First Stereophile has not reviewed the 512.
Bad news about the 512.
The last week in February, I went to play a cd on my 512 and the left channel had failed. Very soon, the left channel for the SACD playback would fail too.
My dealer did everything right and everything a dealer should do! And more! He kept pestering ML and they did not respond with an answer nor with a RA for over a month, but krept promising theyd get right back to him
Finally, I also called ML. Three weeks after I called I got a RA but learned that virtually all of the 512s had failed! The failure was so complete that all the units were being replaced, not repaired. I was told that something was failing on the grounding, the electronics that made it so silent on playback was shorting out.
I got back a new unit on Thursday. It is interesting that the items on the 512's display have changed. When you turn it on it says "Esoteric" not "Mark Levenson 512". It also says SACD 2 Ch instead of just SACD when an SACD was being played. ML assured me that that was just due to a software update, they use Esoteric transport, and will not affect their sound.
Its just not what a company wants, advertising the competitor, I bet.
It sounds fine, but now I will have to wait some time to make sure.
Bad news about the 512.
The last week in February, I went to play a cd on my 512 and the left channel had failed. Very soon, the left channel for the SACD playback would fail too.
My dealer did everything right and everything a dealer should do! And more! He kept pestering ML and they did not respond with an answer nor with a RA for over a month, but krept promising theyd get right back to him
Finally, I also called ML. Three weeks after I called I got a RA but learned that virtually all of the 512s had failed! The failure was so complete that all the units were being replaced, not repaired. I was told that something was failing on the grounding, the electronics that made it so silent on playback was shorting out.
I got back a new unit on Thursday. It is interesting that the items on the 512's display have changed. When you turn it on it says "Esoteric" not "Mark Levenson 512". It also says SACD 2 Ch instead of just SACD when an SACD was being played. ML assured me that that was just due to a software update, they use Esoteric transport, and will not affect their sound.
Its just not what a company wants, advertising the competitor, I bet.
It sounds fine, but now I will have to wait some time to make sure.