McIntosh to Luxman?

If the Luxman revitalizes your system, I’d think the cost of return shipping is a relatively small price to pay, especially at this level.  I say go for it!  Otherwise u may never know, which as a fellow Audiophile I know will gnaw at u like a mole.  Some things are just worth paying for, and an in-home audition is one of them.  Just do it!!!

My experience with Mac is that it’s very tonally rich but is rolled off in the upper treble range that veils upper-octave detail and the openness of the overall soundstage.  My experience comes from working for Magnolia at Best Buy and hearing the KEF Blades driven by Mac gear and it sounded like a blanket was thrown over the KEFs relative to how I’ve heard them sound at audio shows.  It was a disgrace and total sonic mismatch IMHO.  My guess is Luxman will do a better job in this area without ever sounding etched or hyper detailed.  Given what you’re looking for I think Luxman could be a considerable upgrade.  Just my $0.02 FWIW. 

I’d put the new Innuos Pulse Mini on your radar for a streamer, and as @jjss49 recommended above an upgraded linear power supply (not necessarily Innuos’ own LPS) should be included in your budget to get the best performance out of it.  Best of luck with all this, and please do share your impressions if you could.  Curious minds wanna know.  BTW, I’ve got 100 bucks the OP chooses the Luxman if anyone wants to take the other side.  Heh heh. 

@decathlon1991 At my Magnolia the Blades were set up in their own room and 5 feet away from the back wall so setup wasn’t an issue and they still sounded like crap with the Mac gear.  But I agree in the main listening room the speaker setup is a total joke.  In fact, whenever I did an audition for someone I always pulled the speakers out and set them up so the customer could get a real idea of what they could do.  I will say though that their home install service is exceptional and would recommend it highly even if you don’t buy your equipment there.  They are very professional and experienced, and the price you’re quoted is the price you pay regardless if they run into unseen issues and need to eat the added cost of equipment and labor.  They just do it right, which isn’t always the case with independent installers. 

When it comes to Plano design with Best Buy, at every store, the setup is the same. They don’t deviate from one store to another.

@decathlon1991 While that may be true with your basic Best Buy that’s just simply not true when it comes to Magnolia. In NJ I have four Magnolia stores within a half hour from me, and none of them are set up identically and differ in their number and setup of individual listening rooms. In point of fact, my Magnolia had one separate room set up for only the Blades driven by very high-end Mac electronics including massive monoblock amps, and the other Magnolias did not have this. So that’s that.  Also, I wrote professional reviews of high-end audio equipment for 17 years and have heard Blades in several different systems and all sounded markedly better than the setup at my Magnolia — not even close.  So yeah, I kinda know what I’m talking about here. 

You may not like the brand or the sound but to say it sounds like crap for an hour or 2 of listening is pretty funny.

@decathlon1991 I care not where you’re from or where you are now. Your statement that Magnolia stores are all identical is patently false. What’s also false is your assumption that I only listened to the Blades with Mac gear for only two hours. The fact is I got to listen to that system for many months with my own reference recordings I’ve heard on many systems — several of them costing significantly over a million dollars — so I kinda know what they’re supposed to sound like, and the Blades in this dedicated room with top Mac gear sounded like crap. Soundstage was truncated and upper octave details were significantly rolled off, which is absolutely NOT a characteristic of the otherwise excellent Blade speakers. It was a total mismatch. You may like the Mac house sound or you may not, but in my experience hearing several of their models on many different speakers is that they skew toward the warm — and I’d say bloated — side and are significantly rolled off in the upper treble. A lot of people like that “sound” or the attractive blue meters, but it ain’t neutral in the least, which is likely why no reviewers — not one — use them as reference components in their systems. That’s because they only portray their interpretation of the recording and not what’s actually on it, and I think you’ll find the majority of people here would mimic my impressions. But, u do u.

This is why the Audiophile magazines are going to be extinct.

Uh, Rrrriiiiiight. This is your ignorant and warped view of the world. Nuff said.

Since you didn’t read the post from the beginning last time, let me spell it out for you so that you can comprehend.  Best Buy Magnolia stores across the country uses a Plano for all of their displays.
 

Man you are thick headed.  Let me spell it out for you — I actually worked at Magnolia and they all ARE NOT exactly the same no matter what your manager friend says.

Apparently you’re have an issue with McIntosh and the company model.  Last I checked they set the market for the audio world.

Love to know where you read that because it’s utter rubbish.

I’ve volunteered many times in college at radio stations,  so trust me!  I know what great music should sound like.

You gotta be kidding me.  HA!!!!

Wait, you work for an audio magazine and Best Buy Magnolia! You are truly a joke!

@decathlon1991 As usual your assumption is again totally faulty. I wrote for the Soundstage! network for 17 years and only worked for Magnolia for a few months well after I stopped writing, which would’ve obviously been a conflict of interest and Soundstage! would’ve never let me do both. Granted, writing professional reviews of high-end audio equipment for 17 years in no way qualifies me more of an expert compared to you who volunteered for a college radio station. Ehem. You are truly the joke here. To put a finer point on it, the Magnolia in Paramus, NJ had a separate room exclusively for the Blades and Mac gear whereas the Woodland Park Magnolia store didn’t even have the Blades at all much less having them in a dedicated room. So much for your theory that all Magnolias are identical. Have your manager look that one up, that I’m sure she can do, and be prepared to eat some crow because you know not that of which you speak, but feel free to keep making inaccurate and ignorant assumptions and I’ll continue to knock them down with actual facts. Good luck with that.

I’d rather read Absolute Sound or Stereophile magazine. They are more on my level and now I truly understand why I never bought Soundstage! Hey Soundstage! If you’re reading, you now know why you weren’t the number one Audio magazine company!

@decathlon1991 Once again you show your utter ignorance. Soundstage! is the #1 online audio review site and you don’t “buy” it as it’s free. How absolutely clueless can you possibly be?

By the way, no one asked you to volunteer information about your past history or f employment! No one cares!!!

Yet you felt the need to let us know about your “all-knowing” experience “volunteering” for a college radio station. Really??? I can cite several of my published reviews of various high-end audio components. What exactly qualifies you as an “expert” volunteering for a college radio station? Get real dude. You’re clearly out of your depth here.

Once again, I’ve revealed all of your unfounded and ignorant statements as complete bunk, and you’ve got nuthin’.  Keep going and I’ll just keep debunking your uninformed assertions and keep exposing your ignorance.