The Levinson Sound?

68pete

hello

Ok . 336 two channels

the power cable on the 335 is not rigid, it is replaceable by any other.


the MLevinson 331,332 and 333 were equipped with PHILIPS capacitors that burst

later MLevinson rectified and released the EXCELLENT 334,335 and 336 already with other capacitors, no longer suffered from this problem

excellent amplifiers , 334,335 e 336

good hearings ..

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unsound...Your welcome. Very nice reference for the forums for sure...

Alormd1241, kudos for using J.Gordon Holt’s dictionary. If we all use this reference the discussions here will be so much more productive.

To add to 68pete's comments on the 336, it absolutely suffered from the same capacitor issue as the 331-333 models.  All 33x amplifiers did.

clemvice
The Levinson 336 amp is 2 channel amp 350 wats into 8 ohms and doubling down each time 700 into 4 ohms 1400 into 2 ohms. Not a multi channel amp. The power cord is hard wired so you can not swap it out . Unless you modify the amp

jafant
Like i said i only heard it for a few minutes at the audio show. But it did not stand out if i remember correctly. I think the audio shows are a good place to get exposed to products but a lot harder to form a feeling  on something when you hear it for a couple of minutes. Rooms, speakers and cables  all enter into it even music played.

Though I can certainly understand why Levinson has a following. The Levinson house sound just isn't as appealing to me as much as some of their direct competitors. The Levinson's don't seem to have the open micro and macro dynamics as some of them. Also, their reputation for customer service (especially at these price points) isn't all that welcoming to me either.

blindjim, the sound experience you describe, if it was with an older ML amp, is most likely because that amp was due for an overhaul. I have no doubt there are “better“ amps out there but that’s not the point of discussion here. I’ve heard countless amps (and speakers) that sound very detailed when heard for the first time or for a short period but become intolerable after an hour or so. The No. 334 (and X150.5 to a lesser degree) are for all evening all genre music listening when paired properly. 

Hello

I'm from Lisboa - P O R T U G A L

I have 335 and it's a genuine Levinson, all of the following are no longer made by Mr. Mark Levinson (I mean ...)

the whole line of 334 - 335 - 336 does not suffer from the capacitor problem

only the 331 - 332 and 333 are previous and this series is that they suffered this problem

the 336 is multichannel for home theater

The 335 is excellent the best of them all better than the legendary ML 27.5

good hearings ..... ...

.

Do the Levinson amps pair well with tube preamps?

Hi I still own 332 and I love the sound but I'm not using it because I'm set with accuphase. You won't go wrong if you get one

333jeffery
The Levinson Soud?

Great sounds, from old and new still, I still respect them.
They haven't sold out to Class-D like Rowland Research did, and lost a lot of audiophiles respect because of it.

Cheers George

"I've often heard that Levinson's amps have a "dark" sound to them. What does this mean?"  

Here you go 333jeffery... An Audio Glossary

https://www.stereophile.com/content/sounds-audio-glossary-glossary

dark... A warm, mellow, excessively rich quality in reproduced sound. The audible effect of a frequency response which is clockwise-tilted across the entire range, so that output diminishes with increasing frequency. Compare "light."

Hello jafant
I have not had the pleasure of the Mark Levinson 383, other than a audio show just for a couple of minutes.

FWIW…. I’d say so far, these posts are on point with the Levinson sound attributes.

I’ve only heard ML with ML pre & amp, using Maggie 20s.

IMO, being very blunt and a bit insensitive, listening to Levinson is like listening to an amp which has to have a sheet thrown over each speaker while the music is playing. Maybe that’s the ‘dark’ aspect. They sound ‘polite’. Deep resounding bass. But IMO just to civil and not keen on leading edge definition. However, not tube like.

I’d say they are surely accurate and musical, but the presentation for me, is not demonstrative or engaging enough. At least in the setup I heard. Imaging was spectacular, albeit mild mannered..

Their builds enable some fairly tuff load speakers to be driven surprisingly well.

Could be a solution for bright sounding speakers.

IMHO age is another consideration. There are loads of nice well mannered amps around that don’t have the Levinson name plate which are contemporary or recent . production.

The cap issue referred to earlier is fact with age. A friend of mine has had a couple of them and needed to get that work done on his.

Krell amps, for example, of the same vintage or era would be the antithesis of ML amps.

Look around. Have fun at any length. Good luck.

I feel the 3 series is still the best amp Levinson has made today. I have owned 331, 334.332 and now the 335. In all fairness i have heard the 4 series and did not like them at all. The newer 5 series i have not heard them enough to pass opinion. The 3 series had the cap problem, but once corrected is a great amp. To me it was the older Levinson pre amps that sounded dark not the amps. The Levinson 3 series does not have the bass slam that the Krells of the same age had. But for me they where better across the board. For me the best cable to put with the 3 series is Transparent cable the Reference line or higher.  I have had friends tell me when they listen to my system that it has a tube quality sound when matched up. The Highs and Mids are very detailed and sweet sounding.
enjoy Pete

I've often heard that Levinson's amps have a "dark" sound to them. What does this mean? I see the 33 and 33H's come up for sale from time to time and wondered if they are as good as folks let on. They are out of my price-range but I am curious about them.

I had a 336 which I really liked, but after replacing the caps I sold it and tried several different other amps.  

I could have easily lived with the 336, but now have JC1 mono's which to my ear are a little more lively and open than the 336.  Neither amp will fatigue and both are fantastic.  The 336 is the best of the 3xx series IMO.

Good luck.

I’ve heard No. 334 and X150.5 in the same system for a few hours when a friend was trying to decide to replace his 334 with the Pass unit. At the end we both agreed we liked the No. 334 better so he decided to keep it. His had gone through a major (and expensive) service which included new capacitors and a couple of other electronics a few months before the comparison. I must add the sound after the service got dramatically better so an unmolested unit may not sound much better than the X150.5. The Levinson just sounded fuller with more uniform sound top to bottom. By comparison the Pass sounded a bit disjointed across the frequency range with some frequency ranges sounding more forward and others relatively more recessed. Don’t know how to describe it any better.

I am interested in the 300-series amps.

What generation ML amps are you looking to compare? 

They best the PASS in my experience.

in fairness, it was an all-Mark Levinson electronics array including cdp that was being auditioned