Luxman p700 u - Headphone amp impressions

[gavtron]

Had a decent listen to the Luxman p700 last night, was very impressed - usually SS headphone amps don't really wow me compared to the Stratus tube amp I have but this amp plays in a very high league!

 

Listening was done mainly with the LCD-X headphones and the Auralic VEGA DAC.

 

First I compared it to the Burson Soloist which I used to own and enjoy (also my go to amp for basic comparisons as I know it well) the p700 quickly made me realise the limitations of the Burson, which suddenly sounded a little compressed and has reduced soundstage width and height... At $900ish the soloist is in another price bracket to the luxman so I decided to try a higher priced model for comparison.

 

Next up was the very expensive Cavallli liquid gold - this amp retails in Australia for $7.5k (!!) so certainly one of the most expensive headphone amps around.

I'm not sure if the Cavalli needed more time to warm up - as it had only been on for a minute or so (after it's own long winded startup procedure) but I still preferred the Luxman.

The p700 seemed to have far better imaging to my ear where the cavalli seemed to separate the sounds in a way that disjointed the music, some upper mid transients seemed a little harsh and the soundstage seemed a tiny bit compressed too.  Maybe more warm up was needed?  I haven't spent a lot of time with the Liquid gold.  The Luxman seemed to create one of the nicest soundstages I have heard on a SS amp and I found the imaging to be spot on and the presentation to be very musical at the same time - it would be great to hear it back to back with the Stratus which is also really good in these areas.

 

Downsides of the amp - obviously at a $5k list price it's not cheap!  Also when paired with the HD800's it lost a bit of bass presence that the Burson had.  My friend Jo commented that if you could take the treble and mids of the Luxman and combine with the bass of the Burson Soloist you would have the ultimate HD800 amp.  I personally find the HD800 to be a bit bass shy, no matter which amp so I think other people who like the Senn's may disagree. There was no issue with bass presence when listening to the LCD-X however.  

 

Also the amp is quite big, what I would consider to be a full sized desktop amp - so not the best idea if space is limited.  The other consideration is the source - at first I was listening to the line out of the portable AK120, which was ok, but as soon as I had a better DAC plugged (VEGA) in the system really came to life!

 

If anyone in Melbourne has some time off over Summer and is curious to hear a top headphone rig I would recommend having a listen to this setup!  I can't even com close to affording it and I still loved having a listen to it..

 

gav.

[Jventer]

I am a Sennheiser fan - everyone in the household had one. So I got the HD800's used at a good price. I tried it on some solid state and one valve amp and then picked up a Luxman P1 on ebay. In my setup it sounds excellent.

Can only dream of how this will sound.

Thanks for posting.

[rx79ez08]

I had a listern to the P700u in the afternoon, first out of AK120, then out of the Auralic Vega, and finally out of the Luxman DA-06. I used HD800 with balance cable (demo) and ATH-W3000ANV (my own) for the audition.

In my opinion while I agree the Luxman is not a bad amp, it lacks the wow factor that make it a great amp.

In fact with the Auralic Vega and the AK120 I found that the sound stage is a bit narrow. I also found the vocal seem to be a bit messy and lack definition. In that sense even the shop staff is a little surprise at what he heard.

I found that it performs a lot better with the DA-06, but that is a $5k DAC. The combine cost would be about $10k, so it is quite expensive.

Admittedly, towards the end of the audition which lasted about 1.5hr it did seem to sound better. So the P700u might just need some time to warm up.

But from what I heard I cannot say it is better than the Liquid Gold. In fact for that price you can get a fairly nice Stax setup.

Edited December 20, 2013 by rx79ez08

[Jsgraha]

I do agree with Gav impression on p700. To me, it really have a nice synergy with the new lcd-x. It give a nice airy presentation that audeze a bit lack of. I prefer p700 to cavalli amp regardless the phone as well. But i understand if someone prefer the smooth, big and studio-alike presentation of cavalli though.

