Luxman vs Accuphase for Harbeth 40.3 XD

in my experience with the bog harbeths i liked an amp with both strong bass damping factor/grip and also a little extra treble energy as the speakers tend to be a little midrange and bass rich in tonality

so, for example, i preferred hegel 590 over 390, i preferred pass class a/b over class a, belles class a over sugden, classe over primare, you get the picture...

for this reason, i would probably choose the luxman for this application over the accuphase as the accuphase has voicing that is rather duplicative to the harbeth sonic traits

@jjss49 Good insight thank you.

I'm moving further away from Luxman / Accuphase and now more interested in Pass / Moon and maybe Gryphon - or staying where I am unless I can test-drive something used in my system.

I think that matching speakers and amps is more complicated. General idea is to bring the best out of the speakers not really trying to compensate for their possible shortcomings or/and hide them. In the above example, Accuphase might be more in tune with the Harbeths in terms of timbre and overall harmonic presentation, while Gryphon could give them more open and dynamic sound than Accuphase.

And to get both one would have to go after D’Agostino Momentum, I suppose.

@macg19

if you go pass labs for the 40’s i would suggest staying with their x series and not xa series

papa nelson dials in some extra midrange/midbass flesh/body into his xa series voicing, trading off some pristine treble and deep bass grip in his smaller class a units, whereas the x series gives a more perceptibly linear response from tippity top to rock bottom - for example, in my system, i felt the xa30.5 on my 40.3’s were a little too much of a good thing in the midband (little too wooly to my ear) whereas the older int150 (x150.5) was brought out more treble sparkle, air, and deep bass foundation

@jjss49 thanks for the tip on pass amps