Luxman L-509Z

Hello, I picked up a Luxman 550axii several months ago from The Music Room and could not be happier. I had originally started off looking to McIntosh as my next purchase for a couple of reasons. I wanted to get back into solid state, I wanted more power, more dynamic impact, Mac's are pretty, I missed my old MAC 240 (even though it was tube), wanted to get back into the frat.. did I mention the looks?

Anyway I started to think what about class A? I had not had class A since my old Threshold 400A room heater.. I have sensitive speakers (Volti Razz) so it's not like I'm needing 2,000 WPC. So I started the research, reading, discussion, comparisons, searching etc. I narrowed my focus down to some contenders, a Naim Supernait 3, a Mac 5300, a PASS INT 25 and the Luxman 550axii. 

I did some e-mailing with The Music Room, and decided on the Luxman. I am over the moon with my pick. TMR was as usual, top notch to deal with.

I can't really compare and contrast with modern Mac gear as my only experience was years and years with my trusty rusty 240. Sort of a different animals, different era's sort of thing. What I can compare it to is my Cary SLI 80HS and Margules ACRH3, both excellent integrated amps. The Cary and Margules share a similar signature, they are very musical, romantic, the sound feels warm and inviting. Tone is amazing as is the soundstage. The Luxman to me is very musical, slightly less warm and romantic. Where it really shines through to me is dynamic impact, holographic imagery, and a depth that is hard to put into words. It may be less warm and romantic, but makes up for it with a liquid sound that is simply addicting. The fit and finish can't be ignored either, it's almost jewel like, or like a fine Swiss or Japanese watch..

Have the 507ux, original version.  Much prefer it to Mc.  I find the top and mid range more musical, and excellent bass extension.   Luxman’s integrateds are known for the quality of the preamp stages, and I’m sure the 509 follows the same pattern. 

Especially in light of a speaker like Focal or say Triangle or B&W. I find the top end smoothness of the Luxman a better match for most of those speakers. 

Erik, your 507 is a long ways down the food chain from their top of the line integrated amps today. I'm not bashing on you, I'm in somewhat the same place, I wish I had bought one of the L-590AX Mark IIs before they discontinued them.

@bound4h My prior rig was some mono blocks and and a preamp and another integrated.  I must say the Luxman 509z is special.  A couple of things I noticed were that it is extremely quiet, has great articulation, provides ample current to wake up the speakers with a refined open sound.  There isn’t any glare or treble agitation.  I would say that McIntosh has a more laid back sound with perhaps some more warmth which I was not looking for.  I didn’t have an opportunity to audition before my purchase so I had to interpolate from the reviews how it would fit into the rest of my system.  I also was reading that it produced a few watts into class A which is not documented in the Luxman literature.  I contacted the U.S. distributer and they indicated that it produced 6 class A watts into an 8 ohm load and 3 watts into a 4 four ohm load.  My speakers are 4 ohm.  This translates to roughly -19 on the power meter.  Often times my average listening levels don’t exceed that rating which is in the mid 70 dB range with peaks in the upper 80’s.  This will be my last amplification purchase and I really enjoy all of it’s fexibility.