Luxman 509z or Aesthetix Mimas

 I have owned both the Harbeth M30.1 & 30.2Xd & run them both with low powered Class A SS (16wpc.) & Class A Tube (10wpc.) power and the sound was absolutely sublime..Peak decible levels of 90 db.with no compression or distrortion were easily obtained with the 16wpc.Sugden but the 10wpc.tube amp did run out of gas quickly..
 When I bought my 30.2Xd’s I was lucky to get them from a dealer that stocked both Luxman & Aesthetix & demo’d them with the Mimas with internal DAC & the Luxman 590AXII/D-N150 combination..
 The Mimas did not have the level of inner detail & texture of instruments that the Class A Luxman had..IMO  it came off as very slightly mechanical compared to the Luxman..The Mimas however did have better defined staging & imaging,something I attributed to it having those 6922 tubes..The Mimas also seemed to have a slightly more authoritative bass,better slam if you will..HOWEVER the bass was not as textured & natural as the Class A Luxman..
 I did not demo the 509 Luxman so I can not comment on that comparison..I believe that as far as overall performance between the Class AB Luxman & the Mimas it will be pretty much a draw with the Mimas again serving up better imaging & staging thanks the the hybrid design..The Luxman also exhibited slightly better build quality,the Mimas feeling just a tad flimsy & thin compared to the bank vault build of the Luxman...
 

You might find this interesting...
https://youtu.be/3y0q3P4OOgk?feature=shared

Luxman USA confirmed the L-509X is biased to run 6watts pure Class A before going A/B to rated power.

I have Audio Note AN-K SPx/Spe speakers rated at 90dB efficiency which sound natural and relaxed at low/moderate levels for jazz and acoustic - probably all within that 6watt envelope.

I would suspect the Z series Luxmans are similar.

Myself was looking on these same lines I ended up with the excellent 
pathos Inpol-2 MK 2 dual mono class A integrated amp tubes for signal aswell as preamp at 86 lbs  very conservative 45 wpc into 8 amps 75wpc into 4 ,and a work of art hand built all in Italy Nothing from the far East for under $11k with discounts

sounds like a nice SET amp on steroids ,in Europe Pathos is aBig seller ,

I sold the way back in 2005 while in the U.K ,upscale audio,Kevin did  pretty good review that caught my eye , forgetting that was a verygood product 20 years ago ,is much better still impol technology is still their working patent,.I thought well worth the mention they have excellent big class AB amps very powerful and hybrid in the $11 k trance retail,

I’ve heard the 30.2 with either an Audio Note Soro or Oto integrated amp and with the Synthesis A40 and A100 integrated tube amp.  All sounded good.  These two Synthesis amps are among my favorite integrated amps—warm, bold, punchy, and a sense of weight and authority, particularly at modest listening levels, that one does not commonly find in most amplifiers.