Amp recommendation -- McIntosh, Luxman, Yamaha


My system now is a Benchmark DAC3L and AHB2 with standalone phono stage for Technics SL-1200GR.

I want to simplify my system and I think a solid integrated will do that (reduce to almost one box)
Interested to possibly use 2 pairs of speakers and A/B them.
Interested to drive a separate power amp (probably tubes) with the same unit.

I'm looking at the Yamaha AS-2200 and Luxman L-507uXII which pretty much fit all the requirements:
Both allow 2 pairs of speakers. MM and MC carts. Preamp out with ability to toggle speakers off. Nice meters.
The McIntosh MA-5300 is another option, it throws in a DAC but lacks MC capability and dual speakers.
Has anyone heard these and compared?

I've got a range of speakers, some vintage JBL L36, JBL 4412 and Klipsch Quartets.
I'm in the process of building Troels Graveson Faital 3WC and Ekta MK2 which will likely be my long term speakers. None are too difficult to drive.

Only interested in additional recommendations if they have similar set of capabilites as above and are in similar range (~$6K and under).
itsikhefez

Showing 6 responses by itsikhefez

Thanks for the comments. The frontrunner for me was indeed the Luxman L-507uxII, I just needed the final push and some validation.

I'm a huge fan of vintage Japanese electronics, I've got a Yamaha CA-1000, Sansui AU-717 and AU-999 (and had some others along the way), and built some tube amps with Tango transformers.

In the future I'll connect a lower powered tube power amp and drive it from the pre-outs.
Well, the 390 lacks phono inputs and dual speakers so it doesnt quite meet those requirements.
That aside, the internal layout and wiring is such a mess, I don't know why they would put that on the product page.
My DIY projects are cleaner and nicer looking.
crustycoot, thanks for the tip.

Elliott, thanks for the thoughtful response, those are great points. I'll comment to them in case someone goes through a similar decision in the future....

The A/B capability for me is currently more for short term swapping and evaluation, so it is convenient when its in the same unit. That said, I've got that in my older Sansuis in case the feature is missing.

Good point about idle speakers. The system is in a dedicated listening room which is fairly treated with Gik Acoustics panels. Not sure if that helps with idle speakers or not.

Phono: 
I currently have AT VM540ML, Nagaoka MP-200 MM carts and AT OC9-XEN MC cart. The default MM/MC loading of the Luxman match these fairly well.
As opposed to the past, I'm not looking to squeeze every last bit of performance but to simplify, so it helps that a single unit can accommodate all of them.
Otherwise, I really like DIY for phono stages and have built a few, the Pass Labs Pearl 2 being my favorite. I've also got Cinemag transformers for building a SUT, which I could always incorporate in the future.

If there is unit out there that is a much better engineered and built product than the Luxman and lacks one of the other features mentioned above, I would consider it, but otherwise it sounds like the Luxman is a solid stereo unit that also happens to have the additional features that are nice to have.
Good point, I should clarify ...

The integrated will be used as-is most of the time. The system is in a dedicated "media" room for stereo listening and occasional movie watching. I don’t care too much for HT so movies will go through this same 2ch setup.

I enjoy DIY audio and have built a few tube amps, some 300B SET, EL84 push-pull, an EL34 push-pull is in progress.
I’d like to be able to easily integrate one of these power amps into the system for casual listening.

The nice thing about using the pre-outs of the integrated for this is that all of the sources (DAC, tuner, turntable) will already be connected and the remote control and various preamp functionalities (volume control, source switiching, balance) can be used.

Given that the integrated has a speaker off switch, I could easily go between solid state (Speaker switch on A, tube amp off), and Tube amp (Speaker switch to off, tube amp on)

Placed an order for the L-507uX II at my local dealer ... should have it in a week or two. 
Thanks ryder and ebm.

Need some advice on a potential next step -- 

The move to Luxman practically only saves me one box, the phono preamp, since I still use the DAC3L as a standalone DAC (previously it was also the preamp for the AHB2).
Connected to the DAC3L are a streamer via USB and TV via SPDIF. 
I don't currently own a CD transport but was thinking of getting one because I have a fair amount of CDs boxed up.

The 3 reasonable options I can think of are:
1) Buy a CD transport and keep the DAC3L.
This adds CD support but then I hadn't really downsized/simplified as I was hoping. More money spend to buy CD transport.

2) Forget about CD's and only stream digital. Sell the DAC3L and use analog output of streamer (which I can probably live with just fine). Will need to find a simple solution to connect the TV directly to the Luxman. (maybe a basic DAC with optical input).

3) Buy a Luxman D-03X and sell DAC3L.
The TV and streamer can connect to the D-03X and this adds CD support. The D-03X is not cheap though, and the published spec is not exciting although maybe it is just conservative.
Even fairly cheap DAC's these days have much better measurements, so sound-wise this may be a downgrade from my current DAC3L.