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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
nitewulf
422 posts
 
Where did you order the Luxman from? Pm me.
andysf's avatar
andysf
269 posts
 
I  have a Luxman 507ux and am very happy with it.  I was also considering a McIntosh 2275 at the time but think I made the right choice.  I am using it with Spendor monitors.
shahram
115 posts
 
@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.
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
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 
dimbhaka OP
30 posts
 

@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.


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