Q for any Luxman L-509X owners

@brrgrr  The L-590 AX II has plenty of headroom beyond the sweet 30WPC of Class A power.   Not sure why Luxman doesn't publicize this as they go up to 180 watts +/- in A/B.   I had owned the L-590 AX and due to my mental disorder called "Audiophilia Nervosa", I embarked on an 8 integrated amplifier quest with included  Plinius, Accuphase, Esoteric, Gato, Gryphon and back to Luxman.   The story is a bit more complicated but suffice it to say that the L-590 AX is the integrated I regret selling the most.  The L-590 AX II is even better.

I auditioned the Persona 9H and the Blade 2 in the same room with the same gear.   I was not impressed with the 9H and the Blade 2 sounded much better (to me).  It was really as toss-up as to whether to go back to the 590 or try the new 509.  You really can't go wrong with either one.

As for the Esoteric, I owned the F-05 Integrated - I was not impressed.  Not in the same league as Luxman.

@greginnh  Thanks for the reply. Haven't heard the Blades tho read very good things about them . Harry at VPI owns them and he speaks very well of them. 

Guess it's time for a road trip to do some auditions!

Bgrrgrr, 

we would welcome you to visit our shop we are one of the very few dealers in the country with both the Blades and the Persona 9H, in the same room in the same store.

We also sell many of the world's best integrated amplifiers,from Naim, Micromega, Unison Research, Krell, T+A.

We were Luxman dealers and their equipment is very good the T+A gear was far superior. 

You may also want to consider some of the newer high value seperates the Anthem STR amp and preamp are a $10k package which includes  a 400 watt amp, a preamp, a dac and the STR preamp has room correction it is a fantastic package for $10k and the pair does sound really good with both the Kefs and the Personas.

The Naim Nac 272 dac/preamp plus a Nap 250 also sounds incredible with the Personas and Kefs and at $13k it is still a very affordable package.

We are waiting for our K300i Krell integrated which is $8k has a 150 watt class A power and a very good dac, people who have heard it were raving over it. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
dealers for Kef, Paradigm, Anthem, Coda, Kef, T+A, Naim. 

I also auditioned the Naim gear.  Their $5,000 power supplies take them to the level they should be heard at.  

I had a $28,000 Naim stack at home for a week.  It didn’t sound better than my Luxman.  As much as I wanted it to, it didn’t. 

 The T + A gear is simply out of my price range..`.perhaps on the used market at some future point.  Would be interested to hear it tho, if I'm ever in the area.