Street with his early-transistor Leak Stereo 30 at full chat... So perhaps it should not come as a surprise that the more powerful Stereo 230 amplifier, ably fed by the TruStream network player, can do the same with a wide variety of music.

Hi-Fi News Verdict

The look may be retro, but however incongruous the idea of a walnut-clad network player may seem, this Leak duo gives a level of performance that’s fully up-to-date, and needs no rose-tinted nostalgia to be enjoyed. As a 2026 hi-fi system it’s well up to snuff, and as a talking-point it’s unsurpassed. Fine sound, superb build and finish, modern facilities and hipster appeal to boot? It’s not hard to see the attraction.

Sound Quality: 88%