notevenclose
pfm Member
I don’t doubt that, but would class A Luxman and Tannoy be a better match?
Not necessarily. Luxman's build quality and fit & finish probably has the edge, but on sound quality my money's on the Sugden.
I don’t doubt that, but would class A Luxman and Tannoy be a better match?
I hope not but you could of course be right. Mind you, I’ve found the final speakers and headphones, no longer feel the need to go further up the source ladder (my TT is better than my vinyl deserves and I’m delighted with my digital stuff) so it is basically just finding THAT final amp.JTC, having read your contributions on here over the last 10 years, this will NOT be your final amp After a while you will get a bee in your bonnet about something else. Accept that reality and relax!
I haven’t. I did briefly look into it and it seems to be a fine amp, but I’m not sold on the looks. I hate to be superficial, but the FINAL amp has to also look right as well as sound right. I happen to find the Luxman and Sugden amps to look really smart, but I’m not keen on the slightly ‘eighties SF’ appearance of the Osiris.... wouldn’t matter if it were just a power amp that could be hidden away, but aesthetically it’s not my cup of tea.Have you considered the Rega Osiris?
I hear you. What speakers are you using? One thing I can’t accuse the Tannoys of is a tendency to thinness. I’m fairly sure that - sonically - either Luxman, Sugden (or Accuphase or others) will all be very fine with the Tannoys, but the point about future servicing is the thing that is giving me pause. I can get a home demo of the Luxman, and am going to organise that, and I’ve heard a Sugden A21 mk2 recently which I rather liked (and should have bought - it was a serviced mint example I could have had for £900! - but I stupidly passed on it). What’s unknown to me is the difference between the IA-4 and the A21 series, in sonic terms. And the only way to figure that one out would be to have one here to demo, but I doubt I’ll be able to organise a loan of one to coincide with the Luxman demo....As a rock and jazz listener, I prefer a class A from Sugden to a Luxman because it seems to me they have more oomph factor and never sounded thin to me.
The Sugden is also probably easier to service on the long term as the Luxman is very crowded when you remove the top lid in comparison.
If the look of the amplifier is important, I would go with a blue facing like this :
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=333494407057
I haven’t. I did briefly look into it and it seems to be a fine amp, but I’m not sold on the looks. I hate to be superficial, but the FINAL amp has to also look right as well as sound right. I happen to find the Luxman and Sugden amps to look really smart, but I’m not keen on the slightly ‘eighties SF’ appearance of the Osiris.... wouldn’t matter if it were just a power amp that could be hidden away, but aesthetically it’s not my cup of tea.
I haven’t. I did briefly look into it and it seems to be a fine amp, but I’m not sold on the looks. I hate to be superficial, but the FINAL amp has to also look right as well as sound right. I happen to find the Luxman and Sugden amps to look really smart, but I’m not keen on the slightly ‘eighties SF’ appearance of the Osiris.... wouldn’t matter if it were just a power amp that could be hidden away, but aesthetically it’s not my cup of tea.
One thing I can’t accuse the Tannoys of is a tendency to thinness. I’m fairly sure that - sonically - either Luxman, Sugden (or Accuphase or others) will all be very fine with the Tannoys, but the point about future servicing is the thing that is giving me pause. I can get a home demo of the Luxman, and am going to organise that, and I’ve heard a Sugden A21 mk2 recently which I rather liked (and should have bought - it was a serviced mint example I could have had for £900! - but I stupidly passed on it). What’s unknown to me is the difference between the IA-4 and the A21 series, in sonic terms. And the only way to figure that one out would be to have one here to demo, but I doubt I’ll be able to organise a loan of one to coincide with the Luxman demo....
Generally it's an area the Japanese seem to excel in, although I noted a thread somewhere recently about some pretty crude machining on Luxman integrateds.
I've read that thread on Audiogon. It's the L-509X and perhaps that's a rare isolated case.
I heard the Luxman on large speakers from Sonus Faber with two woofers and it was missing the slam I heard on a small Sugden A21se that was driving some Proac Response two.I hear you. What speakers are you using? One thing I can’t accuse the Tannoys of is a tendency to thinness. I’m fairly sure that - sonically - either Luxman, Sugden (or Accuphase or others) will all be very fine with the Tannoys, but the point about future servicing is the thing that is giving me pause. I can get a home demo of the Luxman, and am going to organise that, and I’ve heard a Sugden A21 mk2 recently which I rather liked (and should have bought - it was a serviced mint example I could have had for £900! - but I stupidly passed on it). What’s unknown to me is the difference between the IA-4 and the A21 series, in sonic terms. And the only way to figure that one out would be to have one here to demo, but I doubt I’ll be able to organise a loan of one to coincide with the Luxman demo....
Update: this is a *very* good amp. Let’s see how I feel about in a few days. I’ve got it for a couple of weeks.
With the right speakers, it's very good, bearing in mind it dislodged the Naim 282/250DR in my system to take a permanent spot. The initial impressions were so good that I went bonkers by spending a lot of money upgrading the rest of the partnering ancillaries, specifically cables in an attempt to attain more improvements from the amp / system. There will be sceptics but based on my experience, the Luxman is capable of revealing the finer nuances in music and take on a different character with better (balanced) interconnects and power cords and couple more tweaks with power management.Three hours in, one unexpected observation is how cool it runs, relative to the A21-mk2 I tried a month back, the big Mac (though that’s valves so not the sane thing). Runs cooler to the touch than the Mjolnir (but that thing is probably 450v class-A anyway). I could easily warm my hands on it but it’s nowhere near hot enough to risk any burns...
Update: this is a *very* good amp. Let’s see how I feel about in a few days. I’ve got it for a couple of weeks.
Update 2: good though it is, build quality isn’t quite as ‘impressive’ as I was led to believe. It’s above average unquestionably. Controls better than the Mac, fit and finish very good but not quite the tactile delight they’d have you believe. But very nice nonetheless,..
Update 3: a couple of glasses of red in, admittedly, but with Radio Paradise FLAC’ing its way into the Luxman, I’m seriously impressed. This is a competent amp and no mistake....