Luxman D-10X CD/SACD Player and DAC

Some thirteen years ago I reviewed a pair of Luxman components, the L-550A II Class A integrated amplifier and the DU-50 universal disc player. Both represented the so-called entry-level of the company’s lineup, but at $4000 and $4500 respectively, even in the screwy world of the high end, this could hardly be called entry-level pricing. They performed accordingly: easily among the very finest I’d heard in their respective equipment categories regardless of cost. On the strength of that review, a close friend purchased the DU-50 for himself, one consequence of which has been that in the years since I’ve often had the pleasure of hearing this player in a system I know well. Every time I returned from one of those visits, I wondered again whether I shouldn’t have bought the review sample—I was surely tempted at the time. With a slight forgiving quality that precluded complete neutrality, the presentation was, nevertheless, within any reasonable bounds thereof, while still possessing an ease and naturalness that drew all the attention to the music.

Both products have long since been retired or replaced by upgraded versions. Meanwhile, a great deal has happened in the world of digital audio, including impressive improvements in Red Book and DSD, hi-res streaming (increasingly the go-to avenue through which many of us now listen to recorded music), and downloads, plus a whole new format in MQA that can also be streamed. So, when Jeffrey Sigmund, the president of Luxman America, asked me if I’d like to review the company’s brand-new state-of-the-art D-10X player, he didn’t have to ask a second time. At $16,495 retail, this is the most expensive CD player Luxman has ever made, not to mention the most expensive (by over a factor of four) I’ve ever reviewed. While it is far from the most expensive out there, it’s still the company’s grab for the brass ring. Fortunately, as the review will make clear, the D-10X easily revealed itself to be a worthy contender in the arena of no-holds-barred luxury digital players.

Features and Technology

When UPS dropped off the D-10X I thought Sigmund had mistakenly sent an amplifier. At fifty pounds it reminds me that a cornerstone of Japanese audio design and engineering is the application of weight, bulk, and mass in order to achieve the greatest possible stability, rigidity, damping, and resonance reduction. The D-10X debuts the company’s Lx DTM-I, a transport that features an improved disc-reading mechanism, the drive itself enclosed in 8mm-thick side-plates that extend the depth of the chassis with a 5mm-top plate. The power transformer is substantially increased in size and weight over the one in Luxman’s previous flagship the D-08u, along with independent regulators for each circuit and what the literature calls “formidable filter capacitors for the ultimate stability.” Specially developed feet are said to contribute significantly to chassis isolation and resonance reduction (perhaps the only physical miscalculation in the design, these allow for so little clearance my fingers were slightly squashed between the bottom of the chassis and the cabinet surface, and my digits aren’t stubby).

At the heart of the D-10X is a new D/A converter, the BD34301EKV from ROHM Semiconductor, used in a dual-mono configuration, the first use, says Sigmund, of this converter in an audio component. As a company with feet still firmly planted in the world of analog, Luxman has paid special attention to that part of the D-10X’s circuitry. Fully balanced, it uses the company’s proprietary “Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ultimate),” which is claimed to maximize accuracy of error detection and minimize distortion. Inside the circuit a “tailored, gradual first-order filter with 3-band processing” is said to achieve “a natural and smooth waveform without the conventional output filters.” A shielded, “composite, loop-less chassis” protects “the analog signal from changes in ground impedance and magnetic fields” and helps block digital noise. Peel-coat PCB and 100μm copper-foil, gold-plated connections are said to suppress dielectric effects, unwanted resistance, and stray capacitance in the circuit boards. Engineering, quality of construction, attention to detail, and fit and finish are all easily of, say, SME standard,  (and like SME, Luxman specifies some ninety percent of the parts and individual components). 

As for formats and connectivity, excepting Blu-ray audio, the D-10X will play virtually any audio-only two-channel or hybrid disc on the planet, including the new MQA-CDs.  Through the USB inputs it will handle PCM from 44.1kHz to 786kHz and DSD from 2.8MHz to 22.4MHz (1-bit). The coaxial and optical inputs are limited to PCM 44.1–192kHz. Analog audio outputs are RCA and XLR, digital outputs two optical and one each coaxial and USB, digital inputs one each optical and coaxial. The DAC can be used, and for streaming and downloads obviously must be used, independently of the rest of the unit, and it can also be bypassed, though why anyone would pay this much for a player with a DAC of this caliber and then bypass it escapes me. A remote handset accesses all functions. 

While the D-10X performed flawlessly throughout the review period, there are two functional issues that are worth mentioning. First, the player does not allow fast forward and fast reverse across track breaks. This proved particularly annoying when trying to compare how different formats handle the acoustic fade-aways of music into ambience, which typically occur at the end of a selection. If I didn’t hit fast reverse quickly enough and the next track was engaged, I had to go back to the beginning of the previous track, fast forward to near the end, and try to listen again. Rapid-fire comparisons were thus impossible. Offhand, I can’t think of another CD player that behaves this way: I hope Luxman will address it through a firmware correction. 

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