Mark Levinson 390S

From what I've heard, the wait on the new universal player from ML may be a little while. The delay in the shipping of current products is said to extend until at least the end of September due to the relocation of the production line to Lexicon's facilities. So, the focus now is on getting the line up and running well. By the end of this year, we will see a couple of new products (includuding the already announced 433 amp) but the universal player won't be until next year.

Jeff

There has been some talk of Mark Levinson (the company) developing a universal player. I believe this is more likely than another upgrade for the old ML 39 platform, even though I don't perceive any insurmountable impediments posed by the tray/transport mechanism for the 390s. A universal player is likely to be a completely new product versus a "ML 3900sx" extension with an upgrade path from the existing 390s.

Perhaps history will remember the 390s as one of the last one-box CD players that could present redbook material competitively against the new formats. Sort of the state of the art at the end of a product cycle. I bought a Sony VCR a couple years ago, the SLV 1000, realizing that the manufacturers were devoting all their energies to improving DVD players and that subsequent new VCR models would be progressively cheaper and less durable, capable, innovative, etc. The SLV 1000 was the best I could get for my "last" VCR. Let us know what you decide. Good luck.

Mark Levinson is working on a hi-res player. You might want to wait a little if you want hi-res formats.

If I'm not mistaken the DAC can handle DVD-A, thus with a different transport you could send it the DVD-A data stream. I'm not completely sure about this, you may want to call Madrigal.

No, it is strictly CD only, that was how ML designed it.
They never intended it to be upgradable. But it does compete with some of those hi-res players.