Luxman SQ38U valve Integrated Amp Boxed
Excellent and boxed with remote. Uk 6 month warranty.
LLuxman's retro-styled SQ-38u is the 11th installment of a now 25wpc EL34 push/pull integrated with auto bias and a classic Ultralinear Mullard circuit. The company first introduced it in 1963. Now the firm's current president Kazuyuki Doi has reinvented it for 2009. It includes a 2-stage PK-NF type MM/MC-hi/MC-lo phono stage with MM step up transformer and defeatable 30Hz rumble filter. There are tone and balance controls. There's a headphone output, rec/monitor loop and remote control for volume/mute. Very clever, a front panel switched pre-out/main-in loop avoids sound-degrading metal jumpers but offers a serious upgrade path (or even the option to insert a black box for crossover, room correction or similar latter-day DSP functions).
Bring the bill: Considering Japanese manufacture, the SQ-38u's comprehensive features and impeccable build quality—a full-on MM/MC tube phono stage alone could readily command $1,000 if not more—the asking price is super attractive and fair. If precursors of this amp and how well regarded they remain are anything to go by, the SQ-38u has heirloom factor written all over it. While the company's portfolio has adapted to modernity, this particular model was clearly meant as a record of past glories. For what it is and wants to be, it's a real winner. Its only competition is probably an Audiomat (you'd lose most the features) or Leben (no phono). Considering, perhaps Luxman's exact combination of features, performance and price really is exclusive? I think it might be indeed.
