Luxman AT 8000 - initial thoughts
So, the Truth is on its way to a new owner and the Luxman AT 8000 TVC has been doing duty in its place.
This is a serious bit of kit. It might look small from the front but it's almost as deep as my ARC Ref 75 and weighs in at a whopping 9kg. This is pretty amazing for what is basically a box with two trannies inside it. But it's the quality of finish and control that is superlative. It was serviced by John Sampson of musical fidelity at JS Audio before I received it and I have to say it performs flawlessly. Not a whisper of noise on the 30 year old switch volume control.
I can't really comment on ultimate sound quality yet as I changed over all the tubes in the ref 75 at the time I put it into the system and with only around 15 hours use the tubes need another 30 hours or so to reach anything like peak performance - at the moment top end is a smidgen coarse which is to be expected with new signal and power tubes. But - it already trounces the Slagles, which in turn had trounced the Music First - and now it's usurped the Truth. I'm exceedingly happy with it.
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Jan Allaerts MC 1 Boron mk1 cart
Miyajima Shilabe cart
Hashimoto HM-X SUT
Siggwan (gimballed not unipivot) Cocobola 12"
Aurorasound Vida LCR Phonostage
The Truth linestage
Dave Slagle Autoformer Volume Controller
Cary 805c SET amps
Audio Note ANe-SPX speakers
Townshend Isolda speaker cables
Cardas Golden Presence interconnects