I think the OP has KEF Reference 1, not LS50s.
Luxman 590AX II Break-In
Hello all, and happy holidays,
To those with experience, how many hours of a break-in are necessary to make the Luxman sing? I have about 175 hours, and my bass is less than stellar. Also, there is not a luscious midrange (yet). I have read epic reviews but have not experienced that thus far. What should I expect over time? Getting a little worried!
Thanks!
Showing 3 responses by arafiq
@jeffreyw I owned the Luxman 590AXII for about a year. I would definitely rank it as my top 5 all-time best amps I have owned. I tried it with three brands of speakers -- Sonus Faber Olympica II, Kef Reference 1, and Harbeth SHL5+. Out of the three, the KEF was my least favorite pairing. It was sterile, boring, and lacked the midrange warmth which was, and is, very important to me. I was smiling when I read your OP because I could totally relate. Speaking from experience, it was the lack of midrange warmth (you can call it luscious) that eventually made me sell my Luxman. To be honest, if you don’t hear it after 175 hours, I don’t think there will be a drastic improvement as you rack up more hours. As someone mentioned, the amp is very neutral with just a hint of sweetness at the top end. Many people love this aspect of the 590AXII but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea if you ask me. I sold my Luxman and bought an Audio Hungary Qualiton a50i which provided that beautiful, holographic, and lush midrange that good tubes can provide. For me, the Qualiton was a better match for my sonic preferences. I did lose a bit of bass slam but the Qualiton made up for this slight deficiency by doing almost everything else better than the Luxman. I recently sold the Qualiton and bought an Aavik U-280. I was very skeptical of class D, but this amp IMO took the best attributes of the Luxman and Qualiton and combined them into a single package. It has the lush, holographic, warm midrange of the Qualiton, but it exceeds the Luxman in terms of detail retrieval, pitch black background, instrument separation, and, most importantly, has bass to die for. For the first time in my audio journey, I don’t miss having tubes in my system. |
@jeffreyw congratulations!! Your electronics are what many would consider to be endgame. The Mac monoblocks are amazing and get so much for respect for a reason. You now have the foundation to move up to bigger and much more expensive speakers should you choose to. Of course, Kef Reference 1 is no slouch either. Happy listening and please update us when you get your amps. |