Mark Levinson ML50 50th anniversary amps

[Blumlein 88]

Didn't want any of you guys to miss out. Just announced at the CES. 50th anniversary amps priced at a somewhat unsurprising $50,000 a pair.

Mark Levinson ML-50 Limited Edition Amplifiers Launched at CES 2022

Mark Levinson starts its 50th anniversary celebrations with the limited-edition ML-50 amplifier package.

www.stereonet.com

@amirm are you going to measure it, with your Madrigal connections surely they'll send you one of the 100 pairs available?

Then again maybe your back automatically nixes the idea of heaving these behemoths about on the test bench.

 

[amirm]

Not sure why they are in such a hurry to announce a product that won't ship until Q4, 2022. On testing it, it probably weighs a zillion pounds. So unless a person comes with it to move it around, I am not going to test it even if they offered one!

 

[anmpr1]

The write up was confusing. I don't know what these statements mean:

Distortion has been lowered by doubling the output stage bias resulting in more than quadruple the amount of Class A power: 20W into 8-ohms.

The overall Class AB power has also increased to 425W into 8-ohms.

Is this a Class A amplifier, or AB? What does 'quadruple the amount of Class A power' mean? The original ML-2, which this is supposed to have been 'inspired by' was at least 20 watts into 8 ohms. Might have been 25. Or is this some kind of 'sliding' Class A that provides 20 watts of Class A, and 425 watts of AB?

 

[Sebastijanovski]

The write up was confusing. I don't know what these statements mean:

Distortion has been lowered by doubling the output stage bias resulting in more than quadruple the amount of Class A power: 20W into 8-ohms.

The overall Class AB power has also increased to 425W into 8-ohms.

Is this a Class A amplifier, or AB? What does 'quadruple the amount of Class A power' mean? The original ML-2, which this is supposed to have been 'inspired by' was at least 20 watts into 8 ohms. Might have been 25. Or is this some kind of 'sliding' Class A that provides 20 watts of Class A, and 425 watts of AB?

It's just the way class AB amps works in general, the "push" and the "pull" side of the circuit overlap in the bias region, which per definition makes that portion of the operational envelope class A. Google "crossover distortion", that should make it make sense.

I for one would love to see how these things measure, I've always been a sucker for spaceheaters. Hell, if you get one, I would volunteer to carry it up and down the stairs for you. I also love how more words are being shed about the case and the handles than the actual electronics, although they did increase the fiter capacitance, that sure does help with signal to nose ratio!

Cheers,
Seb

 

[blueone]

Not sure why they are in such a hurry to announce a product that won't ship until Q4, 2022. On testing it, it probably weighs a zillion pounds. So unless a person comes with it to move it around, I am not going to test it even if they offered one!

I guess they figure it’ll take a year of hype to convince people to spend $50k on a pair of amps that don’t even have cool meters. Heck, even Dan D’augustino knows you need meters to sell hopelessly heavy amps for a silly price. ;-)

 

[Blumlein 88]

I guess they figure it’ll take a year of hype to convince people to spend $50k on a pair of amps that don’t even have cool meters. Heck, even Dan D’augustino knows you need meters to sell hopelessly heavy amps for a silly price. ;-)

Well if it is a homage to the early ML2 and ML3 those didn't have meters either.

 

[restorer-john]

I guess they figure it’ll take a year of hype to convince people to spend $50k on a pair of amps that don’t even have cool meters.

But they have glass top panels and colour adjustable interior LED lighting...

 

[Blumlein 88]

But they have glass top panels and colour adjustable interior LED lighting...

They should make those adjustable from your phone over wifi. What were they thinking?

 

[restorer-john]

They should make those adjustable from your phone over wifi. What were they thinking?

Totally. Missed opportunity bigtime. IOT is where it is at. Those LEDs should be remotely adjustable anywhere with an internet connection.

 

[Tks]

Not sure why they are in such a hurry to announce a product that won't ship until Q4, 2022. On testing it, it probably weighs a zillion pounds. So unless a person comes with it to move it around, I am not going to test it even if they offered one!

Happening in many industries lately. Movies, games (especially games, some are being announced so early, the trailer is a literal For Hire ad sometimes), monitors, and a few other tech related products. So weird.

 

[restorer-john]

Happening in many industries lately. Movies, games (especially games, some are being announced so early, the trailer is a literal For Hire ad sometimes), monitors, and a few other tech related products. So weird.

Why? Is it to keep the interest/buzz?

 

[anmpr1]

Not sure why they are in such a hurry to announce a product that won't ship until Q4, 2022.

