Mark Levinson No.512 CD Player---Opinions

I hope it's more reliable than the 390S. I had two of them, both horribly problematic.But I did like the sound when they worked!!$15k seems a crazy price for a front end, but then again Levinson must know their market. Paradoxically I suppose it will eventually whittle down to the rest of us poor mortals via Audiogon for a reasonable price, so there is justice after all.

Well, I just got my ML 512. Let me open with a joke. Two men meet on the street and one says, “How’s your wife?” The other man responds, “Compared to what?”
The player is heavy and solid, but I haven’t had the time to a great deal and I can only really compare it with a ML 31.5/30.6 combination. While I have heard the Esoteric and the Krell, I have not heard those in my system.
The 512 sounds very good, I am NOT yet ready to say great. It has to be broken in and I need time to just enjoy it. My surprise is how well the CDs sound. The ML 31.5/30.6 sounded a bit darker, meaning the bass was not as refined as it here. There is great detail, but the high end is what prevents me from saying great. But that may come when it is on for a few more days, it has in the past. New machines always sound a bit shrill to me.
The SACDs sound fine also, with a somewhat deeper sound with better placement coming from the ability to hear each instrument more individually. The bass is also better. When I first turned it on I would give it a B-. Now it is a B+. In time (just a day or two) it could certainly be an A.

@Forbushman - as you already purchased it, may I ask what the price was?
Cheers

On a slightly different note, I was wondering if anyone has heard the 512 compared to either the previous flagship model, the #51 or the famed Meridian 808.2. No one I've queried, including reps with Levinson or Meridian seem to have ever done either one of these comparisons, so I'm hoping someone out there has to aid me in my purchasing decision. Anyone out there heard the 512 compared to these other flagship models? If so, what did you think?

It’s two weeks later and I have reached my conclusions about the ML 512. First, it is very sturdy and uses a different remote than I have associated with ML.
After two weeks, some of the sounds are startling. First, the quiet is so quiet when it is quiet that I first thought something was wrong. There is no shrillness whatsoever; the highs are wonderful and believable. I heard instruments, not speakers or equipment. The strings were startling real. I loved the “bass strings” and certainly heard things I never heard before. I even felt the piano keys being hit.
My comparisons are with the ML 31.5/30.6 and Krell DVD players. I have trouble, I think, expressing this, but the ML combo gave me great detail, the new combo gives better fidelity. It not so much detail it is realism. It did take me a while to get used to that. I hope that makes sense. The soundstage was superb. I listened to classical music, opera, jazz and movie soundtracks.
I found it took ten days to two weeks to really warm up and play well. I left it on overnight and the music got better and better. We are certainly are in grade A territory, perhaps A plus.
I know it sounds silly, but I haven’t had the time yet to go through a lot of discs, that may take a while. The CD sound is so wonderful that the distance between that and the SACD is not humongous. Again, that is because it is playing the regular CDs so well, NOT because the SACD part is lacking anything. Again, it actually sound is taking me a while to get used to. It is so uncolored and natural (and quiet).