Reading the enthusiasm here, I’ll add to the endorsement of the Luxman over Mcintosh. My single experience with the Mcintosh back in the day was with the MC275 mk4. At first it’s a nice, warm tubey sound, rather pleasant but that’s about it. After trying different gear throughout the years, I realized that the Mcintosh I had was quite colored in its presentation. Perhaps it’s a tube amp or it’s just this particular model, I’m not sure. The sound lacked clarity and detail as the finer nuance in music was somewhat missing and not reproduced by the speakers.
I currently own a mid level Naim pre/power and Luxman L-590AXII integrated, and the Luxman actually outshines the Naim in most aspects of the sound reproduction. The tonality and refinement of the Luxman are very good although it’s just an integrated amp. It’s truly quality. In general, I find the Luxman to have very low coloration as it doesn’t add or take away much from the music or original recording. The finer nuance and detail in the music are all beautifully reproduced by the Luxman. With other amps, you don’t hear much of the refinement.
I don’t have experience with the larger Luxman separates but if this is the quality I’m getting from the integrated, I’m convinced the pre/power will send you to heaven. That’s a bit of an exaggeration there but you can guess I am very pleased with the performance of the Luxman in my system. It’s the first amp that got me off the merry go round of upgrades after all these years.
