Beobloke
pfm Member
Don't be so silly. Everyone knows that amplifiers with power meters sound better than ones without, and if they have an 'Off' switch for the meters, this makes them sound worse.
Luxman/Accuphase/Yamaha - Quality?
- Thread starter Paulq2
- Start date
Don't be so silly. Everyone knows that amplifiers with power meters sound better than ones without, and if they have an 'Off' switch for the meters, this makes them sound worse.
More knobs and switches that do various things obviously.
I'm not too surprised at your preference for the E650... did you choose those speakers for the demo?
Mac
What are the speakers that were used during the comparison? Did you try all Luxman and Musical Fidelity on the same speakers? I noticed the MF Trivista 300 is very powerful, 350W@8 ohm and 600W@4 ohm.
I noticed you didn't try the L-590AXII and L-509X.
I quite like the look of the amp, including the meters. So I leave them on for most of the time. I do not notice any sound difference between off and on.
I recently had a friend visit who has no interest in hifi at all - she commented on the new amp and how much she liked the meters. So they appeal to non-hifi people as well.
I use my hifi in our main living room which dictates that I have to locate the amps and sources between the speakers and under the monitor. We also use this as a 2.0 movie system (the speakers go low enough without a sub). The only time I turn the meters off is when we are watching movies with the lights out (as the meters are very distracting in that setting)
Cereal Killer
432
Those speakers even make the Luxman look small!! what are they?
Peter Finney
Active Member
The dealer chose the speakers because I have a pair of Monitor Audio Gold Ref 20’s at home so we went with the same brand and same speakers throughout the demo.
Cereal Killer
432
Excellent speaker, very underrated these days. Demoed a pair in Manchester 15'ish years ago with a big Plinius integrated amp.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
I've never noticed any lack of life and drive with Accuphase, though I agree the performance is a bit less 'on the edge' than with Naim. What's the rest of the system?
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
I've never considered my Naim system to sound "On the edge" particularly. But systems are so variable, aren't they?
Rest of the system - Naim DBLs, Melco, Chord DAVE & M-Scaler, LP12 with ARO, Kandid cartridge, Radikal/Urika.
They are Osborn Epitome Tower Reference Elites.
https://www.osbornloudspeakers.com.au/epitome-towers
These are local for me - made in Australia. They have a 29mm tweeter covering >3.5k, a 7 inch mid-bass covering 125Hz to 3.5k and two 10 inch drivers covering below 125hz. Almost like a small bookshelf with inbuilt subs. They stand over 5 foot and weigh 105 kg each - a bit of a pain to set up positioning.
However they are 91dB efficient and close to 4 ohm - hence I get >150W out of the Luxman 590 (not that I can get it that loud in my room - I doubt I ever get out of the 60W class A envelope).
Osborn make a bigger brother to these - but they were too big for my room (and my wife).
Yes
Similarly my Luxman L-590AXII had received the same attention from visitors as well. The amp really looks beautiful with the meters and lights.
The amp is supposed to look quite big but the large speakers have dwarfed the Luxman in the photo. Yes, the lights on the amp need to go off if watching movies in the dark.
I quite like the look of the amp, including the meters. So I leave them on for most of the time. I do not notice any sound difference between off and on.
I recently had a friend visit who has no interest in hifi at all - she commented on the new amp and how much she liked the meters. So they appeal to non-hifi people as well.
Similarly my Luxman L-590AXII had received the same attention from visitors as well. The amp really looks beautiful with the meters and lights.
The amp is supposed to look quite big but the large speakers have dwarfed the Luxman in the photo. Yes, the lights on the amp need to go off if watching movies in the dark.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Nice. I've never heard DBLs, so have no real valid opinion, but I wonder whether they are designed to suit Naim amps in particular. One particularly happy combination with Accuphase that I've heard is Fyne Audio. The F1s, in particular, though the looks are not to everybody's taste (they look better in plain colours rather than gloss veneer, IMHO, mostly because they lose that bit of beading round the top plate so, to my mind, the modern design is better resolved).
Amber Audio
This is the Day
Wife's AV system has GR20/GRC/GrFx bought new back in the day - still sounding brilliant. Amps come and go but the speakers have stayed put.
Rockmeister
pfm Member
Epitome, Reference AND Elite? Wow. Mind you, an Aussie can never have too many superlatives
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
They replaced the Epitome Reference A Bit Disappointings, in the Osborne range, IIRC.Epitome, Reference AND Elite? Wow. Mind you, an Aussie can never have too many superlatives
Brucedgoose
pfm Member
I owned a Yamaha CT-1000 tuner years ago. Top of the line. Had repeated reliability problems with it, though it looked very nice and sounded good when it worked.
I also owned a B.I.C./Lux 71/6A integrated amp, which was a Luxman product that was imported by British Industries Corp. a long time ago. Well made, but low-powered and I blew it up. That was my fault. It was a nice little amp that sounded good, but I was a young headbanger.
Today I use an Accuphase C-250 preamp that I bought used more than 20 years ago. Sounds great, built great, looks great. There’s a video that shows how Accuphase manufactures their electronics. Its like clean-room assembly! I use it with a 500 wpc Peachtree Audio amp, so now an old headbanger, but no more blown amps!
Go with Accuphase!
joel
Painter of Dragons, Maker of Mirrors
amp surely looks prettier with the lights on, like some serious piece of kit. It looks a bit dull when the lights are off.
It's good to hear that the Accuphase has settled down nicely. Although we don't own the same Naim amps (the 282/250DR is a lot inferior to 552/500), similarly the Naim surely has a lot more drive in comparison to the Luxman, but with Marten speakers this added drive plus a bit of brightness in the treble is not good. The Class A Luxman sounds a lot more relaxed/fluid, refined and detailed but it does not lack the drive of the Naim when matched with Marten. It's only with Harbeth I miss some of the drive and life of the Naim.
The Luxman gives me an almost perfect sound with the Marten Duke 2, no complaints whatsoever. There's a member on the Naim forum (Bongoman) who still finds the Marten Duke 2 to sound a bit bright with his 552/300DR. I'm not sure if it's the room or something else but it would be interesting to see if the Accuphase or Luxman Class A amplifiers can resolve the brightness problem.[/QUOTE]
It's good to hear that the Accuphase has settled down nicely. Although we don't own the same Naim amps (the 282/250DR is a lot inferior to 552/500), similarly the Naim surely has a lot more drive in comparison to the Luxman, but with Marten speakers this added drive plus a bit of brightness in the treble is not good. The Class A Luxman sounds a lot more relaxed/fluid, refined and detailed but it does not lack the drive of the Naim when matched with Marten. It's only with Harbeth I miss some of the drive and life of the Naim.
The Luxman gives me an almost perfect sound with the Marten Duke 2, no complaints whatsoever. There's a member on the Naim forum (Bongoman) who still finds the Marten Duke 2 to sound a bit bright with his 552/300DR. I'm not sure if it's the room or something else but it would be interesting to see if the Accuphase or Luxman Class A amplifiers can resolve the brightness problem.[/QUOTE]