Luxman P700u Headphone Amplifier Thread
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Just received and finished setting up the P-750uL.
Here it is with the DAVE.
Here it is with the DAVE.
what an endgame SS setup!!Just received and finished setting up the P-750uL.
Here it is with the DAVE.
Hopefully won't be up/sidegrading for the rest of this year!
So I gave the P-750uL few hours of listen and it sounds a bit different from the original P-750u that I remembered. It sounds more like what the Luxman house should sound like. Unfortunately DAVE's pinpoint accuracy and clarity is somewhat diminished for imo a more musical presentation. Going to need to put more hours before I can pin the exact differences.
geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
Seriously! Nice combo. I have coveted a P-750u for a couple years and have been able to pull it off. Love to hear your full impressions of your elegant Headphone Amp powerhouse. Which can be argued is the best SS headphone on the market. Or at least top 5... I hope you enjoy your new set up. Should be making some fine music...
So here is my initial impression on the Luxman P-750u Limited.
I’m no writer so this might sound like a ramble.
DAC: Chord DAVE
Headphones: Focal Utopia, Sennheiser HD800S
Background: The Luxman P-750uL was released back in end of May 2020 to commemorate Luxman’s 95-year anniversary. Taking the original P-750u that was popular here in Japan, Luxman had improved the headphone amplifier with 6N internal wiring and the ultimate version of Luxman’s Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ODNF). The P-750uL also featured a newly designed custom block condenser in the power section. Honestly, I have no clue as to what actual technical improvements these customizations bring.
Sound: Having owned the original P-750u for about a month, I somewhat have an idea of how it sounds. Upon initial listen to the P-750uL, I couldn’t help but notice a slight difference from how I remembered the P-750u. It seems that the P-750uL sounded more like the original Luxman house sound, going back to its roots with its slight warm and smooth presentation. Now this could all be my imagination, but I would love to have the original P-750u and do an AB test to solidify my experience. Reading several reviews from other Japanese buyers seem to indicate similar experiences to mine.
Comparison – DAVE Headphone Output: Compared with DAVE’s straight headphone output, there is a slight loss in speed and imaging precision. However, listening to La Bamba by O-Zone Percussion Group reveals fatter sound with more meat on the bone leading to better impact. Overall, it provided a much more relaxing and pleasant experience. It is as if the musical dots connect with one another effortlessly and continuously, which contrasts DAVE’s surgical precision. If that makes any sense.
Comparison – Cayin iHA-6: There seems to be more detail and information loss with the Cayin. For example, gamelans from the album Sacred Rhythm in Bali had an oscillating reverberation after it is striked. It is very subtle but very hard to pick up with the Cayin but is present with the Luxman. Jennifer Warnes’ vocals in The Panther sounded a smidge more forward in the Cayin, but clearer and more energetic with the Luxman, which has the effect of engaging me more.
Comparison – SMSL SP200: Well, what can I say, the SP200 sounds flat and thin in comparison. Details are just not there and it’s simply just no match.
Overall pleased with this amp!
I’m no writer so this might sound like a ramble.
DAC: Chord DAVE
Headphones: Focal Utopia, Sennheiser HD800S
Background: The Luxman P-750uL was released back in end of May 2020 to commemorate Luxman’s 95-year anniversary. Taking the original P-750u that was popular here in Japan, Luxman had improved the headphone amplifier with 6N internal wiring and the ultimate version of Luxman’s Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ODNF). The P-750uL also featured a newly designed custom block condenser in the power section. Honestly, I have no clue as to what actual technical improvements these customizations bring.
Sound: Having owned the original P-750u for about a month, I somewhat have an idea of how it sounds. Upon initial listen to the P-750uL, I couldn’t help but notice a slight difference from how I remembered the P-750u. It seems that the P-750uL sounded more like the original Luxman house sound, going back to its roots with its slight warm and smooth presentation. Now this could all be my imagination, but I would love to have the original P-750u and do an AB test to solidify my experience. Reading several reviews from other Japanese buyers seem to indicate similar experiences to mine.
Comparison – DAVE Headphone Output: Compared with DAVE’s straight headphone output, there is a slight loss in speed and imaging precision. However, listening to La Bamba by O-Zone Percussion Group reveals fatter sound with more meat on the bone leading to better impact. Overall, it provided a much more relaxing and pleasant experience. It is as if the musical dots connect with one another effortlessly and continuously, which contrasts DAVE’s surgical precision. If that makes any sense.
Comparison – Cayin iHA-6: There seems to be more detail and information loss with the Cayin. For example, gamelans from the album Sacred Rhythm in Bali had an oscillating reverberation after it is striked. It is very subtle but very hard to pick up with the Cayin but is present with the Luxman. Jennifer Warnes’ vocals in The Panther sounded a smidge more forward in the Cayin, but clearer and more energetic with the Luxman, which has the effect of engaging me more.
Comparison – SMSL SP200: Well, what can I say, the SP200 sounds flat and thin in comparison. Details are just not there and it’s simply just no match.
