The associated hardware I used with the Levinson 383 and Goldmund were B&W Nautilus 803s, Thiel 2.3, Martin Logan Prodigy's which I have right now and the Maggie 3.6R and I've gotten a chance to hear Levinson with all of them and it just doesn't sound that good. Its not even an issue of money, I mean their built well, but I think the Krell is even more beautiful if all you care about is heft and looks, but even if the Goldmund was the same price as the 383, I still would'nt buy the 383. The problem I think is that many people with who are decently well off start with the 383 and don't get much chance to hear much else, because I mean it is a Levinson! For the rest of my system I've had the Accuphase DP-55 and Accuphase DP75V, Accuphase surely makes good digital. I've tried numerous cables from Kimber to Monster Cable Sigma to MIT to Transparent. Despite what other people say, the new MIT stuff is good. It isn't a crossover but a "phaseover" and puts the signal back in phase, MIT sounds very impressive with Martin Logan, however with the Thiels which are already phase correct, it wasn't the best combination. Kimber stuff is also pretty good especially the 8TC which works nicely with Goldmund, because Goldmund is ever toward the side of musical (AKA warm) Hope this helps.
Best Integrated Amp
I've been on a quest for a long time for the best sounding integrated amp. I've tried everything in my home, The Krell KAV300i, the KAV500i, the Mark Levinson 383, the Musical Fidelity Nuvista integrated amp, The Audio Research CA50, the VTL IT-85 and countless others and I think I finally found just the right one; The Goldmund Mimesis SRI2. This integrated is rated at 125 watts into 8 and 200 watts in 4 with 25 amps of current available. When I was comparing this to the Levinson 383, it blew it out of the water, it was much smoother, MUCH MORE DETAILED and just plan more life sounding, I don't feel that the 383 sounds flat, I think they raised the midbass level to try to make the amp more exciting, however after time its just tiresome to listen to. Another amazing thing is that the Goldmund wasn't any weaker in power then the 383 and it cost considerably less at only $3750. I think I've finally find something I'm going to stick with a while. All the other integrated amps out there had flaws, the Krell KAV500i while more powerful, was dull and lacked soundstaging depth or width, the Audio Research CA50, while a wonderful sounding piece just lacked power with its 45 tube watts and the VTL, just wasn't that good. I honestly think that the Goldmund SRI2 is the best sounding piece of gear I've heard in a long time. If you get the chance you should listen to it for yourself. I was just wondering if anyone had any other ideas about what they thought was the best integrated out there. (BTW this integrated out performed a Levinson 334 and 360s and a Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS with a Classe CAM350 that I heard last week)