Going linear - The Luxman 507ux

I realize what you bought, erik. I'm just saying the change was huge with the Red Wave cord.  More so than any cable of any kind I've ever bought. I'm not in an apartment, but our house was built in 1952, the wiring is far from modern.

yyzsantabarbara,

"I liked the 509x a lot...... I then heard the same equipment switched over to the m900u and c900u. What a shocker."

You are not making this easy, you know.

As far as "loudness" goes, it is much less prominent if the music is played louder which it might have been during the demo. It "works" the best in the apartment at night. Kind of when you do not want to wake up others. Luxman "loudness" is done well. Not overly aggressive like some (in the past, not many around these days), but still there.

@glupson My broke ___ did not want to like the m900u as much as I did. Unfortunately I loved it and I have heard quite a variety of good amps over the years. I think it is the best amp I have heard (for my tastes).

Dealer was saying it is the extra current (not watts) that was making the biggest difference to what we were hearing. The 509x is very good and maybe with a more sensitive speaker the differences may not have been as prominent.

Sorry, @builder3 , and thanks for the extra info. :)

I tested out the LOUDNESS and TONE controls on the 509x but the change in the sound was not that prominent when I heard it. Mind you I did not have my glasses on and was operating a little blind. The tune that was playing maybe not the best to hear these features at work.

That room needs better lighting, because  Something wonky seems to be going on. When I heard the 509 with the Wilsons I had to turn the treble and bass way down. This is the same setup that originally had the speakers wired out of phase, but it let me test the tone controls. :)



The 509x has an extra transistor on each leg on each channel, along with a stiffer power supply, which should lower the output impedance significantly, but below a certain point, I've heard lots of amps with allegedly higher damping factor which did not actually sound better in terms of bass or transient response.


You know gang, I got pretty lucky, there was a lot wrong with the setup when I heard the 509. There was not a 507 on display. Let me list it all out:

• Wilsons were wired out of phase
• Serious digititis (from Marantz player?)
  
• Treble and bass were way too high
• Grip and control on speakers wasn't that great

I still bought the 507 because it was half off and I thought I knew all the issues I was hearing while auditioning and that they'd be cured when I got it home. I was really lucky that I was right. Mayhap the issue was the cabling? Or there was a DSP at work somewhere mucking with the sound. I really don't know, but it was a real relief when the amp started playing at home.


The Dagostino / Wilson setup right next to this was, by comparison, absolutely lovely to listen to. How you can listen to that, then turn 90 degrees and listen to the system I listened to without thinking something was wrong I have no idea.


Best,

E