JIM TELECASTER CAMPILONGO MASTER STEREOPHILE VOL.43 NO.5 ONLINE AUTHORITY: STEREOPHILE.COM WORLD VAC MAKES EXCLUSIVE! A STATEMENT THE 452 iQ ❱ MAY 2020 $8.99 US $10.99 Canada LUXMAN’S PREMIUM PREAMP SHHH! THE D.BOB EXTRACTS DSD FROM YOUR SACDS! FROM SWEDEN WITH LOVE: THE CLASS-D PRIMARE VERY FYNE INDEED: MAY 2020 MAY A BUDGET LOUDSPEAKER FROM SCOTLAND TRANSMISSION SPECIALIST: LTA’S Z10E ROCKS THE PMC fact.8 AN ALPHA-DOG SERVER FROM WOLF STRP_200500_CV1.indd 1 3/12/20 9:48 AM IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL LISTENING BY ART DUDLEY THIS ISSUE: From a time before man buns, beard oil, and spray-on tans comes the Luxman CL-1000 preamplifier. Art Dudley takes one for a spin. Luxury you can (almost, sort of) afford t may come as no surprise that the two Recommended Com- ponents issues we publish every year, in April and October, are IStereophile’s most popular. Both go hand-in-hand with increases in single- copy sales and subscription requests, and it’s worth noting that equipment and record suppliers line up to get their ads into those issues. I’m glad our Recommended Com- ponents issues make people happy, because they’re a pig-faced, needle- toothed, Bosch-ian hell of a miserable job to produce. As I write this, it’s one day after the April 2020 Stereophile went to the printers, and I scarcely know my own name. Jim Austin and I work even longer hours than usual during January and July—the months when we’re writing and editing prod- uct blurbs, tabulating ratings, chasing down updated information from man- ufacturers,1 putting all the categories and blurbs in order, and proofreading the whole damn thing—and when it’s all done, I always look back with fond- ness on the summers I spent driving a So I’m happy to start my next flagship preamp, heir to the throne dump truck and working as a busboy. work cycle by reviewing not just a once occupied by the classic 1970s-era But the post-RC wrap party, which preamplifier buta preamplifier—a big, Luxman C-1000. The CL-1000 uses isn’t a party at all but is actually eight heavy, wood-wrapped, multifunction vacuum tubes for voltage gain, and its hours of sleep followed by one day of beast of a thing. The Luxman CL- volume and source-selection knobs are summarily deleting all incoming emails 1000 ($19,995) is that company’s new supplemented with a brace of controls and phone messages, is that include a balance knob, a also a time for taking mono switch, a phase-inver- a second look at the sion switch, bass and treble reviews we’ve published controls, and a demagnetizer. over the past six months A demagnetizer, for God’s sake. and looking for trends in But let’s back up to that our equipment coverage. volume knob, which itself And this time out, the deserves more than passing first thing that jumped attention. For the CL-1000, out at me was how very the manufacturer has chosen few preamplifiers we what they refer to as a LE- reviewed in the months CUTA: a Luxman Electroni- since our last Recom- cally Controlled Ultimate mended Components Transformer Attenuator. The feature. In fact, there was 34-step rotary switch behind precisely one: the Dan the CL-1000’s volume knob D’Agostino Momentum selects from 34 relays, all out- HD ($40,000). Heck, side of the signal path, which during the same period 1 Thanks are due to Laura Atkinson, of time we reviewed who comes by every January and July to more tonearms than that. help us with this task. Reprinted from Stereophile magazine www.stereophile.com STRP_200500_LISTENING.indd 36 6/5/20 12:09 PM LISTENING in turn select from 34 taps on match- ing left- and right-channel transform- ers, which have Hitachi FineMet cores, the nanocrystal structure of which is said to allow high saturation levels, high permeability, and low core loss. Transformers are also key ingre- dients in the preamp’s first line-level stage, which uses high-permeability Permalloy-core transformers for buffering and, I believe, some amount of voltage gain. Between those and the preamp’s output transformers, which are used to lower the unit’s output impedance—I think we’ve homed in on the reason for the CL-1000’s 54lb weight—are a total of six E88CC dual- triode tubes from JJ Electronic. But the CL-1000 is not all- tube: The phono Rear panel rotary switches control phono stage uses field- gain, impedance, and effect transistors capacitance. and an op-amp, and all power-supply rectification and the tone-control stage—as well as the panel are four line-level inputs—three regulation is accomplished