Hello Sir, thank you for the upload. I have owned that amp for five years and mostly agree with your comments. But I can offer some ideas on improving your setup which will help mitigate the slightly lively top end and enhance the qualities of your system. 1. room treatment 2. move the speakers much further apart with very little toe in. 3. get a dedicated Hifi rack Your system only sounds as good as the room it’s in. Sit closer to the speakers, you will hear less room noise. My floor standers are just 6inches from the sidewalls! My system was setup by a sound engineer. Good luck to you.

Good review. If you treat your room, you’ll appreciate the top end of that. It won’t be as lively as you think.

Talk about room treatments, just fooling around one day I hung blankets on the walls and bought in as many cushions as I could into to room, I was amazed how the room acoustics changed. I couldn’t order some wall panels quick enough. Best sound improvement for $500 I’ve ever made. Audio isn’t always about big dollar amounts for a noticeable improvement. 🤓

Holy echos Batman. Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊

You need significantly more power for Wilsons than the 509X is capable of providing. I say this as a 509X owner, its a superb amp, but its not a powerhouse, and has a fairly small power supply. It's good into 8 ohm speakers that occasionally dip, but its not an amp I'd pick to run 4 ohm loads forever. It's just not that gutsy. It probably sounds brighter in your setup as it lacks the current to really balance the bass and mids on the Wilsons with the treble. In my system the 509X is smooth as silk, into speakers well known for occasionally bring bright. Just a sub optimal match sadly. With the Mac I'd have experimented with the different output taps, as changing up to the higher impedance taps can often bring out a cleaner top end response from the amp. Perhaps think about looking at the vitus audio 101 integrated, or one of the bigger perreaux models for something with more grip in the lower registers without going too far on the high end.

Some acoustic panels will sort the higher frequency I have the new 509z myself and love it I had naim 300dr before luxman .

Excellent review. I own a L-509x and it took about 300 hours to break-in, once it was broken in I noticed the emphasis on the highs smoothed out a bit. I am also thinking about testing the Accuphase E-4000.

What a nice video..!!! Thank you

Using a room treatment made a big difference for me, switching to Transparent Plus Speaker cables also made a difference. I have tried the Pass Labs Int 250 and if you can live with the significant heat(this will heat up your room) and the weight, and the fact that is only sounds good after half an hour of warming up, than it’s a great amp, a sweet, warm sound. The Accuphase e-800 is absolutely fantastic, but very expensive on the US market

Thanks a lot for the review, actually i come from Mcintosh and definitely the level of details especially on highs is stunning but from other side could result tiring as too many information, kind of difficult to not get focus on the sound, it is amazing how it gets you into the performance but from other side it is not that relaxing, it is not a down point whether question of taste.I like this amp inside and outside but it is not for everyone (whoever comes from Mc would need little time to get used to).

A superb review. I’ve watch your mc8950 too. But lm a bit not sure which amp to go for. I have Sonus faber Olympica nova II speakers. I would really appreciate your recommendation between these 2 amps. Thank you

the high energy in the upper frequencies - it really depends on what you're pairing it with. if you're pairing the unit with a warm speaker this could balance out very nicely. but if you combine it with neutral or brighter gear then it could push it over the edge and sound a bit clinical. there's even a massive difference for example when i use my Lumin D2 vs Lumin X1 streamer with this. The Lumin D2 has a Wolfson WM8741 dac and actually pairs perfectly with this unit because the dac is a warmer dac. lots of people out there criticise Luxman for sound bright but in fact, i'd categorise it more as a ''sweeter-detailed high freq.'' bright would be more the early-mid 2000s Klipsch reference sound...

Go with accuphase or pass labs

You might consider an Accuphase Integrated.

Get an audiolab 9000a it's great

The brightness you speak of is likely due to all the bare walls and hard surfaces in the room. Some treatment will help. Also, you did not discuss how it sounds with poorly recorded music, which is the majority of recorded music out there, especially rock recordings.

what do you mean higher freq? Can you just turn down the treble?

Room treatment!

From personal experience, the cabinet between the speakers is not helping the soundstage 😊