2. amps-preamps
  3. 169037-75349

Amp recommendation -- McIntosh, Luxman, Yamaha

My system now is a Benchmark DAC3L and AHB2 with standalone phono stage for Technics SL-1200GR.

I want to simplify my system and I think a solid integrated will do that (reduce to almost one box)
Interested to possibly use 2 pairs of speakers and A/B them.
Interested to drive a separate power amp (probably tubes) with the same unit.

I'm looking at the Yamaha AS-2200 and Luxman L-507uXII which pretty much fit all the requirements:
Both allow 2 pairs of speakers. MM and MC carts. Preamp out with ability to toggle speakers off. Nice meters.
The McIntosh MA-5300 is another option, it throws in a DAC but lacks MC capability and dual speakers.
Has anyone heard these and compared?

I've got a range of speakers, some vintage JBL L36, JBL 4412 and Klipsch Quartets.
I'm in the process of building Troels Graveson Faital 3WC and Ekta MK2 which will likely be my long term speakers. None are too difficult to drive.

Only interested in additional recommendations if they have similar set of capabilites as above and are in similar range (~$6K and under).
itsikhefez
itsikhefez OP
63 posts
 
crustycoot, thanks for the tip.

Elliott, thanks for the thoughtful response, those are great points. I'll comment to them in case someone goes through a similar decision in the future....

The A/B capability for me is currently more for short term swapping and evaluation, so it is convenient when its in the same unit. That said, I've got that in my older Sansuis in case the feature is missing.

Good point about idle speakers. The system is in a dedicated listening room which is fairly treated with Gik Acoustics panels. Not sure if that helps with idle speakers or not.

Phono: 
I currently have AT VM540ML, Nagaoka MP-200 MM carts and AT OC9-XEN MC cart. The default MM/MC loading of the Luxman match these fairly well.
As opposed to the past, I'm not looking to squeeze every last bit of performance but to simplify, so it helps that a single unit can accommodate all of them.
Otherwise, I really like DIY for phono stages and have built a few, the Pass Labs Pearl 2 being my favorite. I've also got Cinemag transformers for building a SUT, which I could always incorporate in the future.

If there is unit out there that is a much better engineered and built product than the Luxman and lacks one of the other features mentioned above, I would consider it, but otherwise it sounds like the Luxman is a solid stereo unit that also happens to have the additional features that are nice to have.
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
you won't go wrong buying a modern luxman... you will certainly pay up for it, but most feel it is money well spent
dinov's avatar
dinov
831 posts
 
McIntosh!
jond's avatar
jond
5,778 posts
 
In the future I'll connect a lower powered tube power amp and driveit from the pre-outs.

It seems a bit of a waste to me to get this nice an integrated and then just use it as a preamp. Is the plan to flip the integrated for a good preamp at this stage?
itsikhefez OP
63 posts
 
Good point, I should clarify ...

The integrated will be used as-is most of the time. The system is in a dedicated "media" room for stereo listening and occasional movie watching. I don’t care too much for HT so movies will go through this same 2ch setup.

I enjoy DIY audio and have built a few tube amps, some 300B SET, EL84 push-pull, an EL34 push-pull is in progress.
I’d like to be able to easily integrate one of these power amps into the system for casual listening.

The nice thing about using the pre-outs of the integrated for this is that all of the sources (DAC, tuner, turntable) will already be connected and the remote control and various preamp functionalities (volume control, source switiching, balance) can be used.

Given that the integrated has a speaker off switch, I could easily go between solid state (Speaker switch on A, tube amp off), and Tube amp (Speaker switch to off, tube amp on)

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