Personality I didn’t have chance to compare, but close friend of mine was using his Luxman 507ux as a preamp with his tube monoblocks for years and was pretty happy with SQ until he tried Bespoke passive preamp instead. He was really shocked with the SQ improvement at all points. I understand that every setup is different and his experience couldn’t be dogmatic for everyone but the outcome was pretty interested.
Audio Research or Luxman?
I recently acquired a 1973 Luxman L-507 integrated amp only to learn that the volume/balance control pots are bad and can't be replaced, but I was able to bypass the pre-amp section and run it with the amp section only, and oh my, did it sound good.
I was very surprsed to find that its sound quality came too close in sound quality to my ARC separates: a Reference 3 preamp and Ref 75SE amp. So now I'm wondering how a modern Luxman like a l-505uXii or 507uXii would compare with my ARC separates.
Any thoughts anyone?