Upgrade help: Luxman and McIntosh.


This is my first here although I have been reading this forum for several years and and immensely thankful for several knowledgeable posters.

Current system is Bluesound Node 2i >> Schiit Bifrost2 >> Arcam A75 Plus >> Totem Sttaf. 

Musical interests are Jazz, Blues, Classical and Vocals(mostly female) and listen at low to moderate volume.

I have had Arcam/Totem combination for over fifteen years and have been happy but recently caught the upgrade bug, not because my system is unsatisfactory but rather because of the thought that I might be missing something.

After some research I have narrowed my selection to  Luxman L-507uxii with Spendor D7.2 or McIntosh MA352 with Dynaudio Contour 30i.

I think I can live with either of the speakers although I am leaning more towards the Spendors.

I would appreciate any comments/advice from someone who has listened to the specific models or experiance with products from both companies.

Thanks in advance.



dimbhaka
@dimbhaka

Any updates on the Luxman/Spendor combo? I've got a pair of D7s and have really been eyeing Luxman lately.

Make sure you get at least 200 hours on the Spendors. They can sound a bit bright/lean out of the box.
I bet that’ll be a fantastic combo. I’ve got D7 with ARC SS and really enjoy it. 
Down road in couple years thinking maybe D9.2 and L-590AXii as an upgrade, so yes, let us know how the Spendor/Luxman pairing is breaking in. D7’s take a long time to break in as others have mentioned 

@shahram  I have been listening to D7.2/L-507uxii combination every day and it is pleasure to do so. I listen for around three hours a day, so it is going to be a long journey breaking them in. Almost all of my albums, especially the quieter/sparse ones sound much better. I wish I had done it sooner!


@kren0006  It is indeed a fantastic combination. Since I upgraded the speaker and amplifier at the same time, I don’t know which component contributed more, I am happy for the results though. You may want to just upgrade the amp to Luxman and see if you still want to upgrade the speakers.


I may not know the right audiophile terms, but let me see if I can explain what I noticed:


1. I hear a lot more detail in the music even at low levels. There seem to be notes, that I didn’t notice before.

2. I can go up in volume, without any distortion and go down in volume without loosing details in bass and treble.

3. While listening to Jazz, I noticed that cymbals are, for lack of a better word, very granular.

4. Bass seems to have a lot more texture and much more extended than my previous setup.



Overall a beautiful setup and hope to keep them for a long time.


@dimbhaka

Excellent! Are you experiencing any harshness in the treble?

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the following recording: "Hate it Here" by Wilco. The lead guitar comes in after the first verse and is still a little hot sounding in my system. Probably because my room is pretty small. It's also a pretty forward/somewhat bright recording.
@shahram 

No I am not experiencing any harshness; it was a poor choice of words on my part. What I wanted to convey was there was more clarity and detail to cymbals compared to my previous setup.  I will listen to "Hate it Here" by Wilco this evening and let you about the lead guitar.