@erik_squires I recently acquired a new Luxman 507ux; So far I like it very much. Initially used with Focal Aria 948s, and now Green Mountain Callistos; very soon I will be taking delivery of new Dynaudio Contour 30's and look forward to that pairing.
The Luxman seems to do everything I expect from a well designed and engineered amplifier; This is my very first Luxman component. Without embellishing the details excessively; this is my assessment thus far;
Midrange/ vocal reproduction; superb for any amplifier, SS or Tube. Just seems right; vocals seem detached from electronics with no obvious colorations or imperfections;
Treble: very extended and sweet; harmonic overtones are rich and natural; metallic sounds metallic, reeds sound reedy; trumpets have excellent bite and texture; crash and ride cymbals sound real with excellent transients and decay..etc. zero issues with treble. Acoustic guitar is vibrant and appropriately steely or nylon-ish depending on the guitar; overall among the best I can remember hearing in my system over the years. The sparkle is there if it's on the recording.
Bass; deep, powerful, fast, energetic, 'round' but not overblown or ripe; this amp holds nothing back; if the speakers are up for it this amp will deliver the goods;
Imaging/sense of scale; similar to the treble comments; if it's in the recording this amp holds nothing back; image and soundfield will be rendered directly proportional to recording virtues; nothing more/nothing less.
Overall musicality and 'feel': I think this amp is pretty special and I like it a ton; I like everything about it; I have not yet discovered anything negative about it at all; I do sometimes over-react when getting new gear but I can tell that this amp is very likely a long term keeper; I think I would have to spend at least 2-3x more to get any very noticeable improvement in any category; I think at this level its more like just finding the thing that makes you forget the most about the equipment; there will be differences in amps for sure and no one can say what is more right; what's right for you is what you like and WANT to listen to.
Build quality; superb fit and finish; attention to detail is spot on. Just love the mechanical design and the feel of the controls. It feels bulletproof; super solid and chunky.
Playback Flexibility; I LOVE the OPTION to use tone controls. We all have music we love on crap recordings and that just needs a few dB of bass boost; This is HUGE value add for me. HUGE.
Warmup time: I could not hear any differences in starting from cold to on for days; my PL HP Dialogue on the other hand needed ~60 minutes to come on song. That really annoyed me. I just don't have that kind of time these days (kids, work, life, other priorities, etc). The amp is consistent and sounds awesome all the time.
Value; I did not pay full MSRP for this, but even at list price of $6,500 I don't think I could do any better by going the separates route; Hopefully it remains issue free and lasts well into the future; I look forward to listening time with it;
rest of system for reference:
SOURCE: Auralic Aries network player
USB Cable; Wireworld starlight 7 "red"
DAC: Meitner MA-1
INTERCONNECT: Cardas Golden Presence RCA
SPEAKER CABLE: Wireworld Silver Eclipse 6, 2M
If you have the chance to get one, I highly recommend it;
Cheers.
