Luxman Integrated - What do they sound like

I did not have a chance to audition 507u BUT 509x is way above all the previous integrated made by that company. Brand new league. Some likes the 509 better than 900-Series separates (google a review written by the Australian guy). I truly love it and have no urge to change the amplification for a long time. 
On the other hand - let's be realistic, if you are driving inefficient (below 86dB) speakers in a larger and damped room, this amp will quickly run out of steam. 
I have Dynaudio Contour 60 in my second - living room system, in a room that is closed to 30 X 20 heavily damped with rugs, soft furnitures, books, etc. When I tried Lux in that set-up, I did not get the 82dB sound pressure in my listening spot (15' away from speaker) before 509 entered "red zone" on the UV meters and sound started to be distorted. 
That set-up will require something like Hegel H590 which I will be demoing soon.
Also, hearing any amp, speaker, CD player, cables etc at the dealer is truly wasting your time - I cannot stress it hard enough. Anytime you want to buy a piece of ANY gear, make sure you demo it in YOUR room with the equipment you use everyday. Otherwise you will be wasting money - example. At my dealer, Devore 0/96s sounded bright to the point of giving me headache  - in my room , exactly opposite - rolled off to the point that I got rid of them, replacing  with new - Super 9 design. Never, ever buy something off of other people recommendation. We all hear different and value different aspects of sound. The guys at Stereophile are heavy biased and often have totally different expectation than average guy. 

How is the moving coil phono in the luxmans?  Power conditioning?

Does anyone know if there are any differences in the phono stages used in the various Luxman integrated models ?

arturgorniak:

I also have the Super Nines and I was wondering about the bass response using the Luxman 509x since it has a damping factor of 350?  When I owned the Devore 0/93's I auditioned an amp that had a damping factor around 270 and I felt the bass response was way over damped (for my tastes). (That amp also had other issues.)  Similarly, I heard a Pass XA 25 (350 damping factor) drive a pair of Zu Audio speakers and again I felt the bass response over damped and not "natural" sounding. From what I could ascertain, the Devore speakers seem to pair better with amps that have a low ( 4-25) damping factor. Even the Sugden solid state amps that John has used to demo his speakers have a low damping factor. And the tubes amps that are used certainly fall into that category.

Ive owned the 590axII as well as the 509x - I like the 590axII in regard to sound quality. The 509x is a hair more anylitical sounding? I don’t want to say dry - BUT I've had 3 590axII’s and they ALL buzzed - they all had audible transformer buzz, a mechanical buzz from the units and THAT drove me bonkers. The 509x is dead silent. They’re both gorgeous looking but if you’re in the 10k range for 2k more the Pass labs INT-250 is much better than either one... By a landslide. Not the 60 not the 25 (Ive owned them all) the INT-250 is a spiritual awakening.

Speakers I had with these units: Heresy 4, Forte 4, KLH Model 5 and Wolf Von Langa SONS. They all sounded really good with each amp BUT the forte IVs have something special about them.