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I bought a Luxman R1120a yesteday

montrecott

montrecott

AK Subscriber
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I wasn't looking for a receiver, but I've been perusing Craigslist for Luxman integrated amps, using "Luxman" as a keyword, and a Luxman R1120a receiver appeared there recently. After doing some research I found that it was a fairly rare bird, and highly thought of, according to some one of the best sounding monster receivers made. Additionally, this one had undergone a pretty comprehensive restoration 15 month ago, including a complete cleaning with all adjustments, a tuner alignment, and a number of caps replaced. The seller still had the receipt.

I went and checked it out yesterday and the price was reasonable, so I bought it. I hooked it up in the main system yesterday afternoon and I've spent several hours listening to it since. The power rating of 120 wpc is very conservative on these: typically they do about 150 wpc. It puts out a ton of power effortlessly. But even more impressive is the sound. It's the best sounding solid state receiver I've either owned or heard, and I've heard quite a few. Every decent recording sounds great on this thing, regardless of source. Excellent bass and a very smooth high end, lots of detail, with a non-fatiguing sound. There are two phono inputs, one for MC and one for MM (which I'm using), highly adjustable tone controls, all the inputs you'd want, pre-out/main-in, and cool red LEDs. The tuner is very impressive, the best I've experienced in a receiver, and doesn't give up much to my Pioneer TX-9800. The AccuTouch system locks in stations perfectly, and you can disengage it when you're looking for a weak signal at the left end of the dial. It also has an IF narrow button normally found only on separate tuners, also really useful when tuning in weak stations.

Cosmetically it's in extremely nice condition. The wife and I have been talking about getting a console or cabinet to replace the audio rack it's currently shoehorned into. It looks much better when you can see the rosewood veneer case.

I love this thing. Attached are a few pics.

Lux1.jpg Lux2.jpg Lux4.jpg Lux5.jpg
 
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I had one of these and it will surprise! Very strong amp section. I don't remember where it went. I've had so much stuff over the yrs. It's a keeper. I was too young to know it at the time.
 
ghamilton said:
I had one of these and it will surprise! Very strong amp section. I don't remember where it went. I've had so much stuff over the yrs. It's a keeper. I was too young to know it at the time.
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I have a few audio regrets--stuff I've sold and shouldn't have. This won't be one of those.
 
superdog said:
Nice pickup.Totl Luxman.Never saw of these in person.
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Thanks, Dawg. The guy who sold it to me told me it had taken him hears (edit: years) to find one locally. I can't imagine there were too many made (retail was $995 in 1979-80) but a couple have sold recently on eBay.
 
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tater415 said:
I have one also , it was their top of the line model at the time of manufacture, very well made
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I should have popped the case open and had a look before I hooked it up. I'm no tech but it would still be fun to look inside. Otherwise the two most striking things about it to me are the effortless power and the quality of the sound.
 
The receiver came out about the time of the R-1070, the last of that line from Luxman. The R-1120 is everywhere compared to the -a version, very easily identified by the rectangular power LEDs vs the round ones used on the 1040/1050/1120. With the limited time in the market these are much less common than the originals.
 
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Blue Shadow said:
The receive came out about the time of the R-1070, the last of that line from Luxman. The R-1120 is everywhere compared to the a-version very easily identified by the rectangular power LEDs vs the round ones used on the 1040/1050/1120. With the limited time in the market these are much less common than the originals.
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Good to know, thanks Shadow. It's written up here on TVK. I'm a fool if I ever sell this thing. I paid less for it than people ask on CL for unrestored Marantz 2270's. I've had some highly thought of vintage pieces from Sony, Kenwood, Sansui, Marantz, Pioneer, Yamaha, Onkyo and others, but this tops them all, and by a wide margin. It's in another league IMO. It would be interesting to compare it to a restored TOTL vintage Tandberg, although I don't think Tandberg ever made a receiver this powerful.
 
