CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Luxman D-03X

The D-03X is a disc player with a USB DAC section, made by the Japanese company Luxman, released in April 2020 and later followed by the D-03R. It joins red-book disc playback to a high-resolution DAC section with full MQA decoding, and Luxman quoted an American price of USD 3,295 and a UK price of GBP 3,500.

Key specs that matter

A pair of Texas Instruments PCM1795 chips, each run in monaural mode for one channel, does the conversion. The drawer takes CD and MQA-CD, and writable CD-R and CD-RW media are accepted too, and MQA files are fully decoded arriving over any of the digital connections. In all there are three digital inputs. USB handles PCM from 44.1 to 384 kHz at 16, 24 or 32 bit and DSD at 2.8, 5.6 and 11.2 MHz, while the S/PDIF sockets accept PCM up to 192 kHz at 24 bit, and matching coaxial and optical outputs are fitted. Line level is 2.4 V at 300 ohm through RCA and 600 ohm through XLR, with DSD playback at 1.7 V. For CD, response is 5 Hz to 20 kHz within 1 dB, distortion measures 0.003% and IHF-A signal-to-noise stands at 101 dB. Via the digital inputs, response reaches 47 kHz at minus 3 dB with 0.002% distortion, and signal-to-noise is 114 dB on coaxial and optical or 113 dB on USB. The unit runs on 230 V at 50 Hz or 115 V at 60 Hz, draws 18 W in operation and 1 W in standby, measures 440 x 133 x 410 mm and weighs 13.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

A rugged CD transport with a steel top plate sits on an extremely thick aluminium mechanical base. The drive occupies the left of an asymmetric layout chosen for signal flow, resonance control and weight balance, and a shielded box chassis with a loopless structure protects the transport and circuits from outside vibration and noise. Analogue output circuitry is fully balanced. An oversized power supply feeds independent regulators for each circuit. MQA status appears on a colour LED - blue for Studio, green for Authentic and red-purple for Renderer - and at 88.2 or 96 kHz the unit works in renderer mode. USB transfer can use Bulk Pet technology licensed from Interface Co., and the balanced outputs have a switch for hot pin assignment plus an output phase inverter.

Pairing

The Neutrik XLR connectors and 18 mm pitch gold-plated RCA terminals connect to an amplifier offering XLR or RCA inputs. Luxman supplies an RD-28 remote and power cable, and its free player software decodes WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, ALAC, DSF and DSDIFF files from a computer.

Alternatives

The Luxman D-N150 is a compact CD player in the NeoClassico II line with a TI PCM5102A converter and a 297 mm wide chassis.