Levinson Amps: What do they really sound like?

Ok here it goes. I owned a 331 for 2 years and sold to upgrade to the 335 and when I did my mouth hit the floor with the improvements Levinson had made. Prior to owning the Levinson gear I had a Krell Ksa 150 which was nice but the Levinson killed it. I had the 335 with The lEVINSON 39 CD PLAYER and a pair of Martin Logan Ascents. It was truly amazing. I was out of the hobby for a while and in the process of buying a home and decided to sell my Levinson gear. I did. When it was gone I really missed it. So I bought another 39 and instead I bought a krell FPB 200c and I still have my logans and at first I didnt like it but now that everything has warmed up it is awesome. As far as Levinsons sound it doesnt add or take away from the music and thats why I owned it for 5 yrs. I will buy it again some day but it will be the monos. I thik Levinson soundsd better than plinius the mcomack and the pass. Levinsons customer service is the best in high end audio today and I really miss having an all Levinson system. Liquid mids deep wide soundstage ultra smooth sounding.( providing the recording is smooth) deep bass. Waht more can I say buy and you will love it if not put it on audiogon and you will lose nothing. Good Luck Dan

There is much good advice here. The synergy with the speakers cannot be understated. In my case the VT 100mk2 I had simply wasn't up to my Wilson 5.1's. The 335 was clearly a better match, but it took about three days for all the votes to come in. The superior bass control was very obvious immediately but it took a few days for the 335 to open up and reproduce the air around the instruments I was used to. After many months there is no doubt the 335 is a great match with my Wilson's. The comments about the 335 being polite may simply be saying it depends on the speaker. With the 5.1's polite is good.

I agree that the Levinson's sound clinical. Like a guy in a white lab coat with an oscilloscope. There is the high end argument of adding nothing to the sound, the system will play exactly what is on the recording. Well, that may be, but I am just a yuppie with a CD collection. I would hate to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$ on a system, and have half my CD collection sound dissappointing, or unbearable. I have
been looking over the used high end listings all over the internet, and I see an awful lot of levinson gear....

I had a 336 and replaced with Halcros, the Levinson gear are sensitive to up/down stream components. I found that the 336 was a pretty good match with my gear but a tad bright due to the Wilson Watt/puppy 6 I own. Mythtrip has a point that he raises that all high end gear should not color music in any way..To some of us that is the ultimate goal, well, mine at least and if you listen to metal and hard core rock...uncolored music has little impact compared to lets say Bill Evans at the Vangard (Jazz), I found that the Lev did that for me better then any other amp I had owned/tested....for Jazz, Pass Labs X350 was a close second in taste but I found the amp a little too mellow and warm compared to the Lev. The Halcros, a few notches above and, well, unbelievable detail and sound.

Matt

I heard a pair of 33h,s and BW 801,s Never so dissapointed, I didn,t look at the source or cables, I just wanted to get out of there.
I would like to here a proper Levinson system. I sold my Pass X350 and went back to tubes. SS can,t compare to tubes.Ya there picky but so is a Shelby Cobra SC.
Like the above post, If you want high end, buy SS. If you want music GO TUBES.
Steve