CD players - Luxman vs. Esoteric?

Chatta,
That's a rather naive comment. 20 years ago Alpine nearly caused Luxman's extinction. Today's Luxman products are Fantastic.

Toronto416,
If it is shear resolution you are looking for, Esoteric will out perform the Luxman digital gear. However, if you are looking for musicality and tonal accuracy, you may want to try the Luxman. From my experience having owned a DU-80, the Luxman gear must be given time in evaluating as they tend to be more laid back in presentation, initially sounding as if they lack in detail retrieval. However the information is there, it is just not front row like other players.

Thanks Andrew.

Though I cannot yet audition them, I am leaning towards either the DU-80 or the newer D-06 (which the local dealer will shortly have on demo). The DU-80 has certainly received some rave reviews, especially for its fluid musicality and build quality.

How do you find the quality of the transport mechanism? I beleive that the DU-80 uses a modified Pioneer transport. Luxman now makes their own transport mechanism for the D-05, D-06, and D-08.

I have auditioned one of the Luxman integrated amps, and the sound and build quality were outstanding. I will order either a 509u or a 590Aii.

Esoteric has penetrated the North American cd player market to a much greater extent than Luxman, so it is encouraging to hear some positive feedback as I get the sense that Luxman does make outstanding cdps.

Regards,

Mark

Can’t you make a deal with your dealer? Buy the whole package there. Buy the Luxeman D-06, the L509u and the Verity Audio Parsifal Ovation at the same dealer. This way you will have a good bargaining position. And maybe you can make a deal that if the D-06 isn't that good that you can return it for minimal loss. I’m not that familiar with Luxeman but I think this should be a great set. Simple, good looking and a great sound. But it is a little bit of a gamble.

Thanks Mordante, this is exactly the combination that I am considering, and the reason for this thread given that I have never even seen a Luxman cdp. I have seen and listened to one of their integrated amps, and if they build cdps the same way, they must be serious machines indeed.

Regards,

Mark

Yesterday I was a "show". Actually it was more of a group of people from a Dutch forum listening to some music. We wanted to compare some CD's to LP's. So we all brought some CD's of which we also had the LP's. Same recording offcourse. The LP's sounded better to my ears and most people agreed with me.
But to get to the point sort of. To compare LP's and CD's you also need a set. So someone brought a Luxman L507u (This is a new model I think.) and a D-05 CD player. The turntable we used was a Acoustic signature Samba with soundsmith cart. We used DSS (dutch speaker systems) monitor speakers.

I was impressed by the looks, feel and sound of the Luxman gear. It sounds a little forward but I really don't mind that. The amp was powerfull enough for my taste and should be able to dirve a lot of speakers. The CD player was also nice but a bit slow in reading CD's. Since it can play CD and SACD it takes some time to figure out wether is is a CD or SACD. Since I think SCAD is dead I don't see why they did that. That would for me be a reason not to buy it since I don't have any SACD's.

It's hard to say how good the luxman gear is when you use speakers you have never heard before. But I think could live happely with the amp.

Hope this made sence.