Luxman C-03

True bestseller.
Not necessarily because it was that good but because Luxman (Alpine then) produced so many of them that unsold stocks remained available for discount long, very long, after they had officially vanished from the lineups !
This applies mostly to the M-03 power amp, though.


The C-03 is a slimline preamp with Class A all over its circuits and low-impedance outputs but isn't a Single Stage design like the L-550 or L-430, though.
Two shortcuts allow the signal to go faster : Phono Straight bypasses the input selector, tone controls, balance control and... subsonic control ! CD straight does the same thing.

MICA condensers, copper foiled caps, + and - tensions fed by separate windings everywhere plus the STAR grounding circuit (each block has its own ground and power supply for less mutual interference) and Duo-ßeta for optimal levels of negative feedback.
Discrete components throughout.

Making their appearance after the LV-105 in 1984, the C-03 has three video inputs and one video output, all composite, hooked to a Video 2 (play only) and Video 1 (rec/play) audio terminals - on top of the two strictly audio tape loops.

The front output selector allows to switch between headphones or pre-out 1, 2 or 1+2 - too rare not to be mentioned.


The C-03 was distributed in Japan under the (surprising) sole Luxman badge and not the "Alpine/Luxman" tag inaugurated in 1984. Alpine probably had understood it woud have been suicide to indirectly rename all of Luxman's production.

The japanese version could receive optional thick & shiny wood sideburns - something which makes the design come alive and terribly lacks to the M-03.
All of the C-03s were naturally made in Alpine factories with an Alpine T-Tag and #A8081xxxxx serial number.

Luxman being Luxman whatever the owner, the C-03 saw a USA-only semi-equivalent version sans video but with an adjustable subwoofer output added : CX-100. I sadly have found only very basic and tiny catalog mugshots of it so far.

If I could spend time digging further, I'd probably find another other C-03 version made exclusively for the then emerging market of south Patagonia !