Vintage Levinson DACs

I am with Teajay. I had the 31.5transport & 30.5& 30.6. I loved then at the time. But was replaced easily a few years later. Today's DACs are much cleaner allowing more refinement. The ML will sound grainy and dark by today's standards.

I say all that still loving the ML. It was a work of art then & gave many hours of fine service. If you want looks maybe still get one.

I owned both pieces too. The quality of the fit and finish were beyond reproach. The 31.5 did have issues with the lid opening and closing. The sound quality was very good but to me, lacked rhythm and pace. But the major issue, is that Levinson equipment,under Harman's rule, are not well supported. They charge extreme amounts to repair the product and I question the ability of their service centers to provide a high level of service. So if you look at these factors: 1. digital has evolved and the Levinson equipment has stayed frozen in time, meaning it still sounds good, but not SOTA anymore, 2. Levinson/Harman discontinued both these items as soon as they enveloped Madrigal because they were to expensive to manufacture and support, and 3. Service is very expensive, questionable, and parts such as the laser assembly and transport itself are no longer manufactured by Phillips. My decision, even though I loved the look and feel and the sound quality, I sold the stuff before it became an expensive boat anchor.
Sgr

Iv'e tried many new DACs but my Levinson #360S still makes them sound thin and digital like .

Teajay
When I wrote my above post and made mention about the crowd that is all over the new cutting edge digital it was you in my mind,I have noticed from way back that you pop in every ML debate,and vote against.Well you are perhaps right,after all you are well respected and very knowledge in these matters,but please understand that some of us don't care to chase the latest and greatest.Really I wonder how long before your digital gets outperformed by the newer thingamagic.In my opinion the ML gear is classic ,pretty,top performer and build like no other,I will keep mine.I also have the Krell md-1 transport and a spare NOS cdm-3 mechanism.
Regards
George

i now have an Emm lab cdp - I finally advanced/upgraded mainly to listen to SACD's. the new player sounds very good, no complaints there. but i never had that "day versus night" experience when i got it. not so when i upgraded years ago to my ML-37/360S combo which sounded so smooth and was just a sheer pleasure to listen to. plus it had the HDCD decoding feature which i really enjoyed as well. that is why i still keep a ML-390S cdp around as a back-up.