The D-05 is a new SACD/CD, 2-channel, midline player from Luxman. MSRP is $5K. I haven't been able to find much in the way in information or reviews for this player. Pretty much all of the info I've found is for the D-05's bigger brother, the D-06.
Scott, who is the local dealer for Luxman and a friend, had this unit in his stock and let me bring it home with me to see what I thought. (Unlike the Esoteric Guys, Scott lets his customers do this- but I digress) As some here know, I recently bought a pair of Evolution Acoustics MM-2 Loudspeakers. These speakers were a huge step up for me in the audio world, and have quickly revealed the flaws of some of my 'lessor' equipment. I have been using the Oppo BDP-83 SE for my primary player. The Oppo is in Stereophile's 'A' catagory of recommended SACD/CD components. So I initially felt like I was in 'fair' hands using it as my primary source for music. A few weeks ago, I took the Oppo over to Scott's house, and we did a 'very informal' shootout between his Playback Designs MPS-5 and the Oppo. Yes, I know. Not really 'fair' to compare a $900 player to a $15K player. But I wanted to know where I really stood. To no one's surprise, it wasn't even close. Sparing the details, I will say that the Oppo is NOT a Giant Killer. However, I still think it is one of the best choices for a Blu-Ray player that is available.
Now to the Luxman. I first heard this player at the Lone Star Audio Fest a few weeks back. I liked what I heard that day, and since then, have been wanting to see how the D-05 would do in my system. Yesterday evening, I put the Luxman into my system, powered it on, and was going to let it warm up until today, before doing any serious listening. However, I went ahead and put in a CD just to see if I could descern any improvement. What I thought was going to be a one or two song listening test, turned into about a 4 hour session. Putting in Katie Melua's 'Piece by Piece', I listened to the first track 'Shy Boy'. This particular track has some sort of percussion that comes in around the 50 to 60 second mark, on my Oppo, that percussion sounds like raspy distortion. In fact, the first time I heard this track when I got my Evolution Acoustics, I thought I had a tweeter problem. I later figured out, it was in the recording (this CD has some 'noisy' sounds through out in various places). On the Luxman, when this part of the song came up, this 'raspy sound' was much subdued and more musical, sounding like a percussive instrument. As the evening went on, I just found myself putting in one CD after another. With the Oppo, the music was basically 'thrown out' at you. But with the Luxman, I felt like I was being 'sucked into the music'. All hints of hardness had dissapeared, and there seemed to be more 'air' between the instruments. Bass extension appears improved, and the upper frequencies are warm, but not too laid back with the details. Another thing I would mention about this player, is that it's heavy! Scott put it in my car yesterday, so I hadn't picked it up until I got it home. When I first reached in to grab the box, I was surprised at how heavy it was! My immediate thought was that Scott had accidently put the 2-channel integrated amp in my car. But no, it was the CD player.
For me, I have to say that I'm interested in this player, and giving it very serious consideration. And since I haven't seen much on this forum about Luxman, I wanted to throw in my 2 cents about this particular player.
- Bill
Scott, who is the local dealer for Luxman and a friend, had this unit in his stock and let me bring it home with me to see what I thought. (Unlike the Esoteric Guys, Scott lets his customers do this- but I digress) As some here know, I recently bought a pair of Evolution Acoustics MM-2 Loudspeakers. These speakers were a huge step up for me in the audio world, and have quickly revealed the flaws of some of my 'lessor' equipment. I have been using the Oppo BDP-83 SE for my primary player. The Oppo is in Stereophile's 'A' catagory of recommended SACD/CD components. So I initially felt like I was in 'fair' hands using it as my primary source for music. A few weeks ago, I took the Oppo over to Scott's house, and we did a 'very informal' shootout between his Playback Designs MPS-5 and the Oppo. Yes, I know. Not really 'fair' to compare a $900 player to a $15K player. But I wanted to know where I really stood. To no one's surprise, it wasn't even close. Sparing the details, I will say that the Oppo is NOT a Giant Killer. However, I still think it is one of the best choices for a Blu-Ray player that is available.
Now to the Luxman. I first heard this player at the Lone Star Audio Fest a few weeks back. I liked what I heard that day, and since then, have been wanting to see how the D-05 would do in my system. Yesterday evening, I put the Luxman into my system, powered it on, and was going to let it warm up until today, before doing any serious listening. However, I went ahead and put in a CD just to see if I could descern any improvement. What I thought was going to be a one or two song listening test, turned into about a 4 hour session. Putting in Katie Melua's 'Piece by Piece', I listened to the first track 'Shy Boy'. This particular track has some sort of percussion that comes in around the 50 to 60 second mark, on my Oppo, that percussion sounds like raspy distortion. In fact, the first time I heard this track when I got my Evolution Acoustics, I thought I had a tweeter problem. I later figured out, it was in the recording (this CD has some 'noisy' sounds through out in various places). On the Luxman, when this part of the song came up, this 'raspy sound' was much subdued and more musical, sounding like a percussive instrument. As the evening went on, I just found myself putting in one CD after another. With the Oppo, the music was basically 'thrown out' at you. But with the Luxman, I felt like I was being 'sucked into the music'. All hints of hardness had dissapeared, and there seemed to be more 'air' between the instruments. Bass extension appears improved, and the upper frequencies are warm, but not too laid back with the details. Another thing I would mention about this player, is that it's heavy! Scott put it in my car yesterday, so I hadn't picked it up until I got it home. When I first reached in to grab the box, I was surprised at how heavy it was! My immediate thought was that Scott had accidently put the 2-channel integrated amp in my car. But no, it was the CD player.
For me, I have to say that I'm interested in this player, and giving it very serious consideration. And since I haven't seen much on this forum about Luxman, I wanted to throw in my 2 cents about this particular player.
- Bill
