Mark Levinson ML7 auction

I'd walk away from  this seller.

I agree with cleeds. This is a relatively rare and expensive piece. Do you really want to do business with someone that said he would ship and then won't answer your questions?

@blundell
Are you sure that you won it? Just because you met the reserve price does not mean that you have won it. If you really want it you should place another bid (minimum & maximum) and see what happens!

The seller must have had a change of heart. The ad was amended on 5/08/17 and now states specifically “USA sales only.”

@yogiboy 

Yes I believe I won it because this item has been included in my folders "you won the auction" and "you bought the item".

@cleeds and
@dill

It appears that the seller is a famous hifi reviewer so I thought he is reliable based on his public image.

My major concerns are whether the seller has broken the rules and why Audiogon did not response to my complain/ report.

@blundell
Consider yourself lucky that you didn’t get it. You can get a much better preamp than an over 35 year old one !

Consider yourself lucky that you didn’t get it. You can get a much better preamp than an over 35 year old one !

For $1795?  That being the current high bid on the aforesaid reviewer/seller's second iteration of the auction.  Well, perhaps you can, but I don't doubt that the ML-7 would be competitive at the very least.

Early Mark Levinson gear is classic, and I can say as a former long-time user of an even older ML-1 that those pieces fetch prices in the thousands of dollars for more reasons than their pretty appearance.  And having used the ML-1's phono stage until just a couple of years ago when I replaced it with a Herron VTPH-2, I have no doubts about the following statement in the seller's listing:

I have used this preamplifier for years reviewing for Stereophile, and have not found any pre-amplifiers that had a better phono stage -- until now. The Mark Levinson No.526's phono stage is quieter and more transparent, but at a much higher price.

Blundell, best of luck in addressing the issue.
 
Regards,
-- Al