The New Leema Quasar Is Out Of This World!

This month we are looking at Leema Acoustics newest addition to their renowned ‘Spectrum’ range, the combination, Streamer/DAC/Amplifier the Quasar.

Leema acoustics are a British company and have been going since 1998 and have always been renowned for their high quality Hi-Fi gear, recently however the mid Wales based company have really stepped it up a gear. We’ve reviewed the excellent Essentials phono stage before and we’re huge fans of the Tucana Anniversary integrated amplifier and their Pyxis and Hydra Pre and power amps from their constellation range. At the Bristol Show in February they revealed their newest addition to their Spectrum range, the Quasar.

The Quasar serves as a great all in one system, featuring a streamer, DAC and amplifier. The amplifier is a dual mono design and boasts a huge 180w per channel into 8 ohms, there’s not many speakers about that it’s going to struggle to drive.  

The Digital to Analogue conversion is taken care of by Leema’s renowned Quattro infinity topology and can handle digital files up to 24bit/192kH. The DAC is served by three co-axial spdif inputs and two optical inputs. Leema’s M1 asynchronous USB interface is also included allowing the user to play music directly from a computer or laptop. There are analogue inputs as well of course, a balanced XLR input and four phono inputs give you plenty of flexibility. Just in case you already haven’t got enough ways to play your music the Quasar also has a high quality Bluetooth interface, which will handle advanced codecs such as aptX.

On the streaming side of things the Quasar can handle up to 24bit/192kHz from a NAS drive or DLNA/UPNP device as well as streaming services Tidal and Deezer, with more scheduled to come via a software update soon. This is all controlled with the MControl app with is available on both Android and Apple devices.

When reviewing the Quasar we mostly concentrated on its function as an ‘all in one’ system, not forgetting however its excellent array of inputs. Because of its powerful amplifier there are very little restrictions on the type of speaker it will drive, so we tried a few ranging from stand mounts like the B&W CM6's to Spendor’s floor standing D9's and the Quasar drove them all to their full potential. The streaming via the app is very slick and quick to respond which Is a huge plus. We tried a range of music from both our NAS drive and from Tidal and we’re impressed with the Quasar’s versatility, subtleness abounds when required but the amp can also provide that punch you need when listening to electronic or rock music.

All in all the Leema Quasar is a fantastic way of reducing down the amount of boxes needed in a system while at the same time not restricting you in any way due to its different inputs and its ability to drive a large range of speakers. We currently have one available for demonstration so please get in touch if you’d like to give it a listen.

Leema Hi-Fi Products are currently available Audio T Cardiff store only.