Luxman PD131 (1975)

Name: Luxman PD131
Brand: Luxman

The Luxman PD131 is an armless, direct-drive record player released in September 1975 at ¥95,000. It was developed as the subordinate model to the PD121. The biggest difference between the two is the motor in the drive section. The PD131 uses an 8-pole, 24-slot brushless DC servo motor, with the platter changed to match - a 2 kg, 30 cm aluminum die-cast design. The chassis is also aluminum die-cast, topped with a 3 mm anodized aluminum panel held in place with rubber and wooden frames for damping.

It shipped without an arm, so the PD131 uses a bayonet-mount arm base designed for one-touch arm swapping. Only the SME version of the base came standard. Variations for general use, Ortofon-specific, and unprocessed bases were available. The deck is heavy at 12 kg, and the design paid attention to resonance and the strength of the motor bearings as well as inertial mass. The legs use a three-layer insulator (spring, rubber, and silicone grease) with a 10 mm height adjustment range. The included cover is 4 mm acrylic laminate with a free-stop hinge. A strobe, lit by a black light pulse, shows speed and identifies the power frequency by color: yellow for 60 Hz, yellow-green for 50 Hz. A chamois-leather-style mat is fitted as standard.

Wow and flutter is rated at 0.03% (WRMS) or less, and signal-to-noise at 60 dB or more. Speed is adjustable ±4% independently for each rotation speed. Power consumption is 5W steady, 14.5W at startup.

The record gets thin after that. A PD131S variant exists, confirmed by forum discussions and dealer listings, but no source explains exactly what separates it from the base PD131. The one hint is a diyAudio poster noting component-level differences in the strobe PCB. Period reviews of the PD131 specifically haven't surfaced in the archive, and no production run details or later history are documented. Used listings describe the deck as "a superb direct drive turntable" and units appear with arms like the SME 3009 S2 Improved or an Acros arm fitted, often with box and manual. Current asking prices range from roughly $900 AUD to $1,500, depending on condition and arm.

Known specs, in brief: