Luxman SQ-N150

In 2007, Luxman Corporation released the SQ-N100 tubed integrated amplifier as part of the company’s NeoClassico Series, which focused on smaller, space-saving designs. The 12Wpc (into 6 ohms) SQ-N100 proved very popular, both in Japan and internationally, possibly owing to its use of EL84 pentode power tubes, cherished among audiophiles and electric guitar players alike for their midrange-to-treble luster and visceral sense of drive. (For evidence of the EL84’s shimmering-yet-gutsy sound, listen to the Beatles’ 1963 debut album, Please Please Me, where guitarists John Lennon and George Harrison relied on EL84-fueled Vox AC30 amplifiers—four output tubes per cabinet—to create the quartet’s then-trademark chiming-but-punchy guitar tones.)

It’s a king at delivering a musical line.

Now, after a hiatus of a few years, Luxman has revived the NeoClassico Series—and with it, the spirit of the SQ-N100—with the SQ-N150 integrated amplifier ($2795), which one-ups the N100 with a moving-coil phono stage. (The SQ-N100, which sold for $2999 when last available, had a MM phono stage only.) The N150 also adds a channel balance control, a chunkier, metal-enclosed multifunction remote (included for the price), backlit output-level VU meters, and a newly introduced P-K split-phase inversion circuit for its class-AB output stage. Four Slovakian-made JJ Electronic EL84 pentode power tubes produce 10Wpc in push-pull mode, alongside two JJ Electronic 12AX7/ECC83 dual-triode input-driver tubes.

Design

I wrote this in my review of Luxman’s L-509X integrated amplifier: “Compared to electronics from other contemporary manufacturers, Luxman CD players, amplifiers, and DACs have a look all their own… and placed side by side, it would be hard to tell classic Luxmans of the 1960s and ’70s from their distinctively styled products of today.” These statements also apply to the SQ-N150: It’s a sleek machine, with a 5mm-thick aluminum-alloy enclosure, finished in a matte