mark levinson 23.5 or Ayre V5? That's the problem

Actually, Ivanj, I felt the same way about the older stuff too, just somewhat more or less, depending on the particular model. I haven't heard anything 4xx. To use an analogy, I feel like ML aims at the Mercedes crowd, when I'm a Porsche guy. Refinement carried to the point that the joy of the experience is filtered out; technically excellent but the raw excitement is gone. Nothing wrong with that, just not my particular cup of tea.

I am currently driving a pair of Mahlers with a Plinius SA250MKIV AMP with marvelous results....

The point is the current range of 3kk amps is sterile. This is borne out by my listening, indeed. Previous amps, and reportedly the 4kk series, are not so bad.

the 23.5 is a very good amp but he NEED very good cables
pre and cd player.

I take exception with Karls comment that ML amps are sterile and sanitized.
I've owned a #23 and currently
a 27.5 and I like them very much. They lack the brittle
edge of many solid state amps, have solid well-defined
bass and a warm midrange. I've owned tubes (ARC D-125),
and a Threshold 400A, Dyna 416, Pass Aleph 5, and others.
I find the Levinson amps the most to my liking. However,
as stated by Karls, YYMV.

I owned Ayre (V3) and Vienna (Beethovens) for about a year of great listening. I know these aren't the models you're asking about, but the newer Ayre is even better than the classic model, and the Mahlers like good solid power just like the Beethovens did. In addition, I think Ayre is a GREAT company that provides great customer service and product updates for very reasonable cost. Therefore, the V5 gets my vote.

Ayre, hands down. Every ML (the company, not the man) component I've ever heard sounds like it was voiced more or less the same: clean, neutral, and totally lacking in life, like it was designed by a robot, technically correct yet sterile and sanitized. I don't know what it is, and maybe others don't have this reaction, but I simply can't get past it. I want to just scream after having to listen to it for any length of time. It's perfectly right on an intellectual level yet totally devoid on an emotional level, and real music simply isn't like that. Hope I haven't insulted too many people with this, it's only my personal opinion, ymmv.