Luxman 509x vs Hegel H390

The big reason for the 509 vs. the 507 is low impedance speakers.  The 509 is a little stiffer where your speaker's impedance dips thanks to the beefier power supply and another pair of output transistors.  Both great amps.

Erik _s,

I see you have/had the 507 at one time. Just how was it with transparency and more importantly spatial presentation of the instruments/vocals including the palpable air in the recording venue. This particular aspect to the sound would be one of the defining aspects of a good amp compared to an average one.

I think it does a great job, but depends on the recording and room.  It does not etch their location in space.

What it does is feel extended at the bottom and top end, making speakers sound like they go deeper and are smother long past the top of the speaker.  Compared to very neutral amps like say Parasound, they sound like bigger, faster amps.  Compared to Ayre, they don't have the same abyss from which music comes from.  Very close in tone and temperament to the D'Agostinos. 

Both quality products.

Hegel 390 may be better value. Includes streamer, DAC 250wpc, insane damping factor. $6,500. Plain looking.

Lux 509- Has all the TT inputs, tone, balance, meters & beauty. Also better SQ. 120wpc. $10k.

Hegel is a little dry by comparison. 

If you had a larger room with speakers that want power the Hegel may be the one.

Otherwise your desired SQ description sounds like the Lux.

Good input guys. For comparison purposes with the Lux and Hegel , listened to some demos with the Moon Audio 600i V2 & although spatially more expansive, it just does not have the smooth sweetness of note contours displayed by the others. In fact , I would safely bet. at least for my music tastes, the MA 600i to get rather tiresome in time. 

So, the process of elimination leaves in the Lux and Hegel while striking out other equally well rated amps with significantly different sound signatures.