Overall pleased with this amp!
geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
Thanks for the impressions. Do you think amps that are reference or near reference can hold up against the p-750u or is just a step ahead? I misspoke in my earlier response. I have not been able to pull off buying a Luxman. But, I do have a pretty amazing amp and wonder how much better the Luxman would be. I have wanted one forever. I found a really nice 700u online and wonder how much different the 750 is the 700.
I have not heard the 700, but have had my 750u for over a year. I love it, and it has done a great job driving and getting the most out of a wide range of headphones - it has 6.3mm singler-ended, 2x 3-pin xclr and 4-pin xlr balanced headphone outs, 3-position sensitivity switch, lots of gozintas and gozooutas... it is built like a tank, the wityches have an awesome solid feel to them, and is worth the money....
There's lots of great gear out there, and knowing your taste and needs is primary, beyond that price is a huge consideration as well. (No big surprise on any of that!).
I really do believe that value is not an accceptable substitute for quality, and that it is always less expensive to get it right the first timer. (I know, more platitudes, but they are true). That said, it is about the music, and many amps are quite enjoyable. the rest is up to you. More importantly, there are diminishing returns, but quantitatively small improvements can be qualitatively huge.
geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
Thanks for the response. Makes perfect sense. I like everything about the Luxman, but the price. It is not cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for. That I have no doubt. I stumbled onto my current amp, which is pretty rare. The Cembalo Spring 1. It is an amazing amp, especially for $2000. I have yet to hear a better amp. The better cabling I feed it, the better the DAC, the better it keeps sounding. At some point in time I will own a Luxman headphone amp as there is no piece I covet more. I also know that my TEAC UD-505 will need to be upgraded if I do get one. I will want the DAC to be on par with the Luxman when that day comes. As good as my system sounds, it isn't to the level of the p-750u.
My tastes tend towards neutral with a hint of warmth, detailed but not analytical. I want to feel the space between the notes, not just hear them. My Cembalo does that, but I venture the Luxman would even more. I could care less how a piece measures. The only thing that matters to me is how it sounds. Luxman seems to fit this philosophy and their equipment is renowned for how it sounds. Not how it measures.
Luxman tends to be priced higher outside of Japan. My dealer was able to hook me up with a new P-750u Limited that's got some dents on the shipping box and offered me $3000 for it! I moved up from SMSL SP200 → Cayin iHA-6 → P-750uL in a time span of 1 year and each upgrade made an improvement. From the SP200 to iHA-6 was a huge jump in SQ but much less of a jump moving to the P-750uL. Though, SQ is not all of the story. Luxman amps paint a different picture of the sound, in my experience it provided a fuller and fatter bodied sound without losing much detail, depth, and imaging.
Benny-x
1000+ Head-Fier
I tried opening that page and ran into the same issues. But, I also found this new link to the new p-750u Mark II and a Luxman Japan Facebook announcement:
https://www.luxman.co.jp/presspro/p-750u2
I can't check the specs since I can't open the link, so I'll have to leave it to someone else to find out if this is a "real" v2 or whether this is just a full production rampup of the p-750u Limited from last year.
Looks like any generational upgrade like a p-800X is a long ways off now with that Mark II announcement.
Attachments
Benny-x
1000+ Head-Fier
I found this shot of the product page for the p-750u Mark II in Japanese on another site.
It looks like the ODNF 4.0 amplification circuit in the p-750u was upgraded to the ODNF-u (ultimate) in the p-750u Limited and that was carried over into this unit too. I thought I read about that a couple times, but there wasn't much talk about it last year. That's potentially a significant upgrade, along with the newer Lecua volume control. However, the upgraded ODNF-u includes the transformer, and I was guessing that's what led to the 1KG weight increase from p-750u --> p-750u Limited, but now in the p-750u Mark II the weight is back down to the same as the p-750u at ~13.3KG. So that's a bit weird. Might turn the p-750u Limited into something to covet...
Product page:
It looks like the ODNF 4.0 amplification circuit in the p-750u was upgraded to the ODNF-u (ultimate) in the p-750u Limited and that was carried over into this unit too. I thought I read about that a couple times, but there wasn't much talk about it last year. That's potentially a significant upgrade, along with the newer Lecua volume control. However, the upgraded ODNF-u includes the transformer, and I was guessing that's what led to the 1KG weight increase from p-750u --> p-750u Limited, but now in the p-750u Mark II the weight is back down to the same as the p-750u at ~13.3KG. So that's a bit weird. Might turn the p-750u Limited into something to covet...
Product page:
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Extra weight could just be the different chassis used in P-750uL
Nice, thanks for the impressions!
Would you know if they made any change to the line through output?
It used to only output what was input via RCA, not XLR.
I wonder if they managed to output XLR inputs via the through out noow as well.
There should be a comment about that in the manual.
Nope!
Line through still only passes through unbalanced inputs regardless of input knob position. Which is a bummer really
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