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Luxman/Accuphase/Yamaha - Quality?

Has anyone heard class d amplifiers and can compare to Luxman/Accuphase/Audionet?

Dealer I am in contact with sells Audionet and Mola Mola. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the Mola Mola Kula integrated but have never heard one.

I owned a Marantz PM-KI Ruby for a short time. Nice amp but liked Naim better (currently use various Naim).
 
Pure_Carbon said:
My Luxman ownership was some time ago, I think I liked it , but didn't love it.
ACU and Yam were more recent, and through a mate who had an AC integrated down for a home demo from Audio Emotion, was able to do an A/B .
We both agreed that the AC "may" have been a tad better, but virtually double the price for the same spec.
Think VFM , Yamaha trumps the AC.
If money no object, buy the AC, if you want an excellent sounding and fantastically well built amp, and don't care about brand snobbery , buy the Yamaha.
I only sold it as I've changed speakers, gone for some crazy inneficient ones that needed more power and current than than the A-S3000 could muster. For normal speakers, Yam is great.
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Besides Yamaha, I’m guessing may hold true for Denon also. Did you ever listen to the Denon PMA-A110?
 
I think there can be characteristics, though. So, for example, Class A amps are often described as sounding more powerful than their output suggests; Class D often described as fast and clean, but lacking grunt. These are doubtless generalisations, but some truth behind the anecdotes I suspect, in respect of how the power is delivered. Perhaps questions of current capability.
 
I’ve home auditioned and briefly owned some D amps.
To me, their main failing was the treble, never sounded realistic, a tad harsh/brittle/digital.
BUT I’m a drummer and really annoying about cymbals sounding “right” .
Most wouldn’t care.
A mate has just bought an Aavik i580 integrated, Class D, and it’s the best sounding D amp I’ve heard.
 
Plink said:
Besides Yamaha, I’m guessing may hold true for Denon also. Did you ever listen to the Denon PMA-A110?
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Not been fortunate enough to have an Accuphase amp, but I have owned Denon PMA-A110, Luxman L-590 AXII and Yamaha A-S3000.
Listed in my order of preference, but tbh they're all bloody good, highly competent amps.
The Yamaha, in silver, was my favourite to behold.
I preferred the sound of the L-590 slightly, but nowhere near enough to justify the cost difference and overall it was quite a let down compared to a L-509u that I had owned previously.
For me, the Denon definitely sounds the most powerful and best overall. It may be not as pretty or have such obviously high build quality, but surely it's the sound that should be the overriding factor?
It's all relative anyway as being a big Japanese flagship amp that is actually built in Japan it is still a mighty fine put together lump of a thing.
It short none of them sound bad, far from it. So pick whichever you fancy, or work best to your tastes, in your system.
 
Plink said:
Has anyone heard class d amplifiers and can compare to Luxman/Accuphase/Audionet?

Dealer I am in contact with sells Audionet and Mola Mola. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the Mola Mola Kula integrated but have never heard one.

I owned a Marantz PM-KI Ruby for a short time. Nice amp but liked Naim better (currently use various Naim).
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I have a Mola Mola Makua pre amp (with DAC and Phono). Buying that emptied my spare funds for a time, so for now I am running it through the power amp section of my Luxman 590AXII.

I can say the Makua sounds better than the internal Luxman pre amp (even comparing passing my old DAC through the Makua or direct into the Luxman - so not getting the advantage of the new DAC). Of course the DAC and Phono in the Makua are much better than my old DAC and the (very good) internal Phono in the Luxman.

I am currently looking into what power amp to eventually replace the Luxman with. The Mola Mola Perca is on my list and together with the Makua that would give me something very much like the Kula you are interested in. I am also keeping my eye out for a second hand M900 which would be very nice. Also the new AGD Audion mono blocks seem to be doing something slightly different with class D.

