Luxman D-10 (1991)

Name: Luxman D-10
Brand: Luxman

The Luxman D-10 was the company's flagship reference CD player, introduced in 1991 at 449,000 yen. Per Luxman's own later account, it was developed to eliminate the "digital sound" typical of CD players of the era. Contemporary Japanese and German sources remember it fondly for exactly that. Audio Heritage describes it as known for an extremely smooth, natural sound with no digital harshness, and hifi-wiki calls it one of the best CD players of its time. No negative reviews surfaced in the research.

The technical story is the D/A conversion. Luxman used what it called a "canon-type decoder" with a second-generation current-output pulse-type D/A converter. That has caused lasting confusion, since some sources list it as a 1-bit or bitstream converter. Luxman's own 2000 press release clarified that it was not a bitstream type at all. The player ran 8× oversampling, used a canon-type digital filter, and had duplicate current output circuits in a double differential configuration. The low-pass filter was hand-tuned, and the ceramic IC package was designed to suppress resonance. The chassis was air-tight and vibration-damping, built with aluminum honeycomb panels, and it had separate transformers for the digital and analog stages. It came in black or gold.

Published specifications vary somewhat by source, and that is a recurring issue with this model. The most commonly cited figures are a fixed output of 2V, dimensions of 455 × 123 × 398 mm, and power consumption of 20W. Frequency response is given variously as 4Hz - 20kHz, 5Hz - 20kHz, or 20Hz - 20kHz depending on the source. Total harmonic distortion is 0.0018% (1kHz, 0dB) per Audio Heritage or 0.002% per other databases. S/N ratio is 107dB or 110dB. Weight is another point of disagreement: 18kg in most Japanese sources, 13.5kg in one German listing. Given the conflicts, the safe summary is that this was a heavy, fully specified reference machine. Digital outputs include both coaxial and optical. A companion DA-10 outboard D/A converter was offered separately.

Beyond its 1991 introduction and the technical details above, documentation is thin. No owner reviews, current market prices, or common-failure information surfaced in the research.

Audio (October 1990, p.333) ran a Luxman advertisement of the period touting the company's separate components as having won numerous awards over 65 years for innovative circuit design. The D-10 was part of that separate-component tradition.

Known specifications

CD player, introduced 1991
8× oversampling; canon-type decoder with current-output pulse-type D/A converter
Fixed output: 2V
Digital outputs: coaxial and optical
Dimensions: 455 × 123 × 398 mm
Power consumption: 20W
Original price: 449,000 yen