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"Audiophile Icon Mark Levinson Reveals Industry Secrets"

WillBrink

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Mark L laments the problems in the modern audio world, in particular, high end market. Is it ironic he's the guy saying it? Is it really a revelation that it's a profit driven biz like all the others and there's a lot of BS and scams in audio?

 
Yet, his amps for instance, range from $ 8k to $ 30k so he may well believe the audiophile market is all about money but still wants a piece of that market
 
Yet, his amps for instance, range from $ 8k to $ 30k so he may well believe the audiophile market is all about money but still wants a piece of that market

I'd be interested to know what the margins are on the gear he sells now direct to customers. He had a direct hand in, if not created, the high end (read wildly over priced) segment in the 70s, so seems truly ironic he's commenting on where the segment went over the years.
 
Have you checked the prices of the Daniel Hertz speakers? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
 
Have you checked the prices of the Daniel Hertz speakers? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
iu

Impressive numbers on them, though:
The M1 18” woofer of the M1 is a high efficiency design (98dB/1W/1m) that can take up to 4000W of power and generate over 132dB SPL. With a resonant frequency of 20Hz, it has flat frequency response to 20Hz. The crossover point is 80Hz.
The M1 12” woofer of the M1 is 100dB efficient and reproduces signals from 80Hz to 2kHz.
The M1 compression driver tweeter is 100dB efficient and can generate over 130dB SPL, 8 ohms/1W/1m.

Yet, his amps for instance, range from $ 8k to $ 30k so he may well believe the audiophile market is all about money but still wants a piece of that market
I guess his real point is that those people charge similar prices for their equipment which isn't really anything special. His claim/view is that with his products you get impressive engineering and performance, while the other companies sell old tech that doesn't do anything impressive for the same amount.

A company can be about the money without being only about the money.
I worked for a company that changed hands several times and it went from "If you take care of the customer the money will follow" to "Take as much money from each customer every time" Both of those wanted to make as much money as possible but one only cares about the money.
 
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What a joke, he says others just want to soak you for your money, but he led the way with his overpriced gear for the last 40 years and continues with his new snake oil Dac/pre/amp at $50k.
And your supposed to buy it because he's fixed digital audio.

"The biggest challenge in audio has been how to obtain pure analog emotion and enjoyment from digital audio. In January 2024, the Daniel Hertz C Wave patent was accepted and approved by the U.S. patent office, based on making digital audio better for human health. DH is the only company that can explain, measure and fix the digital audio problem."

What an arrogant ass, "making digital audio better for human health"

" snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution."
 
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Yet, his amps for instance, range from $ 8k to $ 30k so he may well believe the audiophile market is all about money but still wants a piece of that market

I'd be interested to know what the margins are on the gear he sells now direct to customers. He had a direct hand in, if not created, the high end (read wildly over priced) segment in the 70s, so seems truly ironic he's commenting on where the segment went over the years.
iu

Impressive numbers on them, though:
The M1 18” woofer of the M1 is a high efficiency design (98dB/1W/1m) that can take up to 4000W of power and generate over 132dB SPL. With a resonant frequency of 20Hz, it has flat frequency response to 20Hz. The crossover point is 80Hz.
The M1 12” woofer of the M1 is 100dB efficient and reproduces signals from 80Hz to 2kHz.
The M1 compression driver tweeter is 100dB efficient and can generate over 130dB SPL, 8 ohms/1W/1m.


I guess his real point is that those people charge similar prices for their equipment which isn't really anything special. His claim/view is that with his products you get impressive engineering and performance, while the other companies sell old tech that doesn't do anything impressive for the same amount.

A company can be about the money without being only about the money.
I worked for a company that changed hands several times and it went from "If you take care of the customer the money will follow" to "Take as much money from each customer every time" Both of those wanted to make as much money as possible but one only cares about the money.

Not seen any measurements, but by all accounts the stuff he's offering now via the new direct to consumer company is very good, but almost 8k for the little book shelf speaker?
 
What a joke, he says others just want to soak you for your money, but he led the way with his overpriced gear for the last 40 years and continues with his new snake oil Dac/pre/amp at $50k.
And your supposed to buy it because he's fixed digital audio.

