SHL5 or C7 ES-3, good matching with Luxman L505u?

[Sebastien]

Hi everyone,

Is there any HUG member who can send me via mail or email an example of Luxman L-505u owner's manual in english? If so, I'll pay the shipping.

Thank you,

Sebastien

[Tudor]

I own a Luxman L-505u but unfortunately I don’t have an user’s manual in English too. I requested that to Lux Corporation and also to the distributor On a Higher Note in USA/Canada, but I didn’t receive any answer.
None the less that I haven’t it, I think that is very easy to use this amp. I used it for over two years and I had no problems.
Anyway I am also concerned about such an owner’s manual for Luxman L 505u and Luxman DU-50.
If I could help you with some informations of my own experience, you're welcome.

[tozen]

Hi Sebastien, I have the 505U and two owners manuals! One of them has the feel of a hastily put together translation of the Japanese for the English market, the other is a nicely produced English manual. I obviously bought my 505U when they were making the transition to the new manual! To be honest you don't need either. Not sure they tell you much that is not common sense (the normal 'make sure you don't blow yourself up when you are plugging it in' type of thing). If you need any particular specs or technical info I would be delighted to root it out for you.

[Sebastien]

Hi Tozen,

Surprising because I heard of a good and complete manual. I'll let you know if I need anything and I take your feedback in consideration.

Sebastien

[do_Ob]

I have an English L550A mkII manual. The controls and layout pretty much resembles that of the L505U.
If you want, you can PM me your details and I'll photocopy the pages and mail it out to you.
The only difference is that the Australian version is grounded/earthed. Therefore, the line phase circuit checking is omitted.

I also have an English version of Luxman's D-06 user's manual.

[Sebastien]

Thanks do_Ob, I'll wait for a Luxman L-505u user's manual, in english.

Sebastien

[tozen]

Hi Sebastien, it sounds like you are very keen to get your hands on a copy, so let me echo do_Ob's kind offer. Would be happy to photocopy my 505U manual for you. Just IM me your details and I will pop it in the post. Just send me your DU-50 in return.... Just kidding ;)

[Sebastien]

Hi Tozen,

There is an Audiogon member, I don't know if he is also a HUG member, who email me today saying that he'll send me a copy from the USA. I'll wait for this one and let you know if anything goes wrong. I miss the joke about the DU-50. What is that?

Sebastien

[tozen]

Just me coveting your DU-50 that's all... I was suggesting an exchange: a photocopy of the 505U owner's manual for your DU-50 machine. Probably not a fair exchange, which is why I was just kidding.

[Sebastien]

Maybe something have been misunderstood: I do not have a Luxman DU-50 cd player. I think that's why I didn't understand the reference or maybe it was for someone else.

Sebatien

[Sebastien]

Coming back to the Luxman L-505u that we were talking about sooner. I like to know how to understand the to meter. I don't understand the signification of the dB in the screen. I goes from -60 dB to +3 dB. What does it represents in the amplification process?

Plus, there are others numbers below that that I can't see on Internet's pictures actually. What are they?

Sebastien

[tozen]

Sebastien, my apologies for attributing DU-50 ownership to you! Don't know why I thought that... Re. the meters neither myself or the manual can help you! The second set of numbers below are exactly the same set as the ones above.

[EricW]

But more importantly, Sebastien, do you have that L-505u hooked up yet? If so, how does it sound? I'm particularly interested in whether you notice any effect of using the external power transformer.

[Sebastien]

Hi Eric, my Luxman L-505u has just leave Osaka, Japan last Wednesday. I'm waiting for him for this week or the next one. I'll be glad to give you feedback when I'll have it. Plus, I'm suppose to receive my Harbeth SHL5 in the end of May. Big changes! At the beggining, I was just suppose to buy new speakers.

I heard a lot of good comment on the use of an external power transformer. It seems that for many years, Luxman sells their units with them in the USA. Also, many hospital seems to use this with specialized machines from Europe or Asia.

Still wondering how to understand those "dB-meter" rating.

Sebastien

[EricW]

Still wondering how to understand those "dB-meter" rating.

Sebastien

Hi Sebastien:

Wikipedia has a very technical article, but it contains this one relatively simple paragraph:

"A change in power ratio by a factor of 10 is a 10 dB change. A change in power ratio by a factor of two is approximately a 3 dB change. More precisely, the factor is 103/10, or 1.9953, about 0.24% different from exactly 2. Similarly, an increase of 3 dB implies an increase in voltage by a factor of approximately , or about 1.41, an increase of 6 dB corresponds to approximately four times the power and twice the voltage, and so on. In exact terms the power ratio is 106/10, or about 3.9811, a relative error of about 0.5%."

Sticking with the first sentence, I believe that would mean that when your meters are reading -3db, your amp is putting out 50% of its rated power (which is a lot!) and when they're reading -10db, your amp is putting out 10% of its rated power. And so on.

[Sebastien]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your precision. Surprisingly, on the Luxman L-505u, the -3 dB (50% of power?) is almost at the end of the meter. After, you've got 0 dB, then +3 dB.

I was also wondering why do an amplifier company prefer the dB meter over the Watt meter (McInstosh for example).

Sebastien

[tozen]

Hi Sebastien, the reason for -3db being nearly at the end of the meter is that most listening is done a long long way within the usable range of the amplifier. I took a look at my amp to follow through on Eric's helpful comments. Very loud listening for me is at about -10db, i.e. at what Eric is suggesting is 10% of usable power. I very rarely go much beyond this. In other words, it is calibrated for real world listening.

[Tudor]

tozen, you was probably referring to my DU-50, I own such a Luxman player as I said before. If it is not too hard to copy your owner’s manual of L 505u in english and you could send to me by e-mail, I would appreciate this very much. Unfortunately, if you suggest an exchange, I can only send you a …photo of my DU-50!
You can already see it here: http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/a...2&d=1272264956

Sebastien, don’t think too hard about the decibel meters of Luxman. You will se it’s more delightful how it sounds! You can read more about decibel here: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/dB.html#recording
What digital source have you for Luxman L 505u?

[tozen]

Hi Tudor,
Sadly I don't have ready access to a scanner, so I don't think I would be able to send to you via email. I could photocopy and post it out to you if that was at all helpful. Let me know... send me a PM with address details if you are still interested

[Sebastien]

Sebastien...What digital source have you for Luxman L 505u?...

Hi Tudor,

I have a Cambridge Azur 840C cd player which I really appreciate. But, I mostly, say 90% of the time, listen to LP on my belove Rega P3 with a Dynavector DV20X cartridge and a Simaudio LP5.3 phono preamp.

This morning, I've just receive my step-down transformer from Audio Cubes 2. It is the Kashimura TI-19 (1500W). When you consider that the Luxman uses a peak power of 210W it will be more than enough. In the owner's manual, they suggest to plug out the transformer when you don't you use it. Is there anyone doing this?

Do you guys in Romania or in England have the right electrical version for your country or you also use a step-up (or down) transformer?

I'm waiting for the Luxman L-505u to arrive probably tommorow. It leaves the custom 10 hours later than the transformer.

Sebastien