+1 on minorl’s comments. I have a 27, and Meyer quoted $2k+ to recap and update the boards with some parts replacements they would not describe. I decided to recap the amp myself, and waited over 3 months for a new run of capacitors to be manufactured. I replaced every electrolytic in the amp, as well as some slightly burned resistors, and as it happened, every output transistor, because 30% of them were substantially out of spec. Rather than just replace that 30% and try to match the new ones to the 30+-year old outputs, I replaced them all.
Schematics for the 27, 27.5, and 23.5 are out there, but adjustment procedures are not well documented and because of the complicated design, are not similar to many other amp designs. It was the most difficult, and least enjoyable amp that I’ve worked on because of the complicated design and construction.
Before the recap and parts replacement, I was really disappointed with the amp, and would have agreed with the negative comments here about the amp performance. At 100 wpc, it was not as powerful as my others (I have 8), but it lacked dynamics and definition. After all of my work, the amp sounds incredible. Working properly, these are wonderful amps, just a bear to work on and expensive to have work done by qualified Levinson techs.Have fun with your 23.5, but my recommendation would be to have the work done sooner than later to reduce chances for failures that could be even more costly, and I think you will then want to keep the amp for a very long time.
Schematics for the 27, 27.5, and 23.5 are out there, but adjustment procedures are not well documented and because of the complicated design, are not similar to many other amp designs. It was the most difficult, and least enjoyable amp that I’ve worked on because of the complicated design and construction.
Before the recap and parts replacement, I was really disappointed with the amp, and would have agreed with the negative comments here about the amp performance. At 100 wpc, it was not as powerful as my others (I have 8), but it lacked dynamics and definition. After all of my work, the amp sounds incredible. Working properly, these are wonderful amps, just a bear to work on and expensive to have work done by qualified Levinson techs.Have fun with your 23.5, but my recommendation would be to have the work done sooner than later to reduce chances for failures that could be even more costly, and I think you will then want to keep the amp for a very long time.