Luxman – EQ-500 Phono Preamplifier

Tonal Splendor, Pointillistic Detail, Harmonic Character, Pinpoint Imaging: Luxman EQ-500 Tube MM/MC Phono Preamplifer Has Four Step-Up MC Transformers and Endless Features

You’re allowed to drool over the EQ-500, Luxman‘s first new MM/MC phono preamplifier in more than a decade. Expressive and powerful, the full-featured vacuum-tube design excels thrills with tonal splendor and pointillistic detail. Mundorf “audiophile series” capacitors, four MC step-up transformers, low- and high-cut filters, balanced and single-ended outputs, three separate single-ended inputs, a mono/stereo switch, vacuum-tube rectifier, and front-panel adjustments give you everything you need – and more – for optimum performance. Indeed, EQ-500 is all about delivering every last drop of visceral information, harmonic density, and tonal character from your prized LPs. Drawing on 90 years experience of crafting audio transformers, Luxman outdid itself with the four MC step-up transformers gracing EQ-500: Two per channel for high- and low-output MC cartridges deliver up to 18dB of gain. Toss in individually adjustable gain and loading, JJ vacuum tubes, Takamisawa capacitors, an articulator switch that serves as a cartridge demagnetizer, phase invert, and a remote control, and you have a phonostage eminently qualified to bring out the very best musical presentation from the world’s finest analog recordings.

A Refined Instrument Made to Stand the Test of Time: Nothing Rushed, Everything Perfected
The rarefied sound and reference-grade capabilities of EQ-500 are what transpire when a team of engineers won’t quit until they’ve made a component that can stand the test of time. Rest assured knowing EQ-500 took 14 years to come to fruition, and that Luxman likely won’t be coming out with another model for about that long. That’s how confident Luxman remains in this flagship instrument. We’re so confident you’ll fall in love with it, we back it up with our Satisfaction Guarantee. And yes, those pretty VU meters will look lovely in your listening space.

“Best of all, the EQ-500, which uses a mix of ECC82 and ECC83 small-signal tubes plus an EZ81 rectifier tube, sounded wonderful…”
—Stereophile, Class A Recommended Component

“It is a sound carrying enough natural realism to listen for hours without fatigue, yet not to the point of being heavily colored, drowning out other equipment in the reproduction chain.”
— Richard Mak, TONEAudio

“In a previous review, I urged readers to search for audio components that would stand the test of time. Such components should be relentlessly musical, gorgeous to look at, easy to use, reliable, and provide state-of-the-art sound quality that’s unlikely to be significantly bettered for years. The Luxman checks all of those boxes. A veritable Swiss Army Knife of analog reproduction, it fleshed out the special character of each of my treasured cartridges with ease and finesse. It’s a grail-level component.”
—Tom Mathew, SoundStage!Ultra