MEASUREMENTS

Nostalgia struck when I unpacked the Luxman SQ-N150 and hoisted it onto the test bench. This compact integrated amplifier uses a pair of EL84 tubes for each channel’s output—I used to own a sweet-sounding Vox AC30 guitar amplifier back in the 1960s, which also used a quartet of EL84s. Down to business: I measured the Luxman using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”¹).

Looking first at the line inputs, the voltage gain with the volume control set to its maximum was 32.8dB into 8 ohms at the