Luxman K-05
Luxman K-04
(1983 - 1986)

Like a few other Luxman units from the times, the K-05 isn't was was planned in the first place. The K-05 is the small one : the X-3K was the big one which, sadly, never went into production - but you can see it by clicking the "more" button below :)

The GT Transport (not related to Yamaha's contemporary "Gigantic & Tremendous" tag), is the star of the show while the CTS was getting to be more common within other high-end tape decks... But the combined results made for quite a machine.

Now for the real meat : the Luxman K-05 is an Alpine AL-90 in disguise ! The first hundred K-05s produced used an unmodded Alpine mechanism, the later ones had some mods performed but still, K-05 = AL-90. You can see "nudies" of the AL-90 right here.

Luxman's CTS system was originally named BLES on the AL-90 - whatever the marketing tag, CTS = BLES. The display and layout of the electronic functions' panel are the same as on the AL-90. In fact... everything is the same.
The simpler K-04 is an Alpine AL-85.

If the X-3K had been produced, it would've been a Nakamichi Dragon and Sony TC-K777ES killer, no doubt ! And an AL-90 killer, too.