Mark Levinson

[the hand of boredom]

Can anyone here help me?

Recently I began the hunt for products to build a new system. I was told to look at the used market and visited audiogon.com and had a gander at Mark Levinson amps. Just today when I was reading some articles it appears that the actual man Mark Levinson now has nothing to do with the products that bear his name? It appears he had to 'sell his name' to Madrigal which took over production of Mark Levinson gear, now owned by Harman.

If I was interested in purchasing Mr. Levinson's work, I would have to check out Red Rose Music. Has anyone hear heard these products? What happened to Levinson and Madrigal?

THOB

[Florian]

Kinda like the old Infinity story. Arnie Noodle designed speaker masterpieces back in the day but Infinity chose quantitiy over quality and sold out. Arnie Noodle now owns Genesis and has been bankrupt twice, but they make one hell of a speaker. In fact maybe you should look for the Genesis V with the servo subwoofers and buy two Krell KSA250 for the bass and run GamuT on the midrange and tweeters fully active. Mark Levinson made some reference gear in the past but nowadays is like meridian. Buy it from Philips and put it in a big metal box with 20 times markup.

-Flo

PS: Wanna chat about some real gear? PM me your number and ill give you a call.

[the hand of boredom]

Kinda like the old Infinity story. Arnie Noodle designed speaker masterpieces back in the day but Infinity chose quantitiy over quality and sold out. Arnie Noodle now owns Genesis and has been bankrupt twice, but they make one hell of a speaker. In fact maybe you should look for the Genesis V with the servo subwoofers and buy two Krell KSA250 for the bass and run GamuT on the midrange and tweeters fully active. Mark Levinson made some reference gear in the past but nowadays is like meridian. Buy it from Philips and put it in a big metal box with 20 times markup.

-Flo

PS: Wanna chat about some real gear? PM me your number and ill give you a call.

Have you heard any of the Vandersteen's line-up? I have an appointment next weekend to have a listen to the new Quattro.

What about the Levinson gear from Harman? is that as good as the old levinson?

THOB

[Florian]

Yeah i heard them but i know what you want and it will not get you there. What will get you where you want to be is most likely a old Infinity IRS BETA, Genesis V or a Fullrange Giant like the Apogees or Maggies with added bass power driven fully active. Old Levinson is a different story then the new stuff, same as Krell and Jeff Rowland-

My offer still stands

[topspeed]

Mark Levinson operates Red Rose Music. As Flo intimated, he unfortunately had to sell his brand to Harman quite a while back. ML is still very good equipment and has a price tag to coincide. I know a lot of people like to look at Harman as the "Evil Empire," but the truth is that they have unmatched resources and engineering at their fingertips. Does this mean they are the best? Hardly, but it also doesn't mean that anything owned by Harman is automatically overpriced crap. Lexicon and Revel are SOTA products. Just because they operate under the Harman umbrella doesn't make them any less so. Listen to the ML's yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Vandy's polarize opinions perhaps more than any other speaker I can think of. You either love 'em or you hate 'em. I fall into the latter group, even though I should be rooting for Richard Vandersteen, a hometown hero that lives 20 minutes from me. Vandy's are the epitome of laid back, IMO. The designs are somewhat unconventional, perhaps following in the footsteps of their designer (Richard has a well earned rep for being...er...moody). Still, his fans are legion and as with everything else in audio, you'll just have to listen and decide for yourself. You may find that the Quattro's are right up your alley.

Good luck in your decision.

[Geoffcin]

Can anyone here help me?

Recently I began the hunt for products to build a new system. I was told to look at the used market and visited audiogon.com and had a gander at Mark Levinson amps. Just today when I was reading some articles it appears that the actual man Mark Levinson now has nothing to do with the products that bear his name? It appears he had to 'sell his name' to Madrigal which took over production of Mark Levinson gear, now owned by Harman.

If I was interested in purchasing Mr. Levinson's work, I would have to check out Red Rose Music. Has anyone hear heard these products? What happened to Levinson and Madrigal?

THOB

A friend of mine purchased a ML preamp and it's a truely superior unit. It's one of only a handful of pre's that I lust after. I would not worry that it's now made by Madrigal, as the line has been in continious production and has not lost any of it's high quality.

[hermanv]

Madrigal-Levinson stuff is very good, the house sound leans a little towards warm or romantic (some people call this dark) but it is close to neutral, non-fatiguing in my opinion.

It is a gaint corporation so its a little less consumer friendly. Their stuff is heavy and well built but will cost you if it needs repair.

I own their No. 36 DAC. Prior to my purchase I was seriously considering moving to vinyl because I was unhappy with digital sound. The No.36 made that thought irrelevant, it sounds that good.

[Cincy2]

I've owned a variety of Levinson gear from amps to transports to DACs to pre-amps. I had to let it all go when the Levinson factory was moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts. When that happened, ML discontinued their whole line of digital equipment except for the one CD player. They also refuse to introduce an SACD player which I wanted. My fear would be that the engineering talent that made them famous did not make the move. Read the reviews, audition the equipment, judge for yourself.

Cincy2