"The biggest challenge in audio has been how to obtain pure analog emotion and enjoyment from digital audio. In January 2024, the Daniel Hertz C Wave patent was accepted and approved by the U.S. patent office, based on making digital audio better for human health. DH is the only company that can explain, measure and fix the digital audio problem."

What an arrogant ass, "making digital audio better for human health"

Indeed. These guys deserve to be called out on their hypocrisy.
 
iu

Impressive numbers on them, though:
The M1 18” woofer of the M1 is a high efficiency design (98dB/1W/1m) that can take up to 4000W of power and generate over 132dB SPL. With a resonant frequency of 20Hz, it has flat frequency response to 20Hz. The crossover point is 80Hz.
The M1 12” woofer of the M1 is 100dB efficient and reproduces signals from 80Hz to 2kHz.
The M1 compression driver tweeter is 100dB efficient and can generate over 130dB SPL, 8 ohms/1W/1m.


I guess his real point is that those people charge similar prices for their equipment which isn't really anything special. His claim/view is that with his products you get impressive engineering and performance, while the other companies sell old tech that doesn't do anything impressive for the same amount.

A company can be about the money without being only about the money.
I worked for a company that changed hands several times and it went from "If you take care of the customer the money will follow" to "Take as much money from each customer every time" Both of those wanted to make as much money as possible but one only cares about the money.
I'm skeptical about that M1's woofer fs, and overall it seems comparable to good PA drivers at best. Additionally, the specs of the M1's compression driver fall short of high-quality PA compression drivers. For instance, the Radian 2218-Neo woofer(2000W nominal power handling, 4000W peaks) , which closely matches the specs you mentioned, costs 700 euros each. Similarly, the Axi2050 driver, which is significantly superior to the M1's HF driver in terms of specifications, is priced around 950 euros. Add another state of the art mid PA driver there for 800$... Given these comparisons, I can't see how the price of these speakers reaches 110,000 euros each based on these specs.(223000 euros for pair)
 
Mark Levinson has crossed the line from "snake oil salesman" to criminal scum, or the original definition of a snake oil salesman, in the sense of selling sham remedies, actually. Claiming that a little EQ and reverb on your music can improve your health isn't just BS marketing, it's flagrantly immoral and flies in the face of common sense and basic logic. He's trying to sell people $30K amps telling them it will improve their kidney function and stuff.

Just keep in mind that his supposed cure for the health-harming digital audio is... DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING. The sheer chutzpah is astounding.

At least normal fake-ass homeopathic remedies don't cost some people's annual salary.

Honestly we should never mention this clown on this site again. One of the absolute worst. I reported him to the FDA but unfortunately don't have a lot of hope he'll be held accountable for this crap.
 
Haha wow, either the guy has no self-awareness _whatsoever_ or he's getting dementia.
 

You can read the patent. It really is disturbing that patents are given for crap like this. In short the C wave is some EQ around 6-8 khz and some reverb added up to .5 seconds in length though variable. Plus some other dubious EQ. All based in the patent on the mis-guided stair step concept of digital audio.
 

You can read the patent. It really is disturbing that patents are given for crap like this. In short the C wave is some EQ around 6-8 khz and some reverb added up to .5 seconds in length though variable. Plus some other dubious EQ. All based in the patent on the mis-guided stair step concept of digital audio.
Patents aren't evaluated for correctness or even physical plausibility, they just check whether it's new (itself a very imperfect process) and whether you've formatted the patent application properly.

As a result you get patents on dumb crap like this and perpetual motion machines.
 
Patents aren't evaluated for correctness or even physical plausibility, they just check whether it's new (itself a very imperfect process) and whether you've formatted the patent application properly.

As a result you get patents on dumb crap like this and perpetual motion machines.

I’m going to get a patent for a machine that disables everybody else’s perpetual motion machines.
 
Mark L laments the problems in the modern audio world, in particular, high end market. Is it ironic he's the guy saying it? Is it really a revelation that it's a profit driven biz like all the others and there's a lot of BS and scams in audio?

looks like another yt shill channel of snake oil selling rubbish audio
 
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