Seeking opinions on the Luxman PD151 and EQ500 combination

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.

@elliottbnewcombjr @lewm 

I did get the dust cover.  It pops off easily while playing.  I think the Sumiko is Low Output, as I recall.  I did buy this with less than 50 hours on it so I didn’t really have any choices.  I figured that I would get to know the ins and outs on this unit and broaden my horizons with a different cart down the road.  I was able to set this up and get it going in a decent amount of time but make no mistake I am a novice’s novice when it comes to adjusting, etc.  So, you can count on me to ask some questions from you guys, the experts.  I do think it is a skill that has high upside based on how the growth of TT’s have been in the last 5-10 years. I had my heart set on a Vertere audio TT but am really happy I paused and went this route.  I’m actually pretty shocked with the musicality of the two pieces versus my ARC and My Project which I will be keeping.  I appreciate all of your feedback and this really happened fast with a phone call that this was available. 

Just so you know, I am not an advocate of dust covers except to keep dust off the platter when the TT is not in use. When playing LPs, my dust cover(s) are somewhere else in the room, never on the TT or over the LP. This is because I think a closed dust cover creates unpleasant colorations. Not everyone agrees. You will have to make your own decision on that, so it is good that you have a removable dust cover. The key word is "removable", not just raised up for playing LPs. As to alignment, I think the obsession with it is way overdone, but I do try to be as accurate as my tools permit and leave it at that. VTA is a matter of taste, like cartridge loading. Go with VTA that sounds OK to you and you'll be fine. For me that means I level the TT arm wand so it is parallel to the LP surface. And boom. To further my nihilist approach, I do not think you can predict the sound of a cartridge from any published spec or even from the aggregate of all the published specs, so long as the specs are not obviously awful.