Luxman AT 8000 - initial thoughts

[farflungstar]

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.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180527/b9733c69f513adcbacdd7a391a379adc.jpg

[Bigman80]

Looks a serious bit of kit mate. Beautiful aesthetics. Congratulations on the purchase.

[farflungstar]

Looks a serious bit of kit mate. Beautiful aesthetics. Congratulations on the purchase.Thanks. It has joined the ranks of the Vida - it's going nowhere. October time I'll get Steve at magna to make it a nice oiled walnut sleeve.

[montesquieu]

Interesting your experience is so different from mine Adey. That very slight raggedness (for me experienced as a very fine but perceptible ‘etched’ or hyper-real sense) is pretty much the characteristic sound of a transformer volume control in my book vs a tube preamp (which on the other side of the equation may may not round off or blunt the sound too much depending on its quality). I encountered this specifically with Vida + Music First MkII (£5k retail) which has decent quality transformers essentially similar to the current ‘Baby’.

I also found that the Vida never sounded all that happy more generally into any passive preamp I tried it with indeed it was the fussiest device I’ve ever owned when it came to preamp matching - I suspect because of relatively high-ish output impedance for a phono stage. It seemed to me to cry out to be matched with tubes or at least a powered buffer along the lines of the Pass preamps or the Truth device you’ve just sold.

Having said that the Vida was by quite a margin the best phono stage I ever owned - just fussy about what it got used with.

Be interesting to hear how this goes but I can’t help feeling what you ultimately need in here is an ARC Ref 3 or 5.

[jandl100]

What speakers are you using these days, Adey?
I somehow recall that the ANe listed in your sig are no longer with us? :scratch:

[farflungstar]

What speakers are you using these days, Adey?
I somehow recall that the ANe listed in your sig are no longer with us? :scratch:I need to update my signature. The ane's are in the spare room. Tannoy Kensington SE are in the system.

Tom my experience is a little different - the Vida seems much happier into the Luxman than the Truth. I had the hyper real thing wth the truth - now things are a little more relaxed.

The very slight top end coarseness is gradually fading as the tubes bed in - listening last night was wonderful.

There's also more power than with the buffered Truth (scratch).

The omission of the hashimoto has had negligible impact on the Vida or sound quality.

But of course this all comes down to the cart feeding the Vida - the Allaerts is a match made in heaven for the little Japanese phono stage.