I was considering Mark Levinson myself as my dealer was just raving about them. I auditioned the 5000 series equipment. I didn’t audition the 500 series. I use to service consumer electronics. IMHO the new Mark Levinson equipment is completely overpriced! Also doing a lot of digging, a lot of software issues with the 5805. I don’t know the total extent of that issue. From a service standpoint I feel the 534/536 is poorly designed in the fact that the filter caps live on the amp board mounted over the output transistors sandwiched right against the power transformer. I see faulty power supply caps prematurely! They are really priced out of range considering the competition of many brands depending on your tastes. Look up the review on these amps and look at the pictures that they display. These are not your vintage Mark Levinson. To me it’s not par with build quality vs price tag. Anyone else’s take or opinions? Regards, Greg
Mark Levinson & Others
Was considering purchasing one of the newer Mark Levinson integrated amps but I have noticed a lot of them for sale on the used and open box market. Particularly the 585 and the 5805 models, although I am looking at the 5802 model. Is this a bad omen? I know this is not the ML of the past.
Also looking at the Krell K300i but when I called the US authorized Krell repair center, I was surprised when the tech advised me against purchasing any of the newer Krell products. If you are interested in Krell he said to buy the older stuff and refurbish it, that's worth it. I see a few of these units coming on the market now as well.
These are both companies that are newer entities of themselves. Are people purchasing these amps with high expectations, going on their past reputations only to find that they’re not what they were hoping for, for whatever reason?