As a long-time MS fellow, you should know about that. MS was famous for their vaporware. Announce a product, but never ship it, or keep pushing it back in an attempt to 'freeze' the market to keep competitors margins down, while saturating the press with FUD. In fact, Gates won the first (and probably only) Infoworld Golden Vaporware Award. It was a standing joke among PC fans of the time, but maybe never made it through the doors at Redmond.

In this case, however, it's probably nothing sinister. Tooling up for something like this likely takes a while, especially withtoday's unpredictable supply chains. Really, in the world of high priced amplifiers, there are enough out there that only the die-hard ML fans are going to care, and will wait a long time for it.

But there is some marketing upside to it. My advice to Samsung is to contact the original Mark, and hire him as a stand-in, just to shill the product. How cool would that be, for the fan base? Bring back 'the legend' and all. I mean, it worked for George Steinbrenner with Billy Martin--sold a lot of seats.

But they have glass top panels and colour adjustable interior LED lighting...

In the mid '70s, the hi-fi store I frequented (Sound Gallery in Winter Park Fl) sold an interesting preamp from a short-lived operation called Analog Engineering Associates. Their marketing shtick was a plexi-glass top cover, designed to 'show off' and impress customers with its nicely designed layout. Sadly, there were no LEDs on the inside, or any lights at all that I recall.

The AEA Legacy - Analog Engineering Associates

aeaaudio.com

 

[Blumlein 88]

As a long-time MS fellow, you should know about that. MS was famous for their vaporware. Announce a product, but never ship it, or keep pushing it back in an attempt to 'freeze' the market to keep competitors margins down, while saturating the press with FUD. In fact, Gates won the first (and probably only) Infoworld Golden Vaporware Award. It was a standing joke among PC fans of the time, but maybe never made it through the doors at Redmond.

In this case, however, it's probably nothing sinister. Tooling up for something like this likely takes a while, especially withtoday's unpredictable supply chains. Really, in the world of high priced amplifiers, there are enough out there that only the die-hard ML fans are going to care, and will wait a long time for it.

But there is some marketing upside to it. My advice to Samsung is to contact the original Mark, and hire him as a stand-in, just to shill the product. How cool would that be, for the fan base? Bring back 'the legend' and all. I mean, it worked for George Steinbrenner with Billy Martin--sold a lot of seats.



In the mid '70s, the hi-fi store I frequented (Sound Gallery in Winter Park Fl) sold an interesting preamp from a short-lived operation called Analog Engineering Associates. Their marketing shtick was a plexi-glass top cover, designed to 'show off' and impress customers with its nicely designed layout. Sadly, there were no LEDs on the inside, or any lights at all that I recall.

The AEA Legacy - Analog Engineering Associates

aeaaudio.com

View attachment 177536

Spectral offered a clear Lexan top cover on their preamps for many years.

Then again for a couple years in the early 1950's Oldsmobile offered clear panels of plexiglass in the hood of their Rocket 88 Oldmobiles to show off the engine.

 

[anmpr1]

I think I read that Samsung is making 100 sets. So everyone who wants a set and is able to afford it will get one.

As an aside, I wonder how many 'audio' only firms were at the CES? My guess is that these days, only a few. CES used to be a big deal in the hi-fi community, but with everyone afraid of catching the flu, and the inconvenience that goes with it, that damper is closed. Also, the cost of entrance in this weird economy. Mark Levinson and JBL can ride the back of Samsung, who are really probably more interested in showing off their new phones (featuring more cameras than last year), flatscreens, and of course a new line of electronically controlled, dust-free vacuum cleaners.

Surely, though, this amplifier will be first rate. Why wouldn't it be? In fact, the other day I was talking to Criswell about it, and he said that even though the amp has not been released, it will be released sometime in the future, and future is where we will be living for the rest of our lives. Not only that, he said that future events such as the release of the ML-50 will affect us in the future.

After pondering that, I asked him how he predicts it will be received in the high-end world? He looked into his crystal, and replied that although there will only be 100 made, Stereophile will get a set for review. Cris told me that Vic Serinus will have an emotional meltdown over it, gushing that he heard things in those Pink Floyd alarm clocks that he's never heard before.

Criswell then predicted that Mikey will proclaim it to be an excellent amp... and at the price a bargain... for solid state. But then Cris frowned, and said Mikey won't go all in, but declare that his $170,000.00 darTZeel 'amp in a PC case' will have a better overall coherency, pace and timing than the Levinson, but only after he changed out the LEDs for the new Audioquest Zen-Magic Light on the Path diodes.

Finally, Criswell told me how Atkinson will put it on the bench, weld a couple of steel plates with it, and then wrap it up with a definitive statement: "This new Mark Levinson is one of the best amps you can buy, for the money."

