After being FedUp with FedEx for a few days, the Luxman L550ii finally arrived.
It's a magnificent beast, but unfortunately it smells like one (more on that later.)
I'll take good pictures later, in the meantime here's a stock photo so you'll know what I am taking about. Behold the beast:
Visual and Tactile Impressions
The build quality and heft are definitely in the same league as McIntosh. It looks wonderful and operates very smoothly. The brushed aluminum clashes a bit with the black glass McIntosh gear still in the rack (MCD201 and MDA1000) but I'll get used to it.
I prefer the unique look of McIntosh to the more pedestrian brushed aluminum, but this is a very nice implementation of that look.
The buttons and knobs feel solid but, again, the feel of the McIntosh knobs is hard to beat.
It's one heavy puppy - not as hernia inducing as an MC501, but not too far.
The VU meters are very nice, but look so tiny once you are used to the MC501s' meters. I suppose I'll get used to the orange background light, but blue would have been classier - even if copy-cat IMO.
Olfactory Impressions
This is the first time in any of my reviews where I had to bring in the sense of smell. It must be a combination of being brand new and running hot (as I'd expect a class-A amp to run) but this amp has that "new amp smell" in spades. It has been running in for 24 hours and it's still emitting a not too pleasant "electronic" fragrance that is hard to ignore. I feel the need to keep the windows open. It has never happened to me with any piece of gear and I sincerely hope it will go away soon.
Sonic Impressions
In one word, WOW.
First of all I am playing it with the Tannoys (more about the Tannoy vs. Guarneri death match some other time) and any concern about 20+20W not being enough power went out the window from the first minute. If anything, the range of the volume knob is too coarse at lower volumes I can't imagine turning it past the 'noon' position for more than a few seconds. This thing is LOUD. I will not be wanting for power, that's for sure.
The first sonic property that struck me - even during break-in - was the bass: huge, powerful and commanding with a great "tone" to it.
After a few hours of break-in, I sat down to listen a bit more critically. I know it's a cliche' but I heard things in recordings that I had never heard before. Some very, VERY, minor details showed up in music that I've listened to dozens if not hundreds of time. In addition to hearing sounds I hadn't heard before, I heard other sounds with increased clarity and presence - mostly things like cymbals, bells, guitar string squeaks, etc.
The soundstage is wide and very balanced. Because the drivers are lower than the Guarneris, the stage is also lower than I like, but on several tracks it rises well above the speakers and offers a nice sense of height. The stage also has very nice depth. At the end of the first track in "Wish You Were Here", for example, there is a very soft sound that fades very slowly and with this amp and speakers, you could not help but visualizing it disappearing in the distance both in terms of depth and height - getting "smaller" as it receded in the distance. A wonderful "effect".
Speaking of "effects", I know this is anathema to delicious sound, but listening to Pink Floyd with this amp revealed layers of sounds that I had never noticed - like some voices that must be buried many 10s of decibels deep in the mix. I now see what people mean when they talk about the resolution power of class-A amps or about "seeing" deeper in the soundstage. I know, these are "HiFi tricks" but in this case I found them adding quite a bit to the music. Knowing that Pink Floyd put so many little touches, inaudible in most systems, got me more involved in the music.
Here's the acid test for me, though: Does it sound delicious? Yes. 100% so. But in a very different way than the lovely Shindo Montille. The Shindo oozes deliciousness by being smooth, warm and by giving you very holographic presentation where the voices and instruments have real depth. The Luxman gives you deliciousness through "liquidity" and "smoothness." Here's an analogy, listening to the Shindo is like passing your hand on a smooth surface that has been lubricated with a thin layer of oil. Listening to the Luxman is like passing your hand on a surface that has been smoothed and polished to 1/1000th of a millimeter. They are booth very easy to listen to and smooth, but each in their own way. The Luxman is less forgiving than the Shindo with harsher recordings but, despite its ability to bring forth details and resolve so well, it still sounds very delicious. If the recording is very bad, the bass and treble tone controls are very effective at fixing harshness or thinness.
I haven't spent a lot of time listening to the phono stage yet, but what I heard impressed me. Again, smooth and liquid without being soft.
In summary, it sounds: powerful and detailed, but it's also smooth and liquid at the same time. A terrific balance IMO.
An iron fist in a teflon glove. I still prefer the look and feel of McIntosh gear, only time will tell if the sound of the Luxman will do as well as McIntosh in my system. The ultimate evaluation criteria is how much does it make me want to listen to music (and how long will I keep it around.)
The only thing I don't like about it is this new amp smell - I sincerely hope it will go away soon. If it doesn't it could be a deal breaker.
Deliciously yours,
Alberto
