Mark Levinson Where is the Emotion??


Hello to all,

My system:

ML no. 35 dac
Muse Model Five transport
stock power cords, no line conditioners
Custom built diy speakers
Denon 1803 receiver
Generic 16 ga speaker wire
Acoustic Zen MC2 AES/EBU from transport to dac
Silver interconnects

The problem that I'm experiencing with this setup is when I sit down to listen I find myself more times than often falling asleep rather than being engaged in the performance. While it sounds smooth, airy, open, rich, non fatiguing, etc.. it fails to convey the emotion of the recording. Not to say the no. 35 is a bad dac, it's a great dac but it just doesn't seem to do what I'm wanting.

It may get better with a higher quality transport, but I can't afford a megabuck transport. Eventually I will upgrade the speaker cables and the receiver to a quality integrated, but I don't think this would help much with the problem at hand although I could be wrong. I was thinking of just ditching the dac and transport altogether for a one box solution such as the Electrocompaniet EMC-1UP player since I was reading that it was quite a musical player or possibly try another dac and transport combo (this time one made for each other) such as the Northstar M192 combo. Has anyone else with a Levinson dac experienced the same problem as me and if so, what did you change to? Thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.
162db
Geez Mr. Tennis you are being awfully direct. I have to say I fully agree with you.
this is why the autolift feature on a turntable is so important.....one side of nick drake, and i'm gone baby gone.
I have a full Levinson reference system. This does nothing to draw you in nor to push you away. Many folks find out in the long run equipment that has certain sounding traits that initially thrill can push you away in the long run.

My system draws the stress right out of me and many times I will fall asleep listening. I cannot do this if I'm hearing something that bothers me.

You definately have a unique set of components, and I would look to the Denon receiver LONG before I suspected the 35 DAC.

Best,

Paul :-)
Turn the volume up so you don’t fall asleep. ;-) I'm sure it will be more exciting at concert levels.
doesn't that receiver have digital input? Then try this - run your cd transport into the receiver instead of levinson dac and compare it with the sound of your usual config.
What do you like better?