No 30.5 & 31.5. Still of reference quality ?


I was wandering what do you think about this combo. You can get them for 9000 used. Do you thing they are worth this kind of money ? Or maybe you can get a better sound for similar/less money today ?

I'm looking for something to replace my trusty Theta Data Basic II / Generation Va combo.
128x128elberoth2

Showing 2 responses by dkarmeli

These units are still reference level, both sonically and in build quality. We have been distributing CEC & Weiss digital for a number of years and I have personal experience with dCS & Levinson products for almost a decade. From this experience I can tell you that the 31.5 is only second to the TL-0 in sound quality. It still is far superior to anything else out there today, actually its the best sounding transport made today since CEC has stopped making TL-0s. While we still maintain that the Weiss Medea offers the most natural and realistic musical experience with digital, the 30.5/.6 are also still very competative and can be considered among the handful of top DACs available today, in some ways I prefer the 30.5 to the 30.6. Please don't confuse these Levinson Reference products with the rest of their line, the 360s doesn't even begin to approach the sonic qualities of the 30.5/31.5 combo. At 9k for the combo it just can't be beat!

Disclaimer: we're not affiliated with Madrigal in any way and neither are we Levinson dealers nor do we have any Levinson products for sale.
Wether SACD or DVD-A will succeed or not is actually irrelevant, many of us have large collections of redbook CDs and PCM is the dominent format for the forseeable future.

On a different note, I haven't heard any of the multiformat players/transports offer much beyond mass market DVD players, sonically they all leave quite a bit to be desired as transports and are even less appealing as a player, especially when you consider the cost of these high end multiformat players today. Whatever the potential of DSD might or might not be, we're still not there yet, if ever!