With hd800, my order of preference will be p700 > p1u > cavalli. P1u seem a bit too polite for my taste, particularly with live-rock music. However, I think it would be easier to find a source to pair with p1u for hd800. But I happen to love my source (thanks Gav for selling this), so I think I pass. With p700, the price tag will be out of my budget. Also, it seem my Soloist bass hit a bit harder (for my taste) compare to p700. But comparing side by side, it make my soloist sound really compress, particularly on the treble. It really have an effortless quality on the treble and mid, making it the best ss that I heard so far.

Cheers,

Jo

Edited December 20, 2013 by Jsgraha

[betty boop]

Had a decent listen to the Luxman p700 last night, was very impressed - usually SS headphone amps don't really wow me compared to the Stratus tube amp I have but this amp plays in a very high league!

~

 

Downsides of the amp - obviously at a $5k list price it's not cheap!  Also when paired with the HD800's it lost a bit of bass presence that the Burson had.  My friend Jo commented that if you could take the treble and mids of the Luxman and combine with the bass of the Burson Soloist you would have the ultimate HD800 amp.  I personally find the HD800 to be a bit bass shy, no matter which amp so I think other people who like the Senn's may disagree. There was no issue with bass presence when listening to the LCD-X however.  

 

Also the amp is quite big, what I would consider to be a full sized desktop amp - so not the best idea if space is limited.  The other consideration is the source - at first I was listening to the line out of the portable AK120, which was ok, but as soon as I had a better DAC plugged (VEGA) in the system really came to life!

 

If anyone in Melbourne has some time off over Summer and is curious to hear a top headphone rig I would recommend having a listen to this setup!  I can't even com close to affording it and I still loved having a listen to it..

 

gav.

 

 

good to hear gav finding something thats hit the spot. luxman sure make some nice gear thats for sure ! 

 

ps re your comment on hd800 and a bit bass shy, yes as a senn owner yes I would agree. its a headphone I found walks the straight and narrow, and possibly needs an amp to temper that. have you considered also source ? reason I say am very much impressed with the luxman D-06 in top end mid range and bass it really digs deep. not suggesting get the D-06, but I did see a couple of luxman dacs and just wonder if that might hit the spot

Edited December 20, 2013 by :) al

[David A]

[gavtron]

I had a listern to the P700u in the afternoon, first out of AK120, then out of the Auralic Vega, and finally out of the Luxman DA-06. I used HD800 with balance cable (demo) and ATH-W3000ANV (my own) for the audition.

In my opinion while I agree the Luxman is not a bad amp, it lacks the wow factor that make it a great amp.

In fact with the Auralic Vega and the AK120 I found that the sound stage is a bit narrow. I also found the vocal seem to be a bit messy and lack definition. In that sense even the shop staff is a little surprise at what he heard.

I found that it performs a lot better with the DA-06, but that is a $5k DAC. The combine cost would be about $10k, so it is quite expensive.

Admittedly, towards the end of the audition which lasted about 1.5hr it did seem to sound better. So the P700u might just need some time to warm up.

But from what I heard I cannot say it is better than the Liquid Gold. In fact for that price you can get a fairly nice Stax setup.

 

 

good to hear gav finding something thats hit the spot. luxman sure make some nice gear thats for sure ! 

 

ps re your comment on hd800 and a bit bass shy, yes as a senn owner yes I would agree. its a headphone I found walks the straight and narrow, and possibly needs an amp to temper that. have you considered also source ? reason I say am very much impressed with the luxman D-06 in top end mid range and bass it really digs deep. not suggesting get the D-06, but I did see a couple of luxman dacs and just wonder if that might hit the spot 

 

 

rx - Good to get some more impressions - most of my listening was with the LCD-X, I only listened for a little bit with the HD800.  What is your current amp?