with solid- Balance knob—for the least (presumed) single-ended (RCA) and one balanced state devices. signal degradation. (XLR)—plus two single-ended (RCA) The CL-1000 is the antithesis of a The fun continues around back, and two balanced (XLR) output jacks. bare-bones, “purist” preamplifier. Not where the Luxman’s single pair of Among the Luxman CL-1000’s other only are there Bass and Treble tone- phono inputs—curiously not labeled features is an “articulator” function. control knobs, but each is governed by Phono but rather Ext In—is governed This is essentially an oscillator that its own three-position rotary switch, to by two six-position rotary switches. demagnetizes the preamp’s many select the frequency ranges over which The first of these offers three settings transformers every time the unit is they function. There’s a Low Cut for moving-magnet cartridges and powered up—a luxury not unlike hav- switch (aka “rumble filter”) that applies three for moving-coil types, provid- ing a dog that walks itself at least once a a 6dB/octave slope with a hinge at ing different combinations of input day. There is also an Articulator switch 30Hz. A rotary switch selects between impedance and gain, the latter with a for users who want to supplement Unbalanced and Balanced outputs, range of 38 to 66dB. The second rotary that regimen with occasional manual and separate toggles allow the user to switch, geared toward the MM enthu- demagnetization. Cast-iron isolation invert signal polarity within those two siast, allows the user to select between feet, a walnut “wrap” with a glossy red settings. A Line Straight switch allows six different settings of phono-input finish, and rubber circuit board damp- the audio purist to bypass altogether capacitance. Also provided on the rear ers are also included. One of the best A look inside the things about the Luxman CL-1000. Luxman preamp is something it doesn’t have: a remote handset. I detest those things. Every time a review sample ar- rives with a remote handset, I feel like going for a drive and throwing it out the window the way Americans used to do with their lunch bags and soda cups before the TV commercial with the crying Indian. Caveat venditor. What really completes the picture for me is something that Luxman has been adding to their products for as long as I can remember: an owner’s manual that suggests a manufacturer who gives a shit about the customer and who realizes that anyone who spends this much money on a single audio product might be presumed to have more than a passing interest in how the thing works. To that end, the Reprinted from Stereophile magazine www.stereophile.com STRP_200500_LISTENING.indd 37 6/5/20 12:09 PM LISTENING CL-1000 manual, like releases where a record- every other Luxman ing company appears to manual I’ve ever seen, have allowed a few very includes a block diagram: young, technically green not a schematic that performers to come might show enough into their studios and details to give away the essentially muck about— store, so to speak, but and the results, although a simplified if techni- technically/sonically cally savvy diagram that uneven, are brilliant. But outlines the designer’s key to those results is basic vision for the thing. a production in which Nice. some sounds—the vocal in “Ben Crawley Steel Getting started Company,” the electric After hoisting the bass in “The Minister,” CL-1000 atop my Box and so forth—sound Furniture equipment almost frighteningly rack—the preamp’s 17.9" direct and unadulterated deep chassis, not includ- and there. Those sounds ing jacks, barely fit—I emerged from the Lux- warmed it up by playing man with colors, flying a few LPs and CDs. For The CL-1000’s very As for that last quality in par- and otherwise. the former I preceded unusual but no doubt ticular: I can’t imagine how long After all that I went in yet another the CL-1000 with my useful Articulator it took Sir John Barbirolli to completely different direction and switch. Hommage T2 step-up work with the musicians of the spent an evening listening to some of transformer, driving the Philharmonia to achieve the nu- my favorite bluegrass records. Doc Lux’s MM phono input set for 50k ances of tempo and dynamics evident and Merle Watson’s 1978 album ohms/38dB and 100pF; for the latter in his 1963 recording of Elgar’s Enigma Look Away! (LP, United Artists I used my Hegel Mohican CD player Variations (LP, EMI ASD 548). How- UA-LA887-H), which is not terribly into one of the Lux’s line inputs.