A while ago I picked up a classic Luxman L-2 amp out of curiosity.
I found its sound profile quite pleasant. Having had a range of classic amps, I know that some put a bare minimum to a higher degree of spice (to tweak bits in attack, release, sustain, emphasis etc) on frequencies, using various techniques to achieve that character. The L2 also does it.
The treatments as desribed (from a heavily subjective point of view) seem to wrap a kind of addictive "zip"-like-touch (or sparkle) to plucked and strummed guitars or synthesizers. Combined with a bit of bass bloom. It is, as described, slightly colored.
Now, from here I started wondering how the later and heavier L3 would sound (and got one). I expected it to be a bit like the L2, but scaled up. It was different.
The L-3 seems more specs-perfectionized. It is more detailed in bass, but by that, it also kind of draws more attention to that. Also the midrange encapsuling of certain frequencies as with the L-2 seem missing.
Overall the L-3 sounds more (pace) perfect". But perfect like a more or less symmetrical face. In the sense that it trades off character (the shades / highlights) for "HDR". An amp that perhaps renders complex types of minimalistic music, the organized chaos types (as tested) "amazingly well", but misses kind of a a characteristic factor for the majority of music in my opinion. This is probably an amp of which some claim that "it doesnt stand in the way" and that "you don't listen to the amp, but the music". But those repeated oneliners can be fitted into anything that makes one enjoy music.
I read about the Luxman L-4 even seem to have stretched to dot the i's from that point of perfectionizing the L-3 by performance even further.
With that the L-1 (obviously in evolution) is been desribed as being even more colored than the L-2. So maybe I will trade the L-3 once for an L-1 some day.
Not to assume there are many users of these specific amps around andcoming to the general point. Have there been ranges of amps or loudspeakers you have experienced using, that went a similar path? That at some point it seemed to have reached the ideal "peak balance" between character/performance and scrubbed away character for pure performance in succeeding models?
I found its sound profile quite pleasant. Having had a range of classic amps, I know that some put a bare minimum to a higher degree of spice (to tweak bits in attack, release, sustain, emphasis etc) on frequencies, using various techniques to achieve that character. The L2 also does it.
The treatments as desribed (from a heavily subjective point of view) seem to wrap a kind of addictive "zip"-like-touch (or sparkle) to plucked and strummed guitars or synthesizers. Combined with a bit of bass bloom. It is, as described, slightly colored.
Now, from here I started wondering how the later and heavier L3 would sound (and got one). I expected it to be a bit like the L2, but scaled up. It was different.
The L-3 seems more specs-perfectionized. It is more detailed in bass, but by that, it also kind of draws more attention to that. Also the midrange encapsuling of certain frequencies as with the L-2 seem missing.
Overall the L-3 sounds more (pace) perfect". But perfect like a more or less symmetrical face. In the sense that it trades off character (the shades / highlights) for "HDR". An amp that perhaps renders complex types of minimalistic music, the organized chaos types (as tested) "amazingly well", but misses kind of a a characteristic factor for the majority of music in my opinion. This is probably an amp of which some claim that "it doesnt stand in the way" and that "you don't listen to the amp, but the music". But those repeated oneliners can be fitted into anything that makes one enjoy music.
I read about the Luxman L-4 even seem to have stretched to dot the i's from that point of perfectionizing the L-3 by performance even further.
With that the L-1 (obviously in evolution) is been desribed as being even more colored than the L-2. So maybe I will trade the L-3 once for an L-1 some day.
Not to assume there are many users of these specific amps around andcoming to the general point. Have there been ranges of amps or loudspeakers you have experienced using, that went a similar path? That at some point it seemed to have reached the ideal "peak balance" between character/performance and scrubbed away character for pure performance in succeeding models?
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