Luxman vs Adcom vs Yamaha

[Jicafold]

So I have 3 CD players and one should probably go. They are:

Luxman DC-113, 6 disc cartridge plus single tray
Adcom GCD 600 5 disc
Yamaha CDX 1030 single disc

The Luxman I picked up last week from someone who claimed it was not working. All it appeared to need was a laser cleaning and tweaking the drive to engage the teeth a bit better. Works well now.

The Adcom makes a slight grinding noise when tray is rotating. Works well otherwise.

Yamaha. No issues. Weighs like 50 pounds.

How are these models supposed to compare to each other? Which one would you get rid of?

Thank you.

 

[Raynald]

The Yamaha is actually about 23 pounds, a bit lighter than my 26 pound1120. Both are nice machine but short of the real battleship class machines like the older 31 pound 1110 and the monster Denons that came in over 40.

Having sold all three of those brands around that time I would go with the Yamaha. They did much more of their own engineering and manufacturing, the others re-boxed technology from elsewhere with a few different features. The 1030 is also a higher end machine than the other two.

If you need a multi disc player the Adcom is a very nice sounding one with a TDA1541 DAC. I seem to recall Adcom CD player reliability was not great in general so the grinding sound might be a worry, though carousels are pretty easy to fix as issues are often just belt related.

 

[N8Nagel]

I'm somewhat interested in the comparison myself as it seems that Luxman doesn't use common DAC chips but is a well respected brand. I have a DZ-111 on my desk at work but don't really know if it is anything special or not. It hasn't been used save for testing really, and I can't bear to get rid of it as it perfectly matches the R-113 also on my desk and two cassette decks that I have in the closet. Yeah it's silly, but matchiness is cool.

 

[SoCal Sam]

Interestingly, lower line Luxman and Adcom are Sony based. Some of them have the same cruddy plastic tray but the good news is lasers are available and not expensive although tech labor would likely make the swap uneconomical. Adcom 1541 CDP's are nice sounding, I have a GCD-575 playing as I type this. I agree with Raynald, the Yammie is the pick of the lot for being a single disk player with less compromises and also for being higher up in the line. Sell the Lux and Adcom and you could end up with a free Yammie (and cash), which would be a score!

 

[Jicafold]

Thank you for that information.

 

[Jicafold]

I also have a Yamaha CDC-635. It seems to me in back to back testing the Yamaha 635 sounds better than the Luxman. The Yamaha CDX-1030 I have ironically has garage duty. The Yamaha 635 in in the living room.