Luscious Luxmans Lure Music Lovers
Venerable Japanese high-end audio specialist adds new CD/SACD player, preamplifier and power amplifier to its illustrious range of hi-fi components
Cambridgeshire, England — Luxman, one of the world’s oldest and most revered audio brands, celebrates 90 years of audio excellence with the arrival of the D-06u CD/SACD player, C-700u stereo preamplifier and M-700u stereo power amplifier. Beautifully built with a crisp, classic look and feel, all three components remain true to their heritage whilst embracing the requirements of modern music lovers.
D-06u CD/SACD player
The D-06u has been painstakingly designed to make the most of both CDs and SACDs, whilst also offering coaxial, optical and asynchronous USB inputs for external digital sources, thus enabling them to benefit from the player’s exemplary digital and analogue output circuitry. For disc playback, the LxDTM transport mechanism is a proprietary Luxman creation – a high-rigidity design constructed to block out external vibrations, with a die-cast aluminium loader for smooth, quiet, resonance-free operation. The player’s digital circuits incorporate a Burr-Brown PCM1792A D/A converter, supporting not only CD and SACD playback, but also PCM data up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD data up to 5.64MHz via the USB input. This is a far higher specification than that required by most current music formats, ensuring the D-06u is fully equipped for future advances in ultra-high-definition digital sound.
The D/A converter chip combines with Texas Instruments’ TAS3152 32-bit digital signal processor, which upsamples PCM data to 384kHz and supplies three digital filter options for PCM, plus a pair of tone settings for DSD. Jitter (digital distortion) is reduced in three ways: for USB signals, by the dedicated DSP via asynchronous communication; for CD and S/PDIF signals, by the embedded DAIR high-precision clock; and for SACD signals, by a dedicated jitter reduction chip. In addition, a low phase noise clock module improves the accuracy of the entire signal transmission.
The D-06u’s analogue output stage is of the highest quality, utilising audiophile-grade components in a fully balanced configuration with a regulated, high-inertia power supply. Build quality is exemplary, as it is throughout the Luxman range, right down to the cast-iron, resonance-reducing feet. The player comes with dedicated ‘Luxman Audio Player’ software for PC/Mac, enabling a wide range of digital audio formats to play through the D-06u via the USB input, including FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, MP3, DSF and DSIDIFF.
C-700u stereo preamplifier
Luxman’s new C-700u preamp benefits from the same uncompromising construction and attention to detail as the D-06u. At its heart lies Luxman’s fourth-generation ODNF (Only Distortion Negative Feedback) amp circuit, which restricts feedback to distortion components only, thus greatly enhancing signal-to-noise performance. This is directly coupled to the LECUA 1000 attenuator circuit, trickled down from the flagship C-900u preamp, allowing an extremely fine degree of volume control and left/right balance adjustment whilst maintaining sound quality at the highest level.
Exceptional signal purity doesn’t have to mean stripped-to-the-bone facilities – not when they are implemented with Luxman’s no-compromise approach. The C-700u includes precision bass and treble tone adjustment (extremely useful given the variability of today’s music formats), a ‘loudness’ control for low-level listening, a ‘line straight’ button that bypasses the tone controls, and phase selection for the balanced inputs. The FL display can even be zoomed in stages via the remote, ensuring key information remains readable no matter how far the listener is from the preamp (the D-06u shares this feature).
In terms of connectivity, the C-700u offers seven line-level inputs (five single-ended RCA and two balanced XLR), plus four line-level outputs (two single-ended and two balanced). Also present are monitor input and record output RCA terminals, an external preamp input for integration with an AV system, and two remote output terminals for integrated system control.
M-700u stereo power amplifier
The M-700u power amp is the perfect partner for the C-700u, drawing upon Luxman’s decades of experience in amplifier design to deliver an exquisite combination of rich sonic expression, fine detail, wide bandwidth and dynamic gusto. Stereo output is rated at 120W per channel into eight ohms and 210W per channel into four ohms, achieving up to 840W per channel into one ohm instantaneously. There is also a user-selectable mono mode with a rated output of 420W into eight ohms.
In order to achieve this level of power without sonic compromise, Luxman has implemented its ODNF 4.0 drive circuit utilising a four-parallel push-pull structure with three-stage Darlington. A Luxman ‘Ultimate Efficiency Power Transformer’ – an EI type rated at 550VA – forms the heart of the amp’s power supply, with plentiful regulation ensuring an unshakable response to any load fluctuations. A high-capacity block capacitor contributes to the M-700U’s ability to deliver lashings of power instantaneously yet remain firmly in control, while the amp’s low-impedance transmission design, carefully selected custom components and short, fully optimised signal paths deliver maximum sonic purity.
In classic Luxman style, the M-700u sports two illuminated VU meters, one for each channel, giving a realtime indication of signal level that’s both a satisfying visual accompaniment to the music and a useful guide to how hard the amp is being pushed. Around the back are both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR inputs, heavy-duty speaker binding posts, switches for stereo/mono modes and phase inversion, plus a remote input terminal for custom installations.
Pricing and availability
Luxman’s D-06u CD/SACD player, C-700u preamplifier and M-700u power amplifier are available from selected audio retailers from June 2015, each with an RRP of £6,995.
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Formed in Japan in 1925 – the same year that Japanese radio broadcasts began – Luxman is one of the world’s oldest high-performance audio brands. It was originally created to deliver a domestic alternative to radio equipment emanating from the United States and Europe, and came to prominence globally as a leading manufacturer of high-quality hi-fi separates in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2009, Luxman became part of the International Audio Group’s family of audio brands, sitting alongside famous British names including Audiolab, Castle, Mission, Quad and Wharfedale. Luxman’s current range encompasses solid-state and valve-based amplifiers, CD/SACD players, USB DACs, headphone amps, phono amps, turntables and cables. R&D and manufacturing continue to be centered in Japan, maintaining Luxman’s heritage as one of the country’s foremost high-end audio brands.
