Luxman DA-06 Dac...anyone?

Looks like pricing in the Us is going to $6K! Yikes. However, it is being sold in Japan for around $3500. I found some listings on ebay but these are standard 100V Japanese power so a step down transformer would be needed. Not sure this DAC is worth $6K. I wonder if using a step down transformer would degrade the sound?

There are positive reviews at Audiostream and Computer Audiophile. Also some casual positive comments from Stereophile. There is a comparison of it to the Yulong D8 which costs $1,200 on head-fi. I am think of buying it from Japan. I wouldn't pay $6,000 for it. If you can read Japanese you can buy it even cheaper than $3,500. I don't think the transformer degrades the sound. I had another Japanese DAC and my research indicated that a transformer could improve the sound.

Price apparently has been reduced to $5,000. Given the importance of the power supply in high end equipment, in general, and in DACs, in particular, I would definitely expect a step down transformer to degrade sound quality.

Very positive reviews have been published in AudioStream and The Computer Audiophile.

I've heard Luxman had some issues with the DA-06's USB interface (relay noise) have they fixed this? reviewers don't say anything about it.

The relay "noise" you refer to is merely an audible "click" that can be heard when the DAC changes formats. There is no click between tracks of the same album or between albums of the same format, at least with playback via J River Media Center. One reviewer, in response to a question, commented that he heard it but it didn't bother him.