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Mark Levinson Where is the Emotion??

Hello to all,

My system:

ML no. 35 dac
Muse Model Five transport
stock power cords, no line conditioners
Custom built diy speakers
Denon 1803 receiver
Generic 16 ga speaker wire
Acoustic Zen MC2 AES/EBU from transport to dac
Silver interconnects

The problem that I'm experiencing with this setup is when I sit down to listen I find myself more times than often falling asleep rather than being engaged in the performance. While it sounds smooth, airy, open, rich, non fatiguing, etc.. it fails to convey the emotion of the recording. Not to say the no. 35 is a bad dac, it's a great dac but it just doesn't seem to do what I'm wanting.

It may get better with a higher quality transport, but I can't afford a megabuck transport. Eventually I will upgrade the speaker cables and the receiver to a quality integrated, but I don't think this would help much with the problem at hand although I could be wrong. I was thinking of just ditching the dac and transport altogether for a one box solution such as the Electrocompaniet EMC-1UP player since I was reading that it was quite a musical player or possibly try another dac and transport combo (this time one made for each other) such as the Northstar M192 combo. Has anyone else with a Levinson dac experienced the same problem as me and if so, what did you change to? Thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.
162db

Showing 1 response by sgr

sgr's avatar
sgr
689 posts
 
Having owened many pieces of Levinson equipment, and hearing various Levinson equipment in many stereo systems of friends, and knowing Muse equipment by reputation, if there is something lacking in your system, it is probably not the Levinson. Your system could be improved in many ways.
As noted earlier, having a smooth system that one nods away while listening, can be a good thing. When a system is right, worries about the quality of your system disappear, as you relax into the zone.

You've collected some nice pieces of equipment, as your electronics improve around your DAC and transport, so will your percieved enjoyment.
Steve
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