Member Reviews: Luxman P-1u

  LUXMAN P-1u REVIEW:   I just finished spending 2 weeks with the Luxman P-1u headphone amplifier from Todd @ TTVJ and this amp was a pleasure to listen to.  I just shipped it back two days ago, but if I didn't already have an Eddie Current ZDT amp then I would have been sorely tempted to try to buy the Luxman which ranks among the best dynamic headphone amps that I have tried.  Thanks for the opportunity Todd!   GEAR:  I used a Samsung DVD > Synergistic Research active shielded coax cable > PS Audio Perfectwave DAC > anti-cables XLR and RCA IC > Luxman P-1u > HD800 with Locus-Design Hyperion cable.  I also used my Macbook Pro as source via optical out >...

If you bought an headphone amp like you might buy a regular speaker amp, the P-1u is exactly what you'd get. Typically for Luxman, the build quality is excellent and beautiful to behold.  While I didn't test the P-1u, nor its predecessor, the P-1, with anything exotic, every pair of headphones I've plugged in to it didn't give me pause at all to think about the capabilities of the amp in the slightest.   Comparing it to the Audio-gd Phoenix, the Luxman is revealed to be very slightly on the sweet side of neutral, with more authoritative bass, but with marginally less smoothness and detail. It also doesn't have the massively wide soundstage that the Phoenix balanced did with my HD-800s,...