simaudio 740P VS Mark Levinson 326S

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.

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

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.

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 ;~)

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".

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.