 

al - I have not heard the DA-06 so can't comment on the synergy but rx seems to like it!  I also like being able to go to a shop and being able to listen to a totl rig just to see where technology is at!  I would love to hear the 700u vs. the DNA Stratus I have at home, however as they are both big, heavy units it will not be happening anytime soon.  Unless the kind folk at the headphone store want to loan me a $5k amp.. I offered to burn it in for them, but they laughed me out the door!

Edited December 22, 2013 by gavtron

[gavtron]

 

Official pics from the Luxman website

[rx79ez08]

rx - Good to get some more impressions - most of my listening was with the LCD-X, I only listened for a little bit with the HD800.  What is your current amp?

 

I use a Phonitor for HD800 at home, but have been using a lot of Stax and other headphones lately.

[David A]

Thanks for posting the pics & nice write up Gavtron . They appear to be using a fairly substantial r-core tranny for a headphone amp, but i'm with the guys on Head-fi. I don't like the circuit design. It is far too complex and there is way too much wiring (see first photo below), but I will say there is some logic to the way they have routed the wiring. I used to briefly own a Bladelius Heimdel phono stage which is a very good value phono amp, however it has a noise floor problem caused by poor spaghetti wiring which appeared to be an afterthought. To address the wiring issue I had Dallas Clarke (Clarke Audio) re-route the wiring (see second & third photo) in a similar, but cleaner fashion than Lux. Dallas is my go-to man to address wiring and grounding issues and knows his stuff. I also learn a bit from Dan Wright (Modwright) as well, although Dan is more focussed on Oppo mods and his own products.

 

There is no doubting Lux have access to good engineers and bits, which can be seen in their use of a nice tranny and caps, and ambitious circuit design. It appears however the Engineers ran out of money trying to rationalize and refine the design & wound up with a box full of wires. Contrast that to the Auralic Taurus mk2, or competent headphone amps from Ayre or Bryston and it is quite a different visual tale. Btw, what's the go with the pricing on the Lux? That's about a 70% price hike against the JPY!

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2013 by Bodhi

[David A]

Here are the specs on the P700u...

 

Luxman P-700u balanced amp


Expected December sales, pricing JPY 294,000

Equipped with return Quad Luxman own latest high the sound quality 増 amplitude to the loop ODNF (Only Distortion Negative Feedback) 3.0A version and brightest independent power supply, and can the balanced output of BTL bridging.

Panel output terminals of the two 3-pin XLR balanced outputs, and two holes 6.3mm headphone output, another addition to the three input channels (two balanced single-ended) can adjust the sensitivity of three sections of the left and right channel balance.

Output balance mode 8W × 2ch (16Ω), 4W × 2ch (32Ω), 213mW × 2ch (600Ω). Single-ended mode 4W x 2ch (8Ω) 2W × 2ch (16Ω), 1W × 2ch (32Ω) , 53mW × 2ch (600Ω).

Another characteristic is that the volume control on the electronic circuit LECUA (Luxman Electric Controlled Ultimate Attenuator). Avoid the situation of the traditional volume control on the left and right volume partial tone and sound quality deterioration.

THD: 0.0035% of the single-ended (1kHz) / balanced 0.0020%, (1kHz)
S / N ratio: 110dB / balance of single-ended 115dB
Power consumption: 42W / no signal when 27W
Dimensions: 440 × 400 × 92mm (width × depth ×)
Weight: 12.7kg

[Demondes]

Here are the specs on the P700u...

Luxman P-700u balanced amp

 

 

Here are the specs on the P700u...

 

Luxman P-700u balanced amp

Expected December sales, pricing JPY 294,000

Equipped with return Quad Luxman own latest high the sound quality 増 amplitude to the loop ODNF (Only Distortion Negative Feedback) 3.0A version and brightest independent power supply, and can the balanced output of BTL bridging.

Another characteristic is that the volume control on the electronic circuit LECUA (Luxman Electric Controlled Ultimate Attenuator). Avoid the situation of the traditional volume control on the left and right volume partial tone and sound quality deterioration.

 

 

These 2 are standard features in all the latest Luxman amps e.g. the L590AX 550AX and 509UX etc