Luxman 590AX II Break-In

@jeffreyw I owned the Luxman 590AXII for about a year. I would definitely rank it as my top 5 all-time best amps I have owned. I tried it with three brands of speakers -- Sonus Faber Olympica II, Kef Reference 1, and Harbeth SHL5+. Out of the three, the KEF was my least favorite pairing. It was sterile, boring, and lacked the midrange warmth which was, and is, very important to me. I was smiling when I read your OP because I could totally relate.

Speaking from experience, it was the lack of midrange warmth (you can call it luscious) that eventually made me sell my Luxman. To be honest, if you don’t hear it after 175 hours, I don’t think there will be a drastic improvement as you rack up more hours. As someone mentioned, the amp is very neutral with just a hint of sweetness at the top end. Many people love this aspect of the 590AXII but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea if you ask me.

I sold my Luxman and bought an Audio Hungary Qualiton a50i which provided that beautiful, holographic, and lush midrange that good tubes can provide. For me, the Qualiton was a better match for my sonic preferences. I did lose a bit of bass slam but the Qualiton made up for this slight deficiency by doing almost everything else better than the Luxman.

I recently sold the Qualiton and bought an Aavik U-280. I was very skeptical of class D, but this amp IMO took the best attributes of the Luxman and Qualiton and combined them into a single package. It has the lush, holographic, warm midrange of the Qualiton, but it exceeds the Luxman in terms of detail retrieval, pitch black background, instrument separation, and, most importantly, has bass to die for. For the first time in my audio journey, I don’t miss having tubes in my system.

@arafiq 

You are describing exactly what I am hearing! It pains me to admit, but the Luxman/KEF combo does not play well in the sandbox! There is absolutely no body to the music. The bass is improving slightly but not even close to what I desire. 

I refuse to give up on the Luxman.  I know it's not rational, but I've never owned a Luxman I didn't like.   I run the 509X and the system (with new monitors) is coming along.  Just assembled a Quadraspire SVT2 equipment stand this afternoon, placed everything on it and wham!!  Not subtle.  I mean wham!!

All of what you describe is missing......it's there.  Just my experience.  Your mileage may vary.  Best wishes on your quest.

Whatever the OP’s issues are, it’s not the Luxman unless it’s broken, of this I’m 100% sure. @celtic66 - You aren’t being irrational. Your experience, and mine tells us that the Luxman integrateds are stellar with plenty of bass.

I’ve suggested a couple of things for the OP to try to help him understand the nature of the problem, ESPECIALLY HIS ROOM. If you have a bad room but won’t consider it or use a tone control to compensate, but instead want to start swapping amps, that’s irrational.

The issue isn’t lack of bass, the issue is his speakers and room combination are ending up with too much treble energy.  Which makes me think of a new post about tweeters before and now.  :) I'lll put that elsewhere.

@erik_squires 

I have followed your advice regarding tone controls. Reducing the treble and increasing the bass makes a slight improvement. I have been positioning with small improvements. Interestingly, the loudness button does give me more body and is more pleasurable. But I don't think loudness should be engaged at all power levels to provide listening enjoyment. I have contacted a dealer who is both very knowledgeable about KEF and Luxman, and they stated that the 590 might not be the best combination with the KEFs. The KEFs are power pigs and require tremendous power to bloom. I will certainly give it some more break-in time, but my only option after that is more power. I know many state the prowess of the power output of the mighty 590AXII, but the amp still has limitations. All in all, I greatly appreciate your guidance on how to troubleshoot!!!

Happy holidays to all!