Luxman L590AXii vs Accuphase E-650 for a Shindo lover

Judging the book by its cover...lol!

Thanks to @t_ramey for hooking me up with E-650. It ended my pursuit and opened the gateway to heavenly sound. A perfect match for my Tannoy Canterbury’s and rest of the upstream components.

I am aware the Accuphase E650 is an excellent unit and is capable of sounding better than the Luxman L-590AXII in the right system, speaker synergy and preferences etc. After all the E650 is almost double the price of the L-590AXII in the US.

My comment on the gold /champagne finish of the Accuphase is a personal preference on the aesthetics part of it, nothing else. Sound quality wise I am aware the Accuphase is stellar.

harbeths like an amp to grab them by the you-know-what’s and make them sing

more efficient devores may not want/need this quality in an amp sound their best

as usual, system synergies prevail in a specific application

Yes, that’s my experience after living with the Harbeth for more than 10 years. There are still some people who prefer the Luxman/Harbeth combination but it’s just not for me. No doubt it plays nice music but it’s too nice to the point of boring. The sound is soft at the edges with reduced dynamics when compared to amps which are capable of bringing out the punch and attack in music.

I couldn’t agree more that system synergy is everything. I've done the comparisons. The Luxman sounds great with Marten but not so good with Harbeth. On the other hand the Naim sounds great with Harbeth but not so good on Marten. The speaker needs to be properly matched to the amp (or vice versa) for optimal results.