Which would you choose; Pass 250.8, arc 75SE or luxman m900u?


Current amp great soundstage but not exciting.
roxy1927

Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

I went yesterday and listened to the Luxman m900u amp and c900u preamp. The reason for this second visit to the dealer (Excel Audio in Newport Beach CA) was to determine if I needed to get the c900u preamp or if a lesser preamp with a DAC and room correction would work with the m900u amp. Something like the following preamp:

Anthem STR preamp
Linn SELEKT DSM
Lyngdorf 3400 (using only preamp section of integrated)

Long story short, I have changed my opinion of how to buy a system for my small room. Get the electronics before the speakers. The Luxman gear was so good that even with lesser speakers ($16K vs $5K) the sound was better with the Luxman.

I am even tempted to run the Luxman m900u + c900u with the KEF LS50’s I own if I cannot make a bigger speaker work without DSP. I was totally against using a monitor speaker because I wanted the bigger bass with the floor stander. However, that logic is out the window with the Luxman gear. Everything I played through them sounded special.

@erik_squires I already have the GIK acoustics treatments and they transformed my room in an incredibly positive way. However, I was trying to be audacious and put in a big floor stander into my very small room. Thus the investigation into DSP preamps to go along with the GIK treatments. However, like I mentioned above the Luxman was so good that I will get that first and fit the speakers afterwards. I most likely won’t be able to fit in a floor stander. I will try with a home demo of the Paradigm Person 3F but in the likely case it won’t work there are many monitors that I can select.

So farI have heard the following monitors that would fit my room which I think sound good to great:

Harbeth - https://harbeth.co.uk/special-editions/c7es-3.php
KEF LS50 or REFERENCE 1
TAD ME1

A lot more choices available that I have not contemplated since I have been looking at floor standers prior to my eureka movement with the Luxman’s.

BTW - I have not spent any cash yet on my system. So glad I did not since I would have gone a different way prior to my Luxman audition.