Luxman vs Hegal

My impression from attending audio shows over the years:

Hegel-strong, powerful, excellent bass, 

Luxman- natural, enchanting, sounds like real life. Luxman room at audio shows for me is a must hear. It is a brand I could buy and live with. Cannot say that for more than a handful of manufacturers.

I did not buy the Luxman because I later tried the new KRELL Duo XD lineup and preferred that to the warmer Luxman sound.

It depends on the speakers. I wouldn’t label the Luxman L-509X as warm. If it sounds warm, then perhaps the speakers sound warm. In my experience, the Luxman sounds very close to neutral. Specifically the L-590AXII.

luxman's line spans decent but imo less-than-great sounding lower end class ab models

Have to disagree here. I love the AB integrateds and I used to think they performed significantly better than their price.  That was before all the price hikes.  Still, it's all relative.  There's very expensive and popular Class A amps I like much less than anything Luxman makes.