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Vintage Levinson DACs

I was always fascinated by the Levinson reference digital components.

I had and enjoyed using a 31 transport for many years, but never stepped up for the 30.6 DAC.

Can anyone comment on how the old Levinson DACs might compare with the best DACs today?

Is there something magical about these DACs, or is it mainly the enclosures and red LEDs?
cwlondon
yioryos's avatar
yioryos
723 posts
 
I have the #31 transport and use it with the #35 dac.One look at them and it screams quality.I absolutely love the sound and don't care to upgrade,others opinion may be different .I have heard some say that these older dac's are now outdated and easily outperformed by new cheaper knock offs.That doesn't intimidate me, I also have the Krell md-1/sbp64x and I believe if they were to design and make this level of quality in todays currency it would be in the upper $40000 range.
Regards
George
ashsbnrg's avatar
ashsbnrg
3 posts
 
I would agree with George. I've got the ML 31.5/30.5 COMBO which makes magic with the new Synergistic T3 balanced digital cable. I've auditioned the new generation of DACS/TRANSPORTS or cd players and I'm not sure I hear a better sound. Different YES.Better...err...NO
teajay
1,655 posts
 
Sorry Guys, it's just personnal taste, but I beg to disagree, I had the reference ML DAC and transport pieces in my system for over five years and they were terrific at that time. However, what digital front end I have now in my system is so much more musical/natural sounding then the Levinson pieces ever were. The best piece, in my opinion that ML ever built was the 31.5 transport, which is still a great piece, but just does not sound quite as good as the newer reference transports.
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