The "Line Straight" setting on Luxman preamps simply bypasses the tone controls and loudness settings. It does not make them all sound the same, there are big differences in the quality of the preamps in their integrated vs. their separates. I've owned the C-900u and M-900u for many years with no desire to upgrade, they are truly exceptional products with a very high pride of ownership factor. Build quality and operational feel stand out compared to most of their competition. I could understand wanting to get the brand new C-10x to match your M-10x rather than getting a C-900u at this point, but if you're alright with used gear you could save a lot of money by getting a used C-900u which are likely to become plentiful once the replacement is released.
Luxman Preamps
My Luxman M-10X power amp and Blade One Meta orders supposed to come in this month(I ordered them back in Aug). I'm having a hard time deciding what preamp to run the M-10X with. Right now, I have a Luxman 595ASE which I was going to use the front end as the M-10X preamp. However, the 595ASE is a class A integrate and draws full power as soon as it powered up. And it gets hot. So It may not be the best component to use as a preamp.
The best obvious choice would be the current C-900U but the problem I have with it is that a replacement C-10X is on the horizon for next year. However, it will cost quite a bit of money. Since my listening setting is "Line Straight" and do not need any of the tone control from the preamp, does it matter if I'm using C-900U or C-10X or any other older pream with line straight?
Are all "line straight" from Luxman preamps the same? If this is the case, perhaps I can get a 507z, 509x, or future 509z integrate and use it as the front end of the M-10X power amp. The only thing I see here is that the integrates don't have a balance pre-out option like a dedicated preamp.
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- 12 posts total
- 12 posts total