Classic Levinson Amps


While I expect to remain cwlondon on my e-mail address, I have finally become a full time, tax paying, resident of NYC again and I am officially in the market for all new gear. I maintain my obsession with ARC and Magneplanars, but I am wondering if the often recommended Bryston monoblocks might improved upon with some classic, Mark Levinson monoblocks. Could anyone please recommend something from the golden age of Mark Levinson amps, before it was only a name pasted onto a Madrigal product that looks more like a space heater? Would this work with an ARC SP-11 pre amp or would there be impedance problems? I would prefer to use longer interconnects and keep the amps close to the speakers? Thank you very much.
cwlondon
Cw, The amps from the "real" MLAS company were the models
ML-2,mono, class-A, 25 watts
ML-3 Stereo, Class AB, 200 WPC
ML-9 Stereo, 100 WPC
The ML-2, was the great one, but unless you have four of them bridged together its no way on the Maggies. ML-3, did not approach the sound of ML-2, nor did the ML-9. Late ML-2s are quite a bit better than early 77/78 production. I think, also Early No. 20 models were the closest in quality and sound to the ML-2.
Impedence was a problem when mating the SP-11 th Spectral amps of the same era. (DMA-50 &80) so there may or may not be a problem with MLAS. If I may suggest to you, the ARC amps of that era, D-115 MKII, and M-100, sounded head and shoulders superior to MLAS electronics. The aforementioned ARC amps, with the SP-11 MK-1, were the State of the art in 86. Hope this helps.........Frank
Mark Levinson is still in business, after selling his old company "Cello" because he again got screwed by his partner, his new company is called Red Rose Music. He operates out of new york. I hope he is a better designer than business man. Hope this helps.
CW: You ought to listen to a Pass Labs Aleph amp. They are 2 or 3 stage pure class A (SET type) amps. So natural and smooth.