Luxman C-06

An extra-rare item outside Japan but a very common preamplifier in Takamatsu, Miyazaki and Shizuoka.

Most important, the C-06 is entirely balanced with a Duo Balance Amp which allows to balance single-ended inputs signals.
This not being entirely transparent, the outputs were designed & multiplied to regain the (minimal) loss with four sets available through an reversed-phase / inverted gain amp : positive phase (4x rca + 2x xlr) and negative phase (2x rca).

These low-impedance multi-outputs (16 and 8 Ohm !) were mainly meant to power a pair of M-06 or M-07 as monoblocks with negative phase and avoid the repeated use of an inverting circuit.

The Ultimate Attenuator is a 4-gang fixed-resistor box, as used in all late-Alpine & Azden periods : 4x 32 resistors soldered on glass-epoxy PCBs with non-magnetic wiring and enclosed in a diecast enclosure.
The L two gangs R two gangs are separated by and internal shielding to (further) avoid (potential) (but unlikely) crosstalk.

The power-supply is two copper-plated toroidal transformers with separate fuses and separate AC noise-killers (like a Marantz CCNE).
34 nitrogen gas-filled & gold-plated relays deal with the i/os and single-crystal PC-OCC wiring is used throughout, even for the bus bars.

Attention, beware : the C-06a, like the C-06 has no phono stage : E-06 or E06a necessary !

Real differences between C-06 and C-06a ("a" for "alpha") reside in parts upgrade (polystyrene-copper caps, customed wiring and abundant hand-applied copper shielding etc) and, mostly, the balanced circuit which was completely revised.

Visually, the 06 still bears the codes of the 1980s Alpine with two front side-stoppers while the 06a has rounded top corners. The same applies to the E-06 and E-06a.

Despite being more expensive, the upgraded C-06a sold much better, most often with an M-06a or an M-07.


A real C-06 here ; a real C-06a here.