replace Mcintosh with Luxman

After purchasing Magico A3’s a couple years or so ago I started looking for a suitable integrated amp for them. When asked, a Magico VP said they were demoing the A3’s at shows with Luxman amps, their 509X’s if I recall. I phoned Luxman too who mentioned the same thing when asked which speakers their integrated amps matched well with.

I ended up purchasing the next lower model Luxman integrated amp, their 507uX, since the 509x was a bit too rich for my blood. I’ve been pleased with it’s performance, but wouldn’t venture any guesses as to how they’d compare to Mcintoshes or any other brand as I’ve no basis for comparison.

Mike

I had the opportunity to demo my current McIntosh MC1.2kwh amps as well several amps and speakers. I did listen to the Luxman 900u amp you are looking at and the Luxman gave much more detail than the McIntosh with every set of speakers that were demoed.  The music source was a Aurender player. 
One thing to check out are the Ohms your speakers require as the McIntosh does not go down very low and the Luxman does.  I say this because you may only need one Luxman amp. I was very impressed with the Luxman. 
Good Luck guyt 

woots

I'm confused. The McIntosh 611 is a mono power amp, while the Luxman C900u is a pre-amp. Do you mean the M-900u, a two-channel amplifier than when bridged is a 600 w monaural amp, same rating as your 611?

In any event, the only Luxman product I auditioned recently was their L-507uX integrated amp, with a pair of Magico S1's. The sound was clear and uncolored, as neutral as one could wish if that is one's preference, with a noiseless background. I tried the amp at home with my less efficient, older Aerial Acoustics Model 8b speakers. It did not provide sufficient power and clipped at moderately high volumes. The L-507uX was listed as only 110w/channel at 8 ohms, 220w/ch at 4 ohms,  compared to my old Levinson amp which is rated at 250w/ch into 8 ohms and 500w/ch into 4 ohms and handles my speakers without blinking. I cannot comment on the comparison of your McIntosh to the Luxman.

At 600 w I doubt you'll have any problems with the Luxman amp and expect you'd find the sound very lifelike with your Magico speakers. You might see if a dealer will let you demo the Luxman amp at your home if he has a demo he can loan and if you pay shipping both ways. Given the cost of the amp, it would seem worth asking. Note that the Luxman amp weighs 106 lbs without packaging. It will likely have to be shipped on a pallet in order to protect it properly.

Good luck.

I’m going to assume you meant the Luxman M900U power amp, not the C900U preamp. Having said that, you know that the M900U is Luxman’s best SS amp, and it has similar rated specs to Mac’s 611, other than the M900U is even heavier than the 611 (by about 4 Kg).🏋️

I’ve not listened to either, and short of actually listening to one, you’re going to have to take a big leap of faith if you decide on the Luxman. Now, I will admit a bias towards McIntosh as I use McIntosh amplification in my own system. But Luxman makes superb products, and they continue to offer both tube and SS products just like McIntosh does.📻

The only technical comment I will make is that the 611 was purpose designed and is purpose built as a mono amp, while the M900U was designed as a stereo amp, so when you are using the M900U as a mono amp, it is being used in a way slightly different from the designer’s intent. But this is likely irrelevant given the quality of design and construction of Luxman amps.📰

So what do you do? An analogy would be you having to choose between two non-identical twins in your family. They both have pluses and minuses, and if you were told you could only keep one, well that’s an impossible task that no parent would ever make. In a family situation, you would choose to keep both, no matter what.👬

But these amps are not emotionally close to you like your kids would be, so you do have the option of choosing one over the other.

If it were me, I would gather more information and take the following steps:

(1) You’ve made a significant financial investment in your speakers, and I think Magico should be willing to chat with you, at length, about the merits of these two amps. If they tell you they’ve never listened to either, well, they CAN tell you what amp (or amps) were used in the design and voicing of your speakers. This knowledge might be enough to suggest one of your two choices might more closely resemble the amp (or amps) used by Magico.🎷

(2) You should search for a dealer who actually has both amps in stock. I don’t know your financial circumstances, but if I were considering dropping 40 large on a pair of amps, I would also budget for a lower-48 road trip so I could actually listen to them side-by-side. I’m going to assume there is at least one dealer in the US that stocks both amps. If you can do this, you might well hear something that would push you to either buy the Luxman’s or keep the Mac’s. Of course it would be even better if you could find a dealer stocking both amps AND Magico speakers!🏨

(3) If (2) above is not an option, I would double down on (1) above AND I would begin contacting Magico dealers across the country to solicit their input AND find out what amps their customers are using to drive their Magico’s.👍

I wish you well on your quest. Please let us know what you decide to do, and what you learned during your journey.😎

The m900u mono was exceptional when I demoed it and way better than the 509x which I had demoed first that same day in the same store (TAD ME-1 speakers). Though, I am not sure if the Luxman in stereo has enough power for the Magico S5 V1 for a big room.

I have recently bought the CODA #8  ($6.2K) and it sounds a lot like that Luxman m900u. I drives my hard to drive Thiel CS3.7 easily and likely your Magic S5 V1. However, since you are willing to go to $15K MSRP you should consider the CODA #16 which is the higher model from the #8. The CODA is American made and likely offering you more value for the same price vs the imported Luxman. 

Not a fan of MAC's.