simaudio 740P VS Mark Levinson 326S

Which you "prefer" ( note: ..... this is an anecdotal and biased value judgement at best) depends primarily on the synergy with the rest of your system and your listening environment.

There is no absolute "better" - full stop.

I hope Levinson stands behind its equipment better than it did when I owned several pieces. Their theory seemed to be like BMW s current thinking, "once it's out of warranty or we're not interested, forget that guy."

I was left stranded with orphan pieces costing more than $8k each and poor customer service/ruinous repair bills with ridiculous delays or my favorite, "we discontinued that and don't offer repair".

Pyramid Audio in Austin TX is a very competent Levinson repair service; and most important (for me) was they have people who know everything about all the old (and REALLY old) Levinson equipment. At least as of three years ago ;~)

Thanks, nsgarch: I am glad someone is taking care of Levinson. It's nice gear and I hate to see what happened to it a few years ago.

I have demoed both and finally decided on the simaudio 740p. 740p is very neutral and refined sounding.
326s sounded ordinary to me.

Just to update,
In hifi, you can only judge an equipment if you can compare them side by side.

I thought the 740p sounded great.
But against my aged aragon 28k, the 740p sounded smooth, muddy and veiled.