Luxman L550 / L590 experiences ???

Does anyone have experience of these Luxman integrated amps? I am being advised that they are an audiophile bargain, if that exisits
I currently have BATs excellent VK300x SE which has given flawless service for the past 3 years.
I am off to listed to the Luxmans next week (taking my BAT with me for reference), and if they sound as good as I'm told I will walk away with one of them.
Does anyone have anything bad to say about Luxmans build quality, or service?
Finally any other suggestions for a £3K to £6K integrated amp? It will be driving my Wilson Benesch ACTs, and needs to be balanced as I have a significant investment in Nordost Quatrofil interconnects.
Thanks for your advice.

 

We spoke about this earlier, as I too am interested in both the VK300x and Luxman L590.

Others I've shortlisted as potentially interesting are:

Accuphase E408
DK Designs Signature 3
Denon PMA-SA1
Pathos INPOL 2

I think they all have balanced inputs.

DT

 

Hopefully Joel will see this thread.

 

I used to sell the Luxman Amps and the build quality is very good indeed. It put a lot more expensive equipment to shame. Select Audio is the distributor does sort things out when required. I never had a luxman go wrong.

 

Thanks for the solid endorsement hifi addict.
Clearly it will all come down to the audition/shoot out against my BAT, which I think will be hard to beat at the sub £5K integrated price.
I will let you know how I get on.

On another note, I had the day off today, and had a long afternoon session with my CDs; Radiohead/OK Computer, Rolling Stones/Hot Rocks, Simon&Garfunkel/Greatest, Sigur Ros/Takk, Robbie Williams/Swing When Your Winning (Dont take the piss), Ruychi Sakamoto/Forbidden Colours, Kraftwerk/Autobahn, George Michael/Songs from the Last Century, Jakatta/Visions.
I am more and more impressed with my new Reimyo DAP-777 and Cyrus CDXt/PSX-R as they become run in.
I am no HiFi wordsmith, but all I can say is that this combination is so much more rewarding to listen to then the Wadia 861b they have replaced. I only wish I had the spare cash to buy the Reimyo transport ... I will keep an eye on the s/h market.

 

Ripit, have you considered the 30wpc class A Luxman? Is there much point changing from an A/B output amp to another one? The ACTs can't be that insensitive?

I don't know if select even import the class A model...

 

DT, it is the Class A amps that I am going to audition. The L550 is 20wpc, the L590 is 30wpc. There is a £2k price differential between them, and it will be interesting to see if I can hear that £2K.
Brighton HiFi are arranging the demo for me. Dave has a number of Luxman amps on demo, including the big Class A monos.

 

That's an expensive 10 Watts!

 

Very expensive.

I'd be interested to hear what you think about them as I'm looking at another big integrated next. Preferably an accuphase but I did listen to the Luxman briefly at walrus a few months ago and it sounded very nice indeed albeit through some rather large and efficient speakers. BTW there is an Accuphase E-550 on hififorsale now for 4300 ovno.

 

I have a new addition to my listening room. It is currently being run in with a long play list ... The heating has been switched off as it is kicking out more heat that a 3 bar fire! Will give you a full update in the next couple of days.

 

Hmmmm, that won't be much fun in summer.

Did you P/X the BAT?

 

The BAT is for sale at www.hifiguy.co.uk for £2500. You might get it a bit cheaper.

The Luxman is still literally "burning" in. Have had it running for just over 48 hours non stop. Anyone got any ideas as to how long I should leave it burning away ... I can only afford so much on the electricity costs

 

=====================================

Hi RIPit,

I'm interested in getting either the Luxman 509 or 590 amps. I was wondering whether you compared those 2 models and what led you to decide on 590. Also, since it's been a few months, what has your experience been like with 590?

I compared Accuphase E550 with McIntosh MA2275 last week, and enjoyed E550 more. Listening to E550 first made MA2275 sound really slow and a little boring.

I'm hoping to be able to link E550 with Luxman somehow, but no shop here carries both!

Anyway, I look forward to your reply!

Cheers

 

Better late than never... I've only heard these at shows I'm afraid. They all seem most excellent amps AFAICT, but I'd take the Acc if only because it's extensible - the plug-in architecture allows you to add a DAC card, which has the potential to reduce box count a bit.
Possibly not the amps for driving those B&W 801s to Discotastic volumes, but for the rest of us with more prosaic speakers just fine.
As I'm not a believer in burn-in or warm up of equipment other than ears and brains, I can't comment on these facets of performance.

 

Hot! Hot! Hot!

So its just over a year on, and I thought that I would add some comments on my experiences with the Luxman 590 A-II integrated amp. My system is basically the same as when I purchased the Luxman, apart from a change to the digital source components.

Overall, I am still delighted with the Luxman. It works flawlessly, and sounds fabulous. There is, however, just one niggle with it, the heat! Throughout the British winter I was able to run the Luxman switched on 24/7 in my listening room with the heating turned off Due to the collosal amounts of heat generated this is just not possible in the warmer months of the year, and therefore the amp has to be put into standby mode when not in use. This is not such a major issue as it takes only a couple of hours to warm up, but I would prefer to leave it switched on.

So, this situation leaves me contemplating my next move. What is the best sub £10K integrated amp (balanced) that betters the Luxman's sound without the huge heat dissipation? The Mcintosh MA-7000 has been suggested, as has the Boulder 865. The heat of the British summer may well be the factor the determined if I upgrade or not, but any opinions on the Mc or Boulder would be of interest.

 

I think your expectations of the British "summers" are unfounded. If it's anything like last year, you'll need to buy another 590 to keep you warm ;-)

DT

 

Hi RIPit, I see you've changed your source from the Cyrus/777 combo. Did you try the Reimyo transport before deciding on the AAs? How do you think the AAs compare to your previous setup?

 

If only I could afford the Reimyo transport!

The AAs are (to my taste) an upgrade from the Cyrus/DAP777. I didn't get chance to try the AA Drive 1 Mk2 with the DAP777, and suspect that it would have been a great combination. It just seemed logical to go with the AA transport and DAC combination.

What I do know is that my second digital source (Sonos) sounds better through the AA DAC 1 Mk4. This could be down to the 66 bit/1536 kHz sample rate ... or it might just be my imagination!

 

Thanks for that my computer died just after I posted and have had to wait to get back online.

Funny I'd always thought from what I'd read it was the DAC that was the stronger part of the 777 combo, just goes to show don't believe everything you read!

 

interesting to hear your thoughts on the heat from the luxman.. i used the Accuphase E-550, which i guess is a similar concept to the L-590, and as you say it does generate a reasonable amount of heat. But im not sure i'd allow this to be the reason for getting rid of it

Open a window hehe

But if you like the character of the L590 but want a cooler running model, you might consider having a look at the Accuphase E-450, its surprisingly smooth for a reasonably large SS amp.