Any Issues with Levinson 37

I spoke with a two friends of mine who work at a high end shop that sells Levinson equipment. I asked them what the repair history and problem patterns were on the 37/39/390S.

I have known these guys for years and they have always been honest with me.

They are one of the highest volume ML dealers in the US.

Can you tell I am trying to add some validity to my post? ; )

They said that the early 37s were problematic and it was traced to the units not "surviving" the shipping. They literally used to ship units back and forth to this shop to study what was happening. Those problems were resolved by using a different transport screw and locking mechanism.

They also said that usually with these transports that if they were problematic, it was usually right out of the box. Once the unit was used for a few hundred hours, if there were not any problems up to that point, it was rare that one would develop after that.

The problems generally were related to the drawer mechanism and laser alignment, the former being consistent with the post on this thread.

The unit can also be a little finicky about CDs that are too thick, or are not equally balanced because of too much ink or paint on one side of a CD, which can cause a little wobble. The ML transports seemed to be the only brand with this problem.

All in all they said it has been a very reliable piece for a high end transport, and just as good if not better than other high end brands that they were familiar with.

Anyway, I ended up buying a used 37 (not from them). Thank you for all your comments and knowledge on this.

Could be, but when the same unit is on its' second or third transport replacement, I don't think shipping is the culprit.

Having to replace a transport on any piece of equipment, would have to label it a Lemon.

Used "Mr Min" cleaning spray(general purpose cleaner,anti-static) on the transport tray.Used a soft cloth to wipe on the top,bottom and sides of the tray.The drawer opens and closes flawlessly now.The drawer also sounds much smoother/softer when opening and closing.Glad,because it saved me money and the inconvenience of being without the transport.This spray also gives a wonderful shine to the metal parts of audio equipment.I also used it on the paint work and chrome parts of my motorcycle ~ have not found anything else that can give such a lovely shine to those type of surfaces.

Maybe something to consider if you have a "sticky drawer" 37 ....

Regards

Chris

When I had a No. 39 CDP, which used the 37 transport, I did encounter some CDs that it would not play, including some "enhanced" ones with video on them. Frustrating, but it seemed to be unfixable -- a characteristic of the Philips transport used in this unit. Great sounding transport, however, and otherwise entirely reliable.

One other frustration, which I assume applies to the 37 as well: it does not read indexing within tracks. I have one or two test CDs where, for example, individual test tones will be indexed all within a single track. The Levinson does not read out the index numbers nor will allow you to jump from one index point to the next. Too bad.