A few days from now I'll the the proud owner of an as-good-as-new Luxman EQ-500 phono stage. The fun-funds are depleted for now, but thinking long term I'll definitely want to upgrade my amplifier (currently an Exposure 3510i) (and after that also my speakers, currently Blumenhofer Tempesta 17). Turntable is - and will continue to be - a Micro Seiki RX-1500 with Glanz & Sorane Arms, Yamamoto Headshells and Hana cartridges (Umami Red & SL Mono).
I've been eyeing the Leben CS-600x for quite a while but didn't expect to get as good a deal on the Luxman as I got and "sadly" these two don't really match each other visually
But maybe they still sound fantastic together? Any experience on that end maybe?
I'll definitely want a tube-amp and I'd like a japanese model aswell. I'm not yet sure if I want to go the preamp + power amp route or stick with an integrated amp. Or maybe I could use me Exposure 3510i as a preamp since it has a pre-out... Questions upon questions!
The combination of Luxman CL-38uC and MQ-88uC seems obvious and will probably be a great match for the EQ-500, but I can find barely any first hand experiences on this pre+power combination - let alone paired with the phono stage.
Design-wise I also REALLY like the AirTight amps and if I understand it correctly, some of their power amps (The ATM-1 and ATM-300?) can also be used as integrated amps, right? Or is that not recommended, sound-wise? Because if it is, I could mabye get the power-amp first and upgrade with the matching preamp at some point down the road...
As you can probably tell by now, I'm in a state of analysis paralysis and need some opinions, suggestions, hints, comments, advice - anything really
Thank you for your attention, have a nice day
Marc
I've been eyeing the Leben CS-600x for quite a while but didn't expect to get as good a deal on the Luxman as I got and "sadly" these two don't really match each other visually
But maybe they still sound fantastic together? Any experience on that end maybe?I'll definitely want a tube-amp and I'd like a japanese model aswell. I'm not yet sure if I want to go the preamp + power amp route or stick with an integrated amp. Or maybe I could use me Exposure 3510i as a preamp since it has a pre-out... Questions upon questions!
The combination of Luxman CL-38uC and MQ-88uC seems obvious and will probably be a great match for the EQ-500, but I can find barely any first hand experiences on this pre+power combination - let alone paired with the phono stage.
Design-wise I also REALLY like the AirTight amps and if I understand it correctly, some of their power amps (The ATM-1 and ATM-300?) can also be used as integrated amps, right? Or is that not recommended, sound-wise? Because if it is, I could mabye get the power-amp first and upgrade with the matching preamp at some point down the road...
As you can probably tell by now, I'm in a state of analysis paralysis and need some opinions, suggestions, hints, comments, advice - anything really
Thank you for your attention, have a nice day
Marc
