Mcintosh MA12000 or Luxman 595
 

i recently bought sonus faber amati tradition speakers. looking at these 2 integrated amp's. has anyone with sonus speakers used or compared these amp's. i have heard the speakers with mac separates and great synergy. never heard luxman but seems to get good press. thanks.

ed

Mcintosh owns Sonus Faber so I'd assume their integrated amps will sound fine. Luxman builds top notch Amps.

The only thing these two amps share in common is that they're Integrated. The similarities pretty much stop there. While the 595 is a Class A amp you're only getting 60 watts.

Steve Guttenberg reviewd the Luxman on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx4RpRwrdgw

The Audio Excellence guys reviewed the McIntosh MA12000 on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUKz4gXJwKc

FWIW, YouTube has become utterly atrocious with all the infernal ads they force you to watch, but I digress.

Both amps are beautiful and undoubtedly provide a very sublime sonic experience. For my money I'd go with the MA12000, but admittedly I'm a bit of a Mc homer.

SF recommends power from 100 to 500 watts for your speakers (gorgeous ones BTW). Proper amp matching is part of that synergy thing you mentioned. Another check mark in the Mc's box.

The Class A Luxman would be awesome with high efficiency speakers.

I use high power McIntosh tube amps with my SF Amati Futura - I don’t think they would open up with 30 watts.

Not long ago, I listened to a Luxman L-590AxII and McIntosh MA8900 tied to a pair of SF Olympica Nova V speakers. Those speakers have a sensitivity rating of 90 dB SPL (2.83V/1 m) and sounded very nice with both integrated amps. The main difference was the Luxman required a much higher volume control level to achieve my personal listening level preference than the McIntosh. Neither amp seemed to struggle with dynamic passages of music I was familiar with, but the Luxman was noticeably warmer than the McIntosh after 30 minutes of listening. Not hot to the touch, but very warm. I've always felt that the Class A amplification narrative should have been disregarded long ago as nothing but marketing hype. I know, many will argue that but to my ears, Class A has never outperformed a very good class AB amp in sound quality. These speakers just sounded bigger and fuller with the McIntosh at higher volume levels.

I once agreed with you. But, as with all our gear, "it depends". Depends on so many variables. My current system is 20wpc of Class A and is the best SQ I've owned. I installed the amp more or less as a lark, expecting nothing special. It was so good that I was shocked and am almost afraid to change anything for fear that I'll be less pleased. One never knows.

Take note that I mentioned "to my ears" in my post. That's the most important variable.

Indeed. We all hear what we hear.

Which - we ain't exactly spring chickens anymore! - decreases every year a bit... :D

So true. Probably the biggest reason I have not up-graded speakers. A rapidly diminishing return on the top end. :icon_thumbsdown: