Just looking this thread because I just picked up one of these Luxman's - literally. I got a 25% discount (basically at dealer cost, unboxed but never plugged in) because it was too heavy for the dealer to shift around for demo's, so the deal was I go round and box it up and get it in the car on my own. Boxing into the double boxes was OK, but I crunched the third shipping box. It was a bit cold and my dry hands on the slippery cardboard, I almost dropped it getting to the car. The 35kg was not the problem, it's the sheer size of the box.
So I don't think one of these, or any of the many popular similar products, are ever going to get to Chez Amir, let alone up his staircase. For reasons I will never understand, these units need a few miles on the clock and to warm up before use to sound at their best, but I have no idea if that would affect how they measure.
FWIW, I bought it to create an all-analog signal path for vinyl and it does the job brilliantly. It has a mass of features that excite me (but probably not Amir), like being able to bypass the tone controls or the entire pre-amp including the volume control, a superb phono pre-amp, and of course a full range of tone controls and loudness button. Of course these functions are very popular in Japan, rather out of fashion elsewhere, but the bypass function pleases everyone. The Japanese were often way ahead, I remember bobbing along in a 1960s Datsun that had electric windows and air conditioning as standard, even in the 1990s the VW Golf still had winder handles on some models and you could only dream of having aircon.
It has a high quality full-metal finish that the Japanese manage to do very cost-effectively. The amp and pre-amp sections are entirely separate with steel plate walls dividing them, also walls separating the power supply and the amplifier panels. Very short signal paths, all very tidy. I suppose the main issue with these integrated A/B amps is if they are powerful enough for speakers that have low impedance. I spoke to a few owners of other similar products and they failed in that regard.
Having used the same Class D amp for 7 years and others for 6 years before that, I was concerned for any hum. This thing is dead quiet.
