Luxman WZ30 (1965)

Name: Luxman WZ30
Brand: Luxman

The Luxman WZ30 is a high-end FM/AM tuner released in November 1965 at ¥59,500. It is a serious, tube-heavy component from Luxman's early solid-state transition era. It was described at the time as a tuner developed "to achieve the ultimate goal of FM stereo tuners," and the specs back that up. There are eighteen vacuum tubes (including three 6CW4s and three 6DT8s) plus twelve diodes. The circuit has a cascode front end, a double limiter system, and a switching-type MPX demodulator with an extra separation circuit to cancel reverse-channel leakage.

The FM section covers 76-90 MHz, the Japanese FM band, with 1 µV sensitivity. The AM side runs 535-1605 kHz with a built-in ferrite bar antenna and a variable-bandwidth IF transformer. You switch it between a wide setting (sound quality prioritized) and a narrow one (separation prioritized). A whistle filter handles beats on AM. The front panel has independent level controls for FM and AM, a separation control for stereo adjustment, and an AFC defeat switch, so the automatic frequency stabilization doesn't fight you when tuning weak stations. There's also a muting circuit to kill inter-station noise. An automatic stereo/mono mode switch has a noise-discrimination circuit meant to prevent false triggering.

Output is specified at 770 mV (0 dBm). The unit draws 60 VA from a 100 VAC line, measures 470 × 175 × 275 mm, and weighs 10 kg.

Beyond the Audio Database record, documentation is thin. No period reviews have surfaced, and no production end date, market context, or common-failure information is recorded. One Dutch used listing described a unit as "as good as new" at €30, and a Yahoo! Japan auction has appeared, but no meaningful collector pricing data exists.