If you can accept the looks of the R-117, Lux may have had a better sounding receiver but the R-1120a is a great sounding unit if it is as good as the others in the line. And that makes it one of the best. The polls here are a bit biased with folks not having heard these as Luxman came into the country in the early 70s and wasn't a unit hauled back from the far east by thousands of GIs.

Because the R-1120 is not a reliable as some of the other models in my experience, I have an R-1050 but it is at my brother's house. I would probably get an 1120a if one showed up cheap but I have separates mostly. Gotta have something for the downsizing and going with 120 watts per channel of Lux sound quality ain't a bad way to do it.
 
I picked up one of these a few years ago and paid a ridiculous price for it, ridiculously low I mean, $29 or something like that.
The power switch was bad so I guess they thought it was dead, the dial lights were also burned out.

I have no idea what it really sounds like because I have it hooked up to a pair of 5" KLH bookshelf speakers.
 
Eric H said:
I picked up one of these a few years ago and paid a ridiculous price for it, ridiculously low I mean, $29 or something like that.
The power switch was bad so I guess they thought it was dead, the dial lights were also burned out.

I have no idea what it really sounds like because I have it hooked up to a pair of 5" KLH bookshelf speakers.
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$29? That is a SCORE. Yep, you need some better speakers to see what the big Luxman can do.
 
Snapped a couple of quick interior pics yesterday, for what it's worth. I'm no tech so I can't say they mean that much to me. The only observation I'll make is that the chassis is smaller than you typically see with this power output (it's conservatively rated at 120 X 2). But maybe that's not a bad thing. The same was true of my Sony STR-6800SD, the second best sounding receiver I've owned.


Lux-interior1.jpg Lux-interior-2.jpg
 
I’ve restored several of these receivers and my impressions are the same as yours. The piece to find is the Dolby board accessory, it didn’t come with the receivers, it was extra.
I had a thread a few years back on a few things to watch out for on those Luxmans.
The power switches are around if you look and I would suggest the triac switch relief mod to add to your todo list.
Handsome machines.
 
It seems Luxman used a considerably larger heat sink on the -A version. It does appear to have more stuffed into it.

What is interesting about that line of receivers is that they are all the same size...from the front. Height and width are the same. The depth is where they added the components to make them more powerful with more meters and better tuners, if there is a difference in tuners, I didn't check to see.
 
Blue Shadow said:
The receive came out about the time of the R-1070, the last of that line from Luxman. The R-1120 is everywhere compared to the a-version very easily identified by the rectangular power LEDs vs the round ones used on the 1040/1050/1120. With the limited time in the market these are much less common than the originals.
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Just out of curiosity, what exactly are the differences between the R-1120 and the R-1070? The R-1120 seems to be 120w instead of 75w, and the tone controls appear to be slightly different, but other than that, it looks extremely similar to the R-1070. I've got an R-1070 that I picked up cheap many years ago.
 
@johnebravo the are very similar. I don't have the schematic of the 1070 but I would expect them to differ only in power output. Don't know if a feature here or there might be changed. I didn't see many 1120a receivers but sold a few 1070s.
 
Blue Shadow said:
It seems Luxman used a considerably larger heat sink on the -A version. It does appear to have more stuffed into it.

What is interesting about that line of receivers is that they are all the same size...from the front. Height and width are the same. The depth is where they added the components to make them more powerful with more meters and better tuners, if there is a difference in tuners, I didn't check to see.
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Not sure what the tuners of the smaller receivers in the line are like, but this one is really good. On Hi Fi Engine there is a review of the original (non A) R1120 from Audio Review in 1978 which states that when they tested the tuner, and everything else on the receiver, it greatly exceeded the published specs. One thing that's really nice about the tuner on this is that it has an IF narrow button, like you see on separate tuners. That also appears on the R1070, based on pictures I've seen. It looks like the 1070 has an FM muting switch instead of the AccuTouch button on the 1120. Not sure if the FM specs differ.
 
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