Best Used System for @1000.00

sansui80 · April 2005

Just a note on a experiment that I have been working on.
Luxman Built several Hybrid Integrated amplifiers that use tube in the preamp area and SS in the amp.

This is a good less expensive way to see the benefit of this type of combination with Polk speakers as well as A pair of Klipsch KLf
30's I recently brought back from the dead.

We all have different listening taste. And getting bass response out of a polk speaker somtimes seems to be a challange with a amp rated 100 watt or less. The other area is mids and highs.
With my SDA2a , I have never lacked on the top end, it was the low end. I dont like to have to crank up tone controls either.

As I mentioed before, Luxman Made the LV-105U and another model the starts out a-491 and lower. I took a chance and bought the A-491 versus the LV-105U because it was newer and
seemed to be rated a little higher in output power.But make no mistakes both units are worth thier stock. Retail price of 1200 and 1000 made them a little more expensive newer . I paid 320.00 for the A-491 and have seen the LV-105U go foe as much as 340.00 to as little as 200.00. The Luxman build is excellant.

Overall I acheived my goal of enjoying more of a warm tube sound and kept the SS amp section to drive those passive raditors on my SDA2a.

Lets not for get our single source and cables.
I avdvocate the used of Cambridge Auidio 640c CD Player.
I bought this used for 390.00. Included in the buy was a 100.00 isolation platform made by Cambridge Audio. So really I have about a 320.00 investment in the used CD Player.

I bought a after market VAN DEN HUL Power cord for 125.00, retails for 400+. I also Bought Van Den Hull Hybrid MKII interconnects for 60.00 for 1.5 meter.

MIT has good speaker cables but I also used monster cable in this application.

The over all effect is excellant and I did it on a budget.

SDA2a 250.00 local Pawn 8/10condt.
Used Cambridge 640c CD Player for @ 320.00
Luxman A-491 rated 90 watts per channel for 340.00
cables and power cord 185.00

And thats @1095.00 "WHAT A BUDGET SYSTEM"
I Listen to 70's and 80's rock , Jazz and some Blues.

Pesonal favorites on this set up are Police"Sincronicity", Steve miller Band "Fly Like An Eagle, Wes Montgomery "BUMPIN" and
"Muddy Waters" tribute .

This system also rocks My other favorite set of speakersare Klipsch KLF-30, tipping the scales over 100pds + eack. Since they are so efficent , they rock my 20X25 Den at the 10:00 Position , I have to get up and stand back alittle.

My opnion is: "that in order to truely appreciate all types of music and recording formats (IE: CD, Records or tape) "its good to have different types of speakers in your system. One Pair to Rock out on to AC/ DC and another to enjoy Neil Young and Clapton on..

But Now Thats Just My opinion

Most of this was purchased off AUDIOGON.
Best place to make a second hand purchase for me.

Rock On,

Ben

Tony M · April 2005

I'm still a novice in the high end of audio because of extra $ to spend on it but things are changing . I too have experienced a liking of one set of speakers for one artist(group) and another for others. I see you have spent $$ on your interconnects., cables. Did you notice improvements over reg. inter conec. and reg. speaker wire with reg. speakers or does it only help whith higher end speakers?
I just got a pair of high end speakers and their sound is great with reg, wires everywhere to connect everything.
rt3000p and ONKYO m504 ONKYO p3030pre amp. carver tuner
Onkyo cd player . If it would sound better that would be

. maybe imaging properties huh? I'll be looking more and more into this since I've just got this set up. Thanks.
I've got some pics to show Russman later some of my pawn shop yard sale Ebay thrift store purchases.you might like em too.
Included will be 2 luxmans 1030s that I am impressed with!
talk to ya later,
Tony

Skynut · April 2005

I understand what you are saying about different speakers for different music, i just bought the rt3000p's and can not believe the bass I am getting but I like a lot of hip-hop and rap, I also like rock and jaz. i think these speakers are a little light on the lower mid range when I am listening to more mellow music but the bass is incredible. I am constantly picking up stuff that somehow falls from it's perch.
I will be expermenting with wires soon to see how they change the sound.
So far I am hella satisfied with my purchase.

Airplay355 · April 2005

I don't really like luxman gear. But the luxman gear I had was kinda old and probably needed to be serviced or something.

Tony M · April 2005

The luxman1030 I got at a goodwill for $12 has been powering 4 POLK monitor 10s almost effortlessly

.I liked it so much I went on ebay and bought another. (I do that alot it seems)paid abought $40+shipping for the 2nd. 35watts per but just 1 rec. gets all 4 playing loud enough for me to feel the music. People always ask what kind of speakers are playing not really aware this little rec. can put out enough to push them to that kind of volume. I haven't hooked the luxs. up to my 2 sets(yes 4 speakers) of kenwoods w/16 inch woofers w/ I think 94 db sens.Again, 1 set from goodwill and the other ebay:)
Those kenwoods have some midrange now ,with 5 speakers above the woofer Boston comes alive , loud and clear. they're powered by an older JVC 160 watt per rec.I have 1 cd player hooked up with y connectors and can play all at once or switch the JVC to cut off 1 pair of kenwwods and activate a pair of mach 1s. Theres some bass there too. But the rt3000ps bass is the best I've heard too for a reg speaker in my home . They almost sound like my 15inch sub in a side by side comp.Thats keeping the 3000s at mid level though for sound clarity and balance .
I've rambled again, sorry bye more to come later:eek:

Airplay355 · April 2005

my marantz sr7200 sounded better with my rti70's then the luxman r-115 i had. the luxman also made a pair of dcm timewindows sound like ****. hooked the timewindows up to some parasound halo gear and they sound great.

i don't really know why i never liked it, most people say its a good respectable brand. for $12 though, you can't go wrong. nice score.

Tony M · April 2005

It looks like you had the newer digital type. Mine have the wood covers of course. I wanted to get a newer style but maybe I better stick with these and some potent. cleaner. Here's what just happened to me. I thought my carver tuner developed a problem in the right channel.It was in a yamaha surround amp in the tuner input section.I moved the carver tuner to my spare bedroom set-ups and it worked fine. so I hooked a spare jvc tuner to a vdp input on the yamaha and WOW did FM sound the way it should . I hadn't heard my ess's sound that good on fm in 18 yrs.only cds and movies (dvd and vhs )sounded like they should up till now. FM was there before but it was lacking livelyness .Things are going good for me lately:D later

heiney9 · April 2005

Luxman was excellent equipment back in the late 80"s early 90's. I used to sell Luxman along side Nakamichi, Yamaha, and Denon. Of the above lines I think the Nak was equal to or better than Luxman in some respects.

However, I've always been intrigued by the Hybrid integrated's they sold. I've almost purchased one several times but just couldn't do it because of the service issue. I'm just not confident a unit like this could be serviced and brought back to spec, because scarcity of parts. knowledge etc.....

I've also read the tubes have very little to do with the overall sound of the unit, more of a gimmick. Not saying I agree, that's what I've heard/read. Plus it's hard to find one I could trust the condition of.

I know when I sold them most people just didn't get the concept and subsiquently I sold very few and we ended up dropping the line eventually. Although I sold a ****-load of Luxman R117 and R115 receivers (non-hybrid) People were more interested in the Bang and Olafsen (sp) equiment.

But your review has given me hope that those would be a good compromise. I think if I were to do a hybrid today I'd probably look at AMC hybrid integrated's simply because they are newer and have some support, not sure how they sound though.

H9

Best Used System for @1000.00

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