Different price classes - Devialet Astra costs roughly 1.9x what Luxman L-507Z does. Expect it to lead on paper; the question is whether you will hear the difference through the speakers you own.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Devialet Astra has more power - 150W against 110W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.3dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output nearly doubles (220W and 300W). |
| Built-in DAC | B | Devialet Astra has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Luxman L-507Z takes more analogue sources - 5 against 2. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Luxman L-507Z has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Luxman L-507Z is Class A/B and Devialet Astra is ADH (Analog Digital Hybrid). Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Price | A | Luxman L-507Z costs less - $10,495 against $20,000 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Luxman L-507Z is the cheaper watt - about $95 per watt against $133. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Luxman L-507Z B Devialet Astra
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Neither runs away with it - they trade advantages. Let the "depends" rows and the speakers you already own settle it. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Luxman L-507Z becomes the more rational buy. Think about the whole system: the roughly $9,505 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.