Luxman DX-103 (1984)
The Luxman DX-103 has a reputation that rests almost entirely on a couple of solid contemporary reviews. The archive's own file on it is thin, but the period press remembered it well. This was Luxman's entry into the CD player market, announced alongside first players from H.H. Scott and Sansui. At $1,000, it was the most expensive of that group.
High Fidelity (August 1984, p.15) listed the DX-103 as a full-featured, remote-controlled design with 16-selection programmable memory and an "intro scan" that played the first ten seconds of each track. Luxman's proprietary Duo-Beta circuitry kept distortion low in the analog output stage. Audio (November 1984, p.73) found it unusual in both features and layout, though not in measured performance. The same reviewer noted that he could figure out the programming without even opening the owner's manual.
The bench results backed up the marketing. Luxman specified frequency response of 5 Hz to 20 kHz ±0.5 dB, dynamic range greater than 90 dB, and total harmonic distortion under 0.007% at 1 kHz. Audio's measurements (November 1984, p.74) came out even flatter. Response varied by no more than 0.1 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and harmonic distortion at maximum output ran from about 0.005% to 0.008%. The magazine praised the sound quality and credited the Duo-Beta feedback circuitry in the final analog stages.
Beyond those reviews, little is documented — no production-run details, no later revisions in the archive's records. What survives suggests Luxman's first digital effort was a serious and well-measured one, remembered mostly for that clever analog output stage.
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