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Mark Levinson review

TankTop

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A review for a new Mark Levinson integrated amplifier popped up in my newsfeed so I decided to read it. The author spent an entire paragraph explaining how all digital inputs function properly. In the uber expensive hi-fi world is this a problem that needs to be discussed or bragged about? The author also states the amplifier has almost instant digital lock, does that term have any real meaning?
 

DonH56

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Anybody with an Emotiva processor will understand the problems of getting HDMI to lock... And there are a few others. But no, for the majority of products, it is not an issue.
 

simbloke

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Perhaps a way to justify the price. But then again at least it looks well made compared to a certain DAC. A lot of words in that review though
 

amirm

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The author also states the amplifier has almost instant digital lock, does that term have any real meaning?
It does. There is a trade off between lock time and ability to filter out jitter. Imagine if you have a turntable with a platter that is 1000 pounds. Once it is up to speed, it will highly resist speed changes. But getting it up to that speed will take a long time. The ideal is of course that kind of speed stability and getting up to speed instantly. This is for interfaces like S/PDIF.

For HDMI as Don mentioned, you have other problems. Handshaking slows things down substantially resulting in many seconds before inputs are switched. There are "cheats" such as caching security credentials to speed that up.
 
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TankTop

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It does. There is a trade off between lock time and ability to filter out jitter. Imagine if you have a turntable with a platter that is 1000 pounds. Once it is up to speed, it will highly resist speed changes. But getting it up to that speed will take a long time. The ideal is of course that kind of speed stability and getting up to speed instantly. This is for interfaces like S/PDIF.

For HDMI as Don mentioned, you have other problems. Handshaking slows things down substantially resulting in many seconds before inputs are switched. There are "cheats" such as caching security credentials to speed that up.

thanks for that explanation, helps understand the review a bit better.
 

anmpr1

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A review for a new Mark Levinson integrated amplifier popped up in my newsfeed so I decided to read it. The author spent an entire paragraph explaining how all digital inputs function properly.
I see that the Levinson orgnaization abandoned Camac/Lemo connectors for their analog inputs.
 
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