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Poll: Best Looking Stereo Integrated Amp

Which of the following amps will look best with the rest of my system?

  • Devialet Expert 400 (current amp)

    Votes: 15 14.7%
  • Luxman L509X

    Votes: 32 31.4%
  • McIntosh MA8900

    Votes: 9 8.8%
  • Technics SU R1000

    Votes: 24 23.5%
  • Yamaha AS 3200

    Votes: 22 21.6%

  • Total voters
    102
  • Poll closed .

PortableMusic

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On reflection, looking at all these amps, one of the things I miss is the push-button input selector.
Just being able to select your next input without going through them all.
The last one I had like that was a Goodmans one-ten decades ago!
They did a modest wood cased one with silver fascia
View attachment 101123
or the one I had, which I could not find a picture of, which was a white painted sleeve and black fascia decades before that became popular!
Back then buying locally made stuff rather than imported was the norm, probably in every country, so this probably won't be familiar to non-Brits.

@Frank Dernie:

love the way this Goodmans looks! even the way the front face plate wraps around the top, giving the illusion that it's a much thicker piece of metal that the face plate is made of, is so elegantly executed.

also the way the whole design has a scientific, slide ruler-esque vibe about it. from the tuner marker (what is that thing called anyway? the line indicating where you're tuned to?), to the 4 knobs for balance, bass, etc. very scientific!

the wood is also elegant in that it sits flush to the top edge of the wrapped-on-top face plate.

thanks for sharing. great design. if they pushed this design further several more steps, it would have been close to Dieter Rams-esque.
 

Frank Dernie

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@Frank Dernie:

love the way this Goodmans looks! even the way the front face plate wraps around the top, giving the illusion that it's a much thicker piece of metal that the face plate is made of, is so elegantly executed.

also the way the whole design has a scientific, slide ruler-esque vibe about it. from the tuner marker (what is that thing called anyway? the line indicating where you're tuned to?), to the 4 knobs for balance, bass, etc. very scientific!

the wood is also elegant in that it sits flush to the top edge of the wrapped-on-top face plate.

thanks for sharing. great design. if they pushed this design further several more steps, it would have been close to Dieter Rams-esque.
I call the FM tuning thing the cursor. The signal strength meter was a barrel type too.
It ended up in the Williams Grand Prix Engineering workshop piping radio to the guys working there when there were about 30 to 40 of us!
 

PortableMusic

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I call the FM tuning thing the cursor. The signal strength meter was a barrel type too.
It ended up in the Williams Grand Prix Engineering workshop piping radio to the guys working there when there were about 30 to 40 of us!

Wow, stylin' all the way. ha ha.
 
OP
watchnerd

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Pics from today's audition.

The meters look almost blue in the photos. In real life, they were white.

IMG_0101.jpg


IMG_0103.jpg


IMG_0095.jpg


IMG_0097.jpg


IMG_0096.jpg


In some ways, I think I liked the two-tone color of the little brother L-590AXII a little better:

IMG_0102.jpg
 

PortableMusic

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may i please request the components in the pictures of that audition please?

thank you!
 
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watchnerd

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PortableMusic

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AMP: Luxman L-509X
DAC: Luxman DA-250
Streamer: I think it was a Blue Sound Node 2i
Speakers: Dynaudio Heritage Special

Extra Credit Amp Shot: Luxman L-590AXII

One of the staff members made a point of saying they didn't think cables were a big deal to spend money on; if you were into vinyl, you'd be better off buying more records.

thank you, @watchnerd.

may i ask what you thought of the Dynaudio Heritage Specials please? how are they vis-a-vis your own speakers, for example?

do they go low enough? do they sound like small monitor speakers or do they have a (surprisingly) great deal of authority?

thank you.
 
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watchnerd

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watchnerd

watchnerd

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So I got the low down on the phono section of the Luxman L-509X from Luxman America:

  • Input Capacitance = 320pF (fixed, non-adjustable)
  • MM input impedance = 47k Ohms (fixed, non-adjustable)
  • MM input sensitivity = 2.5 mV (nominal average) for full amplifier output.
  • MC input impedance = 100 Ohms (fixed, non-adjustable, suitable for MC cartridges having an ~approximate~ internal coil impedance range of 3- 40 Ohms)
  • MC input sensitivity = 0.3 mV (nominal average) for full amplifier output.

