Mark Levinson Repairs

The most common problem with these amps is the capacitors. This is a very well known problem. Over time they leak and need to be replaced. If the leaking is bad, that may cause problems with some of the boards. Sourcing high quality replacements has been an issue over the years.

There is also a rubber damping strip that can melt over time and leak onto components, although the caps are the most common problem.

Call the authorized repair places above and get estimates. Sometimes it is a flat rate, sometimes it is a flat labor rate plus parts. Shipping is also not trivial. My information is several years old, so give them a call and get the current situation.

If you search on Levinson equipment for sale there is a guy who buys non-working equipment.

George Myers is not listed as an authorized service center on the Levinson website, not sure why. I would check with Levinson to be sure.

Service Centers (marklevinson.com)

Sites-ML-US-Site (marklevinson.com)

Mark Levinson is owned by Harmon Kardon which is owned by Samsung. Harmon Kardon is a respected name in consumer and professional audio. Levinson has certainly had issues with customer service in the past but to compare them and Harmon Kardon to washing machines and cell phones is not exactly fair.

PS Audio is a separate, privately owned company founded by Paul McGown. McGowen left the company for a while  in the '90s but went back and, as far as I know, is still there.  I have no idea what your service problem was, but they are a respected audio company.

The company is very different than when those amps were build. And pretty much all of them need the caps replaced and quality parts have been hard to find.  It is frustrating but not too surprising that they will not fix the amp.

I have 20 year old Thermador double wall ovens and the lower one does not work. The control board is not available, so I am out of luck using the bottom oven.  And that company is still very much in business.  It happens, unfortunately.

markny - I never said that Samsung ownership has no impact on Harmon Kardon and thus Levinson. I simply said the Harmon Kardon is a pretty well respected company.

The issue with 3xx series amps is that they used specialized filter caps that ran at very near tolerance. Those caps eventually fail. Those caps are no longer available, although there have been some replacements available from other sources. But experience has shown that many of the replacement caps also fail. There is a design issue with the amps and a supply issue for the caps. A $2,000 repair with parts you do not trust is a bad business decision. There is more to this than just that Samsung is cheap. Not having replacements parts is a pain, but it is not unique to Levinson and Harmon Kardon and Samsung, as in my Thermador/Bosche example.

That said, I will never buy a Samsung appliance because I do not trust their service. But Samsung phones are all I buy.

EDIT : Samsung bought Harmon Kardon in 2017. This issue of getting Levinson 3xx amps repaired predates that purchase, for the reasons stated above.

The filter caps for the 331 were made by Philips. Some people have used replacement caps from CORNELL DUBILIER that some say are as good if not better than the original Philips ones. I am not sure if these are still available. But, from what I know, it is a major job to dissemble the unit enough to replace the caps. If you find someone to repair a 331 make sure to have a discussion about what caps are being used. It does matter.