Luxman B-10

Part of the re-launch of Luxman : post-Alpine and built by AZDEN. Or : the last period of actual worldwide visibility and proper sales - even if with much smaller lineups and shrinking distribution.

Circuits-wise, the B-10 is a (much) bigger M-7. OD ßeta, or Optimized Dual ßeta, does away with the DC Servo loop to not treat low frequencies independently from the rest of the range.
This however works with CSSC... CSSC, or Complementary Single Stagger Circuit, comes from radio-frequency engineering (back to basics :) with a second-stage current transfer circuit to increase the cutoff frequency, thus allowing the first stage to reach wide range for the amp through phase reversal alone - without phase compensation.

The result is not only high bandwidth but very high slew rate as well.
Next is a High Inertia Power Supply which, through custom high-capacity, well-regulated transformer and layout, allows exceptional open-loop characteristics, drastically minimizing delay between input and power-supply output.

Hardware-wise, this consists of a multi-regulated 800VA EI transformer and 4x 22,000µF custom-ordered Elna For Audio caps.
The rest of the circuit design sort of replicates that of the C-10 so as to make the B-10 the perfect "follower" : that''s the Twin Hybrid Diamond Buffer which uses a pair of matched buffers for high input impedance, low output impedance and, again, high slew-rate.
Ihave no info yet regarding the output transistors but they are triple p-p per channel of Sanken devices...

The rest is like any 1987-1994 Lux component : five-point FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics) composite base, mechanically decoupled & low-impedance power-supply, Line Phase Sensor, ultra select parts and a backlit giant logarithmic meter.
Later upgraded as B-10II, mainly for high-bandwith necessary to SACD.

The 10 and 10II were also available on-order in Custom fashion with a slightly different front anodizing and solid aluminium top & sides replacing the wood enclosure.

The B-10 was built by AZDEN but the B-10II had a LUX T-Tag.
That "LUX" tag had appeared once before, just before the Alpine sale. And after the B-10II, indeed, Luxman changed hands again and power-amps got to be made by AIMOR.
There was no B-10III.

Like all components since 1987, the massive extruded fronts were all made at Luxman's with a high-precision CNC machine customed in... true Luxman tradition.

A pair of real B-10s here.