My experience with Luxman was that it is a joy to behold, touch, look at and admire. The sound was rather wooly and flat to my ear in a few systems I tried. Ayre to me is neutral, nothing more and nothing less. Probably going to get a warm and fuzzy sound with Luxman and more right to the point with Ayre. Oh and Ayre is very nicely made stuff and a joy to use as well.
Integrateds: Luxman vs. Ayre?
This shootout is between the Luxman 507x and Ayre EX-8 2.0
Currently I own a Luxman 507x. Rather happy with it... but...
I use a separate streamer (Pi/Roon) and DAC (Mytek Brooklyn) for music and an external Anthem processor to feed it HT 2 channel.
My thinking is, the EX-8 would let me eliminate the DAC/streamer AND it has a separate sub out.
The issue is I've not heard the Ayre integrated, only the separates and I really like them, though they do seem to have a distinct sound to them.
Thoughts?