Accuphase E-460 vs Luxman 509u vs Moon 700i

Even though this thread is almost 3 years old, thought I would throw in my opinion on these three brands --their flagship models...
I have heard the Luxman 590ax in my system. Heard the Accuphase E-560 in my system and heard a couple Moon integrated amps at a dealer.

I purchased the Accuphase...

The Luxman was good. It was musical, engaging and fun to listen to. Had a soulful quality but the last details were masked. I just kept wanting to turn up the volume. Maybe with a diferent DAC, instead of my tube based DAC, Im sure one could coax more detail. So the Luxman is still a great choice in the right system. It just wasn't right for mine --to much of a good thing.

The moon gear just sounded synthetic. No 'real' or natural tonal qualities at all. This was with Vandersteen speakers, so there should of been no issues there... I just couldn't get pas how 'wrong' everything sounded. Like a mechanical facsimile of the music I was so familiar with.

The Accuphase E-560 had it all and I cant find any complaints after a year or so of solid regular usage. System synergy, I suppose, but this integrated is best I have heard. Listened to a list of tubed Int. as well --Ayon, Manley and Mac. The Accuphase easily won.

Gittin' Jriggy wit it!

Jriggy-You nailed it regarding Sim/Moon. I heard a Moon i5.3 driving a Focal 826v and the description "synthetic" is the exactly what I heard. Another demo with the Moon P-7/W-7 proved much better with a Vienna Acoustic(The Music) but an AVI S2000 integrated gave it a good battle only lacking the P-7 W-7 refined sound. I find it ironic that Sim/Moon make very fine sounding CDP/DAC. If I was leaning towards Accuphase consider an A-30 power amp. With most integrated amps the preamp section is what holds them back.