I had a cs300 as well, that also was a lovely amp. But i think the headphone out of the luxman is better. My memory of the leben was that there was a lot of hum from the headphone socket. It could always have just been a mismatch, but it was always my overriding feeling.The lux seems much quiter and although i can hear hum when nothing is playing, it is at a much lower level then i remember from the leben. (But that was a long time ago!!)
You may have an earthing issue. Mine is utter silence on the headphone amp out.
Iāve yet to hear an Atom, but the SQ-N150 is utterly miles ahead of my UQ2. In terms of fidelity, itās much closer to my 282/SC/250 than it is to my UQ2. And for an integrated that is the same approximate price bracket as a SN3, youād expect that to be the case.
@superelmar Iād expect it to be an interesting pairing with the Klipsche Heresy. But youāll need a source too then. I cannot recommend the matching D-N150 DAC enough. It might just be better than my NDX/XPS.
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Thanks guys!
Iāve downsized in weight and space from a big valve system to Atom and Technics SL1500C, sound is wonderful, my first Naim product, but sometimes miss the sweet and 3D valves sound.
In my 3 years of Hifi went thru: Leben CS300xs (super sweet and warm), Harmony 300B (best price quality wise), MA252 (didnāt like a bit), Mastersound Compact 300B XLS (so good), and now the Atom.
Regarding turntables: Project Classic, Kuzma Stabi S with Zyx Bloom 3, and Sota Sapphire VI with Sound Smith.
My speakers: Klipsh Heresy III, ProAc T10 Signature, Zu Omen MKI floorstanding, Diapason Karis III, Sonus Faber Concertino, and back to Klipsch. Like them all, but Iām used to High efficiency due to long listening sessions late night.
Iām not a CD guy, what You think about pair the Bluesound Node later version to the Luxman? or maybe a cheap streamer to the DN-150?
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The D-N150 is kind of hard to fault for the price. Performance-wise, itās swimming in waters with DACs more than twice itās price in my opinion. I donāt use the CD function on it at all. It might not be for you if you want DSD or in fact anything other than straight PCM, but it complements the SQ-N150 so beautifully. Much of this thread has focused on the superb amp but the DAC is just such a star performer - Iām constantly blown away. And it has the same exact build quality as the SQ-N150. In other words, flawless.
I picked up a new fanless Lenovo Think Centre and loaded it up with Audirvana and connected it to the DAC via USB. Once I set up the unit, I turned off the screensaver, automatic updates and then just tucked it away out of sight. It was about $600 but second hand Mac Mini or fanless micro PC with USB ports will work just as well.
Thanks againā¦
Iāve been reading about Bluesound Node2i, PSaudio DAC, Luminā¦
What Do You think pair the Lux with any of those?
Also, I might change my Technics SL1500C for another one, having Pre amp inside the Lux, so exciting come back to valves!
PS: Have You seen the Luxman turntable? the PD-171Aā¦ just wooow!!
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Ten years irrespective of hours? Thatās very impressive.
No idea about those other DACs mentioned. Never heard them. Of course they might be better than the Luxman by miles.
But I strongly believe in system synergy. The Luxman DAC is an assured good match. With limited audition scope in these times, the assured synergistic pairing takes a lot of risk away. I know there is a whole world of decent stuff out there at the same price bracket. Yet the two Luxmans linked via the Luxman interconnect just āworkā. And as I said, theyāre doing some serious lifting way out of their weight class.
Donāt have the Luxman turntable. Itās too expensive for me as I only use vinyl for a bit of fun, not serious listening. I use a TEAC TN-4D, which is almost embarrassingly low end compared to most forum membersā decks.
10 years at regular use was how they put it. I take that to be an average of 2.5hrs/day.
Pre Covid, I guestimate that 30 mins warmup (it does need warmup) plus 2 albums is the most a normal working Joe would get away with.
Just pull the trigger and order this Luxman little gem and Lumin D2, letās see if beats the Atom, or at least, I like the sound more.
Iām driving crazy trying to decide which Luxman Turntable get, love both 17 and 15.
I agree, Luxman tt look very good and well engineered.
The 17 is discontined āwhile stocks lastā. Just FYI.
ooooh what a shame!!
Do You know why?
And is there a big difference between them?
Thanks.
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All Luxman products are ālimited editionā production runs. I guess they sold a lot of 171s.
Other than the 171 being the flagship and available in an armless version, I donāt know. Iām not exactly what youād call knowledgable about turntables.
The system grew slightly, as some are aware. The SQ-N150 has, by all accounts, a very decent phono stage for both MM and MC and it seemed a shame to let this go to waste. And it feeds into a project I have taken on to clean and digitize all of my mumās 60s-70s vinyl for her.
The TEAC TN-4D
It has been commented on that the turntable seems a bit low end compared to the quality of the rest of the system. And to be honest, my dealer felt the belt driven TEAC TN-3B ultimately performed better for a third less than a direct drive TN-4D. However, context is important. Vinyl is not my main source and it never will be. This is largely for a bit of fun and for music discovery via second hand bargain bins. Direct drive makes it extra low maintenance and the optional USB digital out serves my purpose of digitizing my mumās collection for her. It doesnāt hurt that the TN-4D and the Luxman SQ-N150 have become somewhat of a paired set in the local market - though usually in piano black which, with the silver trim very closely matches the Luxman styling. As you can see, I went another way.
As we know, music is an emotional experience and as I was going to be playing a lot of oldies that I hated from my childhood (some, like first pressing of Johnny Cash I now know are great. Others like her Marty Robbins collection I might still roll my eye at), Iāll be honest and say that looks were important. How looking at this thing made me feel when spinning these old discs was, I knew from the outset, going to be an integral part of the experience. The walnut finish with the 70s aluminium trim just hit all the right emotional notes for me.
