Integrated Amplifiers - Luxman vs Pass Labs

@erik_squires I appreciate the follow up. I know that feeling when you just can't understand why someone else would praise a product so highly. Have you had any experience with Sugden? I had a highly praised Sugden amp with my Nines for a trial and really found it awfully scratchy and cool sounding- not the consensus for sure. It did soundstage beautifully. Just curious. Maybe it's as simple as a certain type of resistor or something that we don't process the same. 

Hey @Bjesien

Pass makes no secret that he strives for including euphonic distortion in his amps, and it's in the Stereophile measurements too.  I don't have a problem with that at all.  My favorite of all time amps remain Conrad Johnson Premier 8 and 12s, so I'm the last person to suggest an amp should be antiseptic.

What I do believe is going on is that that signature of his just works really well for a lot of people, but just doesn't work for me.  It's like pineapple on a pizza, and trying to determine the absolute right answer to that will never be a good idea. :)

Sorry, no experience with Sugden.

Erik

I had both a Pass Labs Int 60 and a Luxman 590AXll at the same time running my Magico's I found the Pass to be smother and more liquid and much fuller in it's presentation. The Luxman was noticeably more detailed and had an effortlessness about it but I found the sound a little thinner. I could have happily lived with either of them but my first choice would be the Pass. 

Both very good choices OP and like the comment above I would surely be happy with either.  I use the 509x and always remember this quote from a review of it:

 For argument and sake of reference point, if you were to put Boulder amplifiers (and we still had the 1100 series here for comparison) as straight-up natural at 12 o’clock – adding nor subtracting nothing, with no sense of added tonal saturation, our reference Pass XS Pre/XA 200.8 is probably at about 10:30. With going to the left a bit on the warm/saturated side. The Luxman 900 series was about 11:30, with our tube references the PrimaLuna EVO 400 and VAC i170 coming in at about  9:00 and 9:30. I’d put the recent Esoteric integrated about 12:30 – slightly to the cold side, and the last few Simaudio amplifiers we’ve reviewed about 1:00 – even more clinical. The L-509x, like it’s larger separates has that same touch of warmth/saturation, without being slow or non-resolving. I wish I would have had the ability to listen to them both side-by-side and suspect that the L-509x comes very, very close to the 900 series in terms of sonic performance.

The 11:30 reference point spoke to me.  Further Luxman supports HT bypass and at the time Pass didn’t, so easy one for me.  Good luck, can’t go too wrong.  

The Pass .8 series is anything but lean sounding.