Seeking opinions on the Luxman PD151 and EQ500 combination

@kingdeezie 

Thank you for the feedback.  Great insights. 

@elliottbnewcombjr @lewm @kingdeezie 

Well, I made the plunge!

I ended up purchasing the table and phono stage and traded in my Audio Research PH-9. First spin was Dave Brubeck Take 5….and WOW!  Significant improvement over my Project S Bercyx and PH-9. Incredible detail with outstanding bass and mid bass and overall detail. 

Both units were less than a year old with approximately 50 hours of use.

Thanks so much for the honest feedback and without the commentary I would have kept the PH-9.

Good to hear! I own the Luxman PD-151 (Mk I with the Jelco arm) and absolutely love it. I had a McIntosh on order and changed my mind after seeing how good the Luxman was. I'm using a Hana SL cartridge, Transparent Super cables, McIntosh MA8950, Wilson Sabrina X. Sound is superb. 

woots

congrats. 

that Sumiko Songbird cartridge has excellent specs for an elliptical stylus. Is yours the Low Output or High Output version?

https://sumikophonocartridges.com/product/songbird-low-mc-phono-cartridge/

if you know it's condition/playing hours, I would consider keeping it, even if it means selling your existing setup without a cartridge, or installing a new cartridge to increase potential buyers.

Do you have the few inexpensive tools and skills to mount/align cartridges? If not, YET, I encourage you to learn to do it yourself, the more your collection grows, the more important and satisfying it is.

I prefer DD, but it sure seems like a terrific belt drive choice, gotta love a platter weighing nearly 9 lbs, one of the things that made my Thorens TD124 so great (wish my wood floors were not so springy, it’s bearing was too sensitive to vertical vibration).

Stereophile Review of PD151 II

"What matters is the result, and even when I held my stethoscope against the top plate adjacent to the motor, I couldn’t tell whether the motor was on or off. It’s that quiet." read that again, that’s amazing.

I would buy the optional heavier counter-weight now while still in production. You never know what you might collect, and if you ever sell it in the future,

"The tonearm comes with a standard counterweight suitable for cartridges weighing up to 10gm, while a heavier weight—part number OPPD-HW2—is available as an option for cartridges that weigh between 9gm and 19gm. I used two cartridges during the review, an Ortofon Cadenza Blue and Luxman’s own LMC-5, and found the standard weight suitable for both. Luxman provided an extra headshell, the OPPD SH2, which allowed me to switch easily between the Ortofon and Luxman cartridges with minimal recalibration."

And I’d buy a spare headshell, to have two OEM, as well as another brand like Pat’s or vintage with azimuth adjustment.

Best to check and learn about it’s arm height adjustment, also from the review:

"The pin that locates the headshell vertically in the armtube will typically have some play, making precise, repeatable azimuth setting difficult, and the way the collar holds the headshell into the armtube can change the front-to-back angle of the headshell depending on how much the collar is tightened. I found that with the Luxman arm, tightening the headshell collar firmly resulted in the headshell surface being about 1.5° out of parallel with the armtube. This isn’t really a big deal because you can easily compensate by raising the height at the back of the arm, but it’s something to be aware of when adjusting the stylus rake angle."

"Luxman says that all four feet should be lowered at least slightly to allow the isolation function of the feet to work as designed."

this surprised me, did yours come with the optional dust cover?

"The OPPD-DSC151 dustcover is offered as an optional extra; at nearly $800, I guess it’s nice that Luxman gives you the option of going without it if your budget is tight. That’s a lot of money for a dustcover"

"Summing up
There’s a funny New Yorker cartoon by Alex Gregory in which a man is showing his friend his vinyl-based stereo and says, "The two things that really drew me to vinyl were the expense and the inconvenience." If that’s how you feel, the PD-151 MK II may not be the right turntable for you. Turntables can be a bit diva-like, sounding off some days and demanding attention and tweaking. The PD-151 MK II is the opposite of that. And while it isn’t exactly cheap, it’s affordable by current hi-fi standards, and it is convenient and easy to live with. Once you have it set up and dialed in, you can expect it to be about as unfussy and long-lasting as turntables come. It just plays your records superbly, without fuss, bother, or artificial pizzazz. It looks beautiful, feels beautiful, and is beautifully made; but most importantly, it also sounds beautiful."

This is exactly what Lewm had in mind in his post above.