Superficial selection criteria aside, this isnāt a cheap toy. It comes in at around the cost of an RP2 and by the time I had finished dressing it up, was just shy of an RP6 in terms of cost. The build quality is exacting and it comes from a Yokohama factory just down the road from Luxman. The direct drive motor is low torque and although faster to come up to speed than a belt drive, it isnāt instantaneous at about 2 seconds. Something that really sets it apart is the tonearm. The SAEC designed tonearm is just brilliantly crafted and frankly from a slightly different class of turntable altogether. It obviously looks very different from SEACās $15k flagship offering, yet has kept some of the basic DNA such as the S curve and the SEAC Knife Edge virtical pivot.
Dressing it up
As mentioned, thereās a few things I did to this turntable to push itās performance as far as possible within itās very modest price range. First up was the cartridge. The supplied Sumiko Oyster was a bit overly smooth and warm for my tastes. Nice for background jazz, but not what I was after. Going for a replacement at a decent jump up but careful not to outclass the turntable, I fitted a Sumiko Rainier MM for about $170. This has a presentation that is far more dynamic and extracts a massive amount of higher frequency information that the Oyster just ignored. Sumiko is yet another company that manufacture in Yokohama, so this was fast becoming the Yokohama System.
Finally, no turntable is complete without a really good power supply. The supplied SMPS got replaced by this nice 24v linear PSU you can see on the bottom shelf next to the fanless micro PC that serves as both digital transport for the DAC and recording station for the TEAC. The power supply wasnāt expensive but was particularly nice. A quick look inside revealed superb hand soldered joints, and good board layout. The readout is more than just pretty. As you may get a slightly different voltage depending on your mains, you can adjust the output up or down by about 2v and I did need to get it spot on. Would have preferred the readout on the rear though. Coupled this to the turntable with a Cablecraft silver DC power leads with Oyaide plugs. The addition of a quality linear PSU really helped
with tonal neutrality and brought things a lot closer to the presentation Iād come to expect from much more expensive sources.
Last, I picked up a second hand Zonotone phono lead for half price (new it would have been half the price of the turntable). A bit overkill, but a sensible new Chord Co cable would have cost the same and I was keen to go Japanese all the way on this system.
Suffice to say, the TEAC never embarrasses itself. Even in the company of such a source as the D-N150, which might be edging out my NDX/XPSdr, the TEAC has a sonic character with the Rainer cartridge that is really engaging and allows for a degree of serious listening I had not in fact planned or expected.
Over time, and after calm reflection, the only gripe I have about the Luxman/Omega system compared to my Naim/PMC (and it isnāt a true gripe), is that I miss the off axis response of a dedicated tweeter. If you have a listening spot (and most people do), the Omegaās are just nothing short of incredible. They convey so much emotion and have such a beguiling soundstage it is really astounding. But outside of that zone, they do sound totally different. And I do have to do a lot of listening while doing things with the kids in other parts of the room. Itās a bit of a shame for the company actually. You have to hear them set up just for you to understand how beautiful they sound. Youāre never going to pop you head into a dem room at a show or in a session with 30 other people seated off to one side and think āwow these sound good.ā That can only happen when seated directly in front of them with a captive audience of one. Personal listening room or den, hell yes! In the living room for all to hear? Maybe not.
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I do get the feeling that the thought that has gone into the system has produced a system that is on a pound per sound basis hitting well above itās actual price cost - and the turntable looks a thing of joy
Same here, the Qb in my kitchen is a blast
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Looks great especially the engineering of the arm. Good to see something at a reasonable price nicely made and not the usual rega or linn.
Some people cope well with this while some donāt. I havenāt really experienced a speaker which sounds awful with off-axis listening. Although I sit at the sweet spot most of the time, music still sounds rather good if I am in other parts of the room, say 2 or 3 metres behind the listening chair. My lounge is a long room though, 3.2m x 9.0m with openings to other spaces.
Do you have the PMC/Naim set up? Any plans? I am beginning to come to a conclusion on what to do with the excess gear since I donāt have the luxury to set up 2 big systems in the house. I can still run a small system alongside the Luxman/Marten but not 2 big systems + 1 small system. In other words, I can still accommodate 2 systems, not 3. One will eventually have to go as it doesnāt make much sense to keep something that I will not use for a considerable period of time.
@Ian2001 Yes. A huge amount of time. The selection of the Naim system was very quick. I just used a dealer in the UK and spent time in their dem room and within a month, Iād settled on what I was going to order.
Iāve mentioned many times that Japan doesnāt do dem rooms or home trial in any meaningful sense. My current dealer has an entire floor gone to waste doing nothing that could be carved into 3 large dem rooms but they donāt bother. So the punter is really reduced to buying on spec. Iād set myself that arbitrary goal of āNot more than the cost of a new Supercapā as far back as 2018. It took well over a year of research to come up with the Luxman/Omega combo. And the turntable took a long time too. I had gone deep into the Rega, Pro-Ject, and even Clearaudio rabbit hole before coming back to TEAC which I had initially written off with a mental comment like āTEAC for turntables? Not a chance - what a load of rubbish.ā
@ryder Sadly the Naim and PMCs are in storage. Weāre still looking for a suitable plot of land so I donāt expect they will get rolled out soon. Until the house is done, I cannot really envision how the different hi-fis will get used (up to 4 now not including a couple Qbs). I certainly intend to keep both.
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Thanks for the response. It is good to hear you have the intention to keep both which is great. Currently in my new place which is much smaller than the previous house, I canāt fit 2 big systems. As I donāt have immediate plans to move in the near future, one system may need to go in due time.
Enjoy the Luxman/Omega.