Sorry not answering your question - but also interested in the answer. If your dealer stocks Mola Mola go and have a demo.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I think there can be characteristics, though. So, for example, Class A amps are often described as sounding more powerful than their output suggests
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I have only read such statements in cases of high biased class AB amplifiers, like from Pass, Accuphase, Luxman, etc. which is the reason why they sound more powerful when the class A power is rated in the specs. If I have read a statement about some class A amps it was that they sounded very clean but don't have ultimate control. There is also no general valve amplifier sound nor the so called analog or digital.
 
Pure_Carbon said:
I’ve home auditioned and briefly owned some D amps.
To me, their main failing was the treble, never sounded realistic, a tad harsh/brittle/digital.
BUT I’m a drummer and really annoying about cymbals sounding “right” .
Most wouldn’t care.
A mate has just bought an Aavik i580 integrated, Class D, and it’s the best sounding D amp I’ve heard.
Click to expand...
& so it should for £20K! What gets me about Aavik is that the amp module is the same throughout their range, they just add more of their 'coils' and stuff, accompanied by an enormous increase in price (intro amp is £6k, so an additional £14k for extra 'coils').
 
ryder said:
Not too surprised as it costs £8,499 which is more expensive than the entire Luxman L-590AXII integrated.
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I did the same with my Yamaha A-S3000.
Thought the pre section was a bit soft, so used Power amp section only , fed by my MBL 5011 pre ( now for sale in the Classifieds here)
I did miss not being able to use the tone controls though.
Used properly and sparingly, nothing against them.
 
If anyone is tempted to try a recent class A Accuphase power amp, I have just posted an IC thread in the classified section. I am considering going further up the Accuphase line :)
 
simon g said:
& so it should for £20K! What gets me about Aavik is that the amp module is the same throughout their range, they just add more of their 'coils' and stuff, accompanied by an enormous increase in price (intro amp is £6k, so an additional £14k for extra 'coils').
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Does anyone know how those coils work or what they do? Hard to take them seriously just based on what they call those things…
 
Plink said:
Has anyone heard class d amplifiers and can compare to Luxman/Accuphase/Audionet?

Dealer I am in contact with sells Audionet and Mola Mola. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the Mola Mola Kula integrated but have never heard one.

I owned a Marantz PM-KI Ruby for a short time. Nice amp but liked Naim better (currently use various Naim).
Click to expand...

I own Accuphase, but the Mola Mola Kula has also piqued my interest. However it is a lot of money for a product from a relatively niche company where it's unclear where they are going to be in 10 years, even just with something like their design.

With a company like Accuphase, I am pretty sure that they will be around in 10 years, or even 20 years (and their components will look exactly the same), and I can slot in any new component into my existing system and it will blend in - I guess as I climbed the price ladder during my HiFi career I just got more risk averse WRT exotics.

It's one of the things I like about Accuphase: their consistency and their predictability (the design stays the same, and every 4-5 years there are new models, as per their website's product museum) - two things that are nice to have when you're spending money on expensive things.

Still though, if I had the chance to audition a Kula easily (unfortunately not possible where I live) I would probably just try it to satisfy my curiosity.
 
vln said:
I own Accuphase, but the Mola Mola Kula has also piqued my interest. However it is a lot of money for a product from a relatively niche company where it's unclear where they are going to be in 10 years, even just with something like their design.

With a company like Accuphase, I am pretty sure that they will be around in 10 years, or even 20 years (and their components will look exactly the same), and I can slot in any new component into my existing system and it will blend in - I guess as I climbed the price ladder during my HiFi career I just got more risk averse WRT exotics.

It's one of the things I like about Accuphase: their consistency and their predictability (the design stays the same, and every 4-5 years there are new models, as per their website's product museum) - two things that are nice to have when you're spending money on expensive things.

Still though, if I had the chance to audition a Kula easily (unfortunately not possible where I live) I would probably just try it to satisfy my curiosity.
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Definitely a fair point. Besides the longevity and a strategy that seems rooted in consistency, I like companies like Accuphase that share a lot of information about their products and product history.
 
Plink said:
Definitely a fair point. Besides the longevity and a strategy that seems rooted in consistency, I like companies like Accuphase that share a lot of information about their products and product history.
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But not repair info. And their warranties are not transferable.
 
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