Net of it for me:

  • Not a great match for my new Audio Technica VM540ML, but this isn't my main cart, or my best MM
  • Acceptable, but not as flexible as my current Devialet, for my Nagaoka MP-500
  • Should work fine with my AT MC carts, including the AT 33 series (AT33EV, AT33SA, AT33 Mono) and the difficult ART9XA (my best cart)
  • Ortofon SPU Classic GE MK II right on the borderline at 2 ohms internal impedance. But can be used with a SUT.
  • Denon DL-103...maybe? recommended loading for the DL-103 is 100 ohms, which matches. But I can't find the internal impedance.
 
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watchnerd

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And outside of its magic whiz bang auto cart loading (do I really trust that?), it's not apparent to me that the SU-R1000 is more any more flexible if one wants to set cartridge loading parameters manually instead of on auto-pilot.
 

Lorenzo74

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That was pretty good.
I love Steve and Herb together...


here another interesting talk about: nearfield listening, 3 channel stereo, & horns spot on for for ASR community.

I think Herb-Steve grasped the importance of controlled directivity and Direct/reflect sound ratio: we need more voice articulation... today we have bass and other stuff but...

then go to 11:55! the "capability to take rev" is amazing way to describe the capability of a system to reproduce dynamic sound without compression...
let's image an amazing live panel in streaming for ASR @amirm @hardisj Herb and Steve... what a gorgeous moment for our community...
I'm too small and too far to organize that but let me dream of it...
Best
L.
 

mhardy6647

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I'd appreciate the opportunity to meet Herb -- but Art Dudley was the one I really would have liked to have met & had an opportunity to chat with. We, apparently, had pretty similar tastes in the sound of reproduced music.

I was really both shocked & saddened when I heard of Art's passing.

Why are we talkin' about these guys in the context of this thread, though?
:oops:
 

Lorenzo74

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I'd appreciate the opportunity to meet Herb -- but Art Dudley was the one I really would have liked to have met & had an opportunity to chat with. We, apparently, had pretty similar tastes in the sound of reproduced music.

I was really both shocked & saddened when I heard of Art's passing.

Why are we talkin' about these guys in the context of this thread, though?
:oops:
RIP Mr. Art Dudley.
let's create a new thread and move those there. @BDWoody hopefully will help...
best
 
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watchnerd

watchnerd

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Why are we talkin' about these guys in the context of this thread, though?
:oops:

Thread entropy.

In the absence of a defined vector, any given thread will degenerate into Brownian chaos.

And hardly any of the other ASR denizens, except me, @Frank Dernie and @BDWoody are qualified talk about the features one gives up if one moves away from the ASR-hated Devialet ;) to one of the poll winners in this thread.

Especially when it comes to cartridge loading.

@BDWoody I forget, does your model have the Core Infinity and did you get the Sweet Room (ha) PEQ upgrade?
 

BDWoody

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RIP Mr. Art Dudley.
let's create a new thread and move those there. @BDWoody hopefully will help...
best

I'm good if you want to start a new one, but considering the thread, it's not really that out of whatever the context is. It's pretty free wheeling so far...
 

BDWoody

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@BDWoody I forget, does your model have the Core Infinity and did you get the Sweet Room (ha) PEQ upgrade?

No, it's the old Expert 200. I was hoping (against all reason) after 'the incident' that Devialet would give it a full upgrade for the chance at redemption in the community, but I am not at all unhappy with it. Quite the contrary. Especially now that my TT/Cart collection seems to be multiplying, that phono stage would be hard to say goodbye to, along with the aforementioned remote.

I found an older Luxman preamp (C120a) that I think will be cool and quite effective for the retro setup, and the Devialet will get whichever table/cartridge turns out to be the best one, then I've got some ripping sessions planned.

I like the Devialet a lot. Not sure it's in the plan to get rid of.
 
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watchnerd

watchnerd

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No, it's the old Expert 200. I was hoping (against all reason) after 'the incident' that Devialet would give it a full upgrade for the chance at redemption in the community, but I am not at all unhappy with it. Quite the contrary. Especially now that my TT/Cart collection seems to be multiplying, that phono stage would be hard to say goodbye to, along with the aforementioned remote.

I found an older Luxman preamp (C120a) that I think will be cool and quite effective for the retro setup, and the Devialet will get whichever table/cartridge turns out to be the best one, then I've got some ripping sessions planned.

I like the Devialet a lot. Not sure it's in the plan to get rid of.

Yeah, the more carts I get in the corral the more I agree.

I'm not convinced the Technics SU-R1000 is better for phono if it doesn't allow 'manual over-ride' or has fewer parameters.

However, the new speakers aren't in the SAM database, so that is a (hypothetical) functionality loss for me.
 
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