Luxman L505u . . . why not?

Curious how the 507u will turn out....

After reading this chain, I decided to do a retail test as well.

I brought out four pieces of music: Paul Kelly, May 1992, Spoon's Ga Ga Ga, Booker T's Potato Head, and MGMT's debut album.

I used Luxman's CD player to standardize the input. I then heard the Luxman's 507 and 590s with the D-8 CD player, versus Leben 300 SX and 600, driving Devore Nines speakers in NYC last week.

Devore tends to sound more relaxed rather than forward, are musical forgiving, and somewhat efficient. They work well in small room setups.

Overall, I was very impressed by the level of detail by both brands and all the "musical" attributes you associate between the brands around a Japanese sound. Everything sounded acceptable to my ears--you could have long listening sessions with both. Also, it should be noted that there is a significant price difference between the integrated amps, so you have to factor that Luxman costs thousands more.

What sets apart the Luxman brand is its high slew rates. I can't think of a better product that produces the magical quality of sustain and slam to give the music real dynamic character. This is especially present in the AB amps like the 509. The Leben has a warmer tonality, more mid to high range, but really excelled with organic recordings like Booker T. This was constant for both the 300 and 600 models. The Luxmans were able to play all music extremely well, including the cheesy electronica of MGMT, with more presence, end to end. I loved the 590 for presence of sound stage and natural timbre.

I think the Leben sounded better from a headphone amp perspective. I brought a pair of Sony 7506s and found I was very immersed with the overall sound.

I have a Luxman N100 valve system in Japan (my son lives in Tokyo and I have business interests there) and the Leben seems a tad richer. With that said, I would rank Luxman 590 as the best sounding amp in the shootout. I view Leben as a better "starter" system if money is an issue, but Luxman is clearly in a class by itself.

Thanks for that, Bongo, but, all is not apples and apples.
If you're throwing the Luxman 590 into the mix, then you've left a big void of around $5k here between the Leben 600 and it. If you were only comparing the 505 or the Luxman 38SQ, which at around $6k would be the one to merit a comparison, that would maybe be a better comparison. After all, the thread started with the 505.
Why does no one hardly mention the 38sq, and why does Luxman have to have so many confusing model #'s? Does Accuphase do that as well?

Chashas1

I agree, and mentioned specifically above there is a price difference in the thousands. I have not actually seen the 38 SQ at retail. It is a very known model to the Japanese.
It appears not to be distributed here yet. PS: The founder of Leben worked on the 38 model so I would imagine that the sound profile is very similar.

Boy, I would love to hear it...hear it all, actually! and then buy what I loved most, and never look back. (hopefully)
The small Leben is only 15 watts, which means very efficient speakers and usually a smaller scale system. By the time people consider the bigger Leben integrated, they head for Shindo.
The Luxman is all relatively new here, as stated earlier, so maybe eventually I'll get to hear it.
Thanks again!
Chas