 

[Sebastijanovski]

Finally, Criswell told me how Atkinson will put it on the bench, weld a couple of steel plates with it, and then wrap it up with a definitive statement: "This new Mark Levinson is one of the best amps you can buy, for the money."

Hahaha, pure gold my friend!

Cheers,
Seb

 

[Tks]

Why? Is it to keep the interest/buzz?

Essentially, yes. I simply seems to be the case that interesting products are so few and far between, this is the only way the can remain in the minds of the masses on some level.

Lately, it seems to be the case that these industries are utterly decrepit in terms of product offerings. Typical annual cadence, and especially with hardware development (with Moore's Law Lie being definitively dead as of a few recent years), desperation for marketing departments to maintain their existence seemingly required that executives start greenlighting extremely early reveals.

There also seems to be a cultural shift. The idea of the venerable but secretive sauce producing juggernauts that drop bombshell announcements is pretty much over. With consumers demanding more interaction with their favorite companies, and social media forcing companies to open up.. well.. social media accounts. There seems to be a benefit with letting consumers in on some early works (mindshare gained from giving people an earlier glimpse of what's in the oven goes a long way if you can then manage release date expectations).

Lastly, for some products, it has served as a rudimentary focus group gauge. If an announcement is widely perceived as disastrous, developments of the product could be early enough to pivot direction without too much sunken cost, or simply outright canceling the product. Since it seems many companies have virtually very little insight into quickly evolving consumer desires. This extreme form of hedging is a byproduct of the shithole world we find ourselves in economically speaking. The few decades now of "Just in Time" production as originally spearheaded by Toyota and known more formally as the Toyota Production System (beginning in the 1970's). But Toyota aren't morons, and didn't run wild with the allure like the rest of world has, due to the massive cost savings potential this sort of system can potentially yield. Reason being, they learned early on, if we have global catastrophic events like we find ourselves in (Covid), supply chain disruptions utterly cripple this production strategy, fatally, and everyone (from businesses, to consumers) suffers.

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To be perfectly honest though, I never knew why companies were so secretive in the past about what they're working on if they're dead set on releasing a certain product. The only few rationale answers to this I could imagine floated around at the time was to potentially avoid backlash (that companies thought was unbearable for consumers to be patient with until eventual release) for keeping consumers waiting so long after announcement. To also not reveal their hands to competitors (this is stupid in my view, as truly enticing novel ideas are rarely to be had anyway, past or present, though much less in the present I should admit). Another reason, is so the creative vision of.. well visionaries, and product developers, doesn't get tainted by having to account for what could be a hornless reaction from the wider public (in the same way you see these days, vocal minorities on social media, making it seem as if their sentiments is something the wider public shares, when at times, it really isn't, leading to really bad business decisions by companies in order to placate this minority). And finally, you don't want to announce a product before some core pillars of the product are set in stone, or before things like funding/executive go-ahead are truly secured. Last thing you want to do is change and not deliver upon expectations YOU as the company explicitly set.

 

[voodooless]

The thing that it’s based on, the 536 has a SINAD of around 80 at 5W, best is 86 at around 500 mW, worse at 4 ohm load. Not very bad, but certainly not worth the money. If this new thing isn’t in AHB2 territory, it’s a total joke.

 

[restorer-john]

In the mid '70s, the hi-fi store I frequented (Sound Gallery in Winter Park Fl) sold an interesting preamp from a short-lived operation called Analog Engineering Associates. Their marketing shtick was a plexi-glass top cover, designed to 'show off' and impress customers with its nicely designed layout. Sadly, there were no LEDs on the inside, or any lights at all that I recall.

Pioneer did the same with their top integrated amplifiers for dealership displays. A perspex top with screen printed points of interest to look at.

Yamaha had an NS-1000 cut in half (each driver and the cabinet) with perspex on it. We had one on the floor forever, even after the NS-1000 was discontinued. I always thought I could scavenge the crossover as it wasn't cut in half.

Exactly the same as this one:

 

[Madjalapeno]

Pioneer did the same with their top integrated amplifiers for dealership displays. A perspex top with screen printed points of interest to look at.

Yamaha had an NS-1000 cut in half (each driver and the cabinet) with perspex on it. We had one on the floor forever, even after the NS-1000 was discontinued. I always thought I could scavenge the crossover as it wasn't cut in half.

Exactly the same as this one:
View attachment 177675

Just think of the poor bugger that had to make those.

I wonder if they made them from rejects, and if they got two demo units from one speaker.

 

[Madjalapeno]

Not sure why they are in such a hurry to announce a product that won't ship until Q4, 2022. On testing it, it probably weighs a zillion pounds. So unless a person comes with it to move it around, I am not going to test it even if they offered one!

Honest guv