Preamp/Integrated with Loudness button


Dear All,

Can you please recommend a high quality,  modern, in production, preamp or integrated amp with loudness button? The only such products I know are Luxman L-595ASE and Luxman LX-380.
Though L595 got everything I’m looking for, it’s bit out of my budget. Not having a remote is a deal breaker for LX-380. So here we go. Any other product you want to recommend ? Thanks 
manojrc
Hello @manojrc, all Luxman linestages/preamps and integrated amps feature a loudness control and offer remotes.

Did you mean the loudness switch on the actual remote? I ask because the LX-380 does offer a remote but the loudness switch is on the main chassis.

I'm a Luxman dealer. Feel free to DM with questions.
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Luxman has the best sounding tone controls I know of. 

I'd recommend Parasound as very fully featured in the tone/subwoofer control department, but I find their controls veil the sound.

How about a Schiit Loki?
AVM has tone controls built into their preamps that you can manage from the remote but not the classic "loudness" button.  
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I have a B&K PT5 preamp which has ‘Loudness’ button & found it extremely useful for certain poorly recorded songs.

@gestalt, yes the ‘Loudness’ button should be on remote as well. I checked the current models of Luxman but couldn’t find any of their integrated amps, except the ones I mentioned, got this feature. 
All of the current Luxman’s have the Loudness feature on the remote, the unit itself only has the Loudness light/indicator to show on/off if you hit the button on the remote

http://www.luxman.com/asset/product/L-505uXII/gb4.jpg
Like others stated, all Luxman, many or all Yamaha have them and they have models for most any budget.  It could be my favorite feature on my 509x.  
The Lyngdorf TDAI 3400 does everything including room correction, it’s comes with mic and stand, it sounds superb and has bass & treble where you can set the effective frequency, plus multiple preset ‘voicings’ and the ability to create your own. Very comprehensive, very flexible, very cheap for what it does.
I prefer to have a simple push button 'Loudness' ON/OFF solution. Don't want me to customise it. For that, we could use 'Bass/Treble' control or even go for a miniDSP. I have an Yamaha entery level integrated. The variable loudness switch is almost useless for me. It doesn't give the desired 'punch' the way I get from, now retired, B&K pre.

I think the best bet here is Luxman & we should thank them for keeping the legacy.
+1 for Vincent 

I also have the Loki ... all my components are temporarily jammed into small apartment bedroom with no flexibility in speaker placement.  The Loki is amazing.  At $150 bucks it's a quiet, convenient way to improve SQ in an impossible situation: highly, highly recommend.


Chase Remote Line Controller RLC-1

these are not current production, however, they either work, or they don’t, I’ve never had one give any trouble (one arrived damaged). I have them in my 3 systems.

here’s 4 for sale (make sure it has original remote control, definitely needed to operate it).

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=chase+rlc-1

two accept returns, the return shipping is all you risk. other 2, no returns, but they don’t break, and if arrives broken, eBay/paypal will get your money back.

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For about the 10th time, my friends and I did a listening shoot-out. A few months without it, then back in. We simply cannot detect any difference in or out. It’s 120 db s/n, invisible.

Remote: power, volume, balance, bass, treble, 4 inputs. And ’automatically/progressively’ engaged ’loudness’ as you lower the volume.


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’Normal Volume’:

1. Chase at ’default’ start-up volume (unplug it/plug it in for defaults) (no loudness is involved).
2. Preamp: Set ’low-normal’ vol with your preamp, that’s it, never change that.
3. Chase controls volume: ^ = less attenuation or v = more attenuation with progressively engaged fletcher-munson ’loudness’.

Maintaining bass is what maintains involvement with low volume music, otherwise it becomes background sound.

Remote Balance from your listening position while experiencing resultant imaging is a wonderful thing.
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Using this for loudness, you don’t need that on your preamp or integrated, so your choices widen significantly.

Using it’s 4 inputs, your preamp or integrated does not need several inputs, also widening your choices. No phono built-in.

I’m so confident in it’s invisibility, for phono: my 3 tonearms to SUT with 3 inputs/MM Pass to my mx110z vintage tube tuner preamp’s MM Phono, out of mx110z to Chase RLC-1, to Cayin amp. I’ve gone preamp direct to Cayin, line in or pre-in, or thru Chase, it’s invisible, wonderful features.

The mx110z has a Loudness control, but it's manual, take a hike, the Chase is definitely preferable for this.


In my long career selling Yamaha HiFi I must have explained this thousands of times.  Loudness buttons are useless unless a method is provided to calibrate the inflection point to the room and speakers in use.  IME, without this, every example overcompensates, Luxman included. My 1973 system had a Crown IC150 and D60.  The preamp manual instructed the user to leave the loudness button engaged, and reduce the input level pots on the amp so that at 2 o’clock, the volume was enough to be enjoyed flat.  Below that, compensation was applied to maintain “equal loudness”.  That’s what Yamaha offers as well with their variable loudness knob.  One model was made with both knobs motorized and remote controllable…RX-777, but no others. The current model R-N803 improves on this by incorporating loudness compensation into their room correction scheme, called YPAO Volume, selectable within the MusicCast app. 
But the OP seems to want the exaggerated bass “bad loudness”, not the artfully integrated kind. For this, nothing currently available beats Luxman. Pony up the $4K for the L505uX…it’s worth it.