Note: my company is a dealer for Harman products and I am friends with some of the principles there. So please read my accolades with that lens on.
I was so pleased to see Harman come to the show directly rather than sending equipment to their dealer to do the demos. The dealers were friendly but could not at all showcase this equipment at either RMAF last year or AXPONA.
This year, my friend Kevin Voeks ("Acoustic Technology Manager), was there and boy, did that make a huge difference. They had a very small room but boy, was the sound so sublime. A few years ago they set out to rebuild the Mark Levinson brand and started to design lots of products. Now many of them are shipping including the new source, pre-amp and power amplifiers. Speakers were my favorite, the Salon 2.
I love the industrial design. They bring the old look but fully updated for modern times.
The new Mark Levinso 526 pre-amp:
The Mark Levinson 536 Monoblocks. These put out crazy power like 800 watts into 8 ohms and 1600 watts into four:
The new source with streaming and such:
You can see Kevin on the right with his ipad:
Kevin has an amazing master collection of reference clips. The fidelity was to die for on these:
Desafinado by Ana Caram: http://www.shazam.com/track/54161909/desafinado#referrer=shz.am
Super delicate performance.
Magnetic Lies by Malia & Boris Blank: http://www.shazam.com/track/105637333/magnetic-lies#referrer=shz.am
Very open and clean.
Where Or When by Harry Connick, Jr: http://www.shazam.com/track/321453/where-or-when#referrer=shz.am
Superb imaging.
Slow Train (original) by Hans Theessink: http://www.shazam.com/track/56232280/slow-train-original#referrer=shz.am
Superb vocals and clean bass.
Pop Virgil by The Stanley Clarke Band: http://www.shazam.com/track/147042779/pop-virgil#referrer=shz.am
On the design side, Kevin explained how they are talking the old Mark Levinson designs and keeping what was great about them, and improving them to bring ultra high reliability. Very enjoyable time there. Hope to make it back to their suite again.
I was so pleased to see Harman come to the show directly rather than sending equipment to their dealer to do the demos. The dealers were friendly but could not at all showcase this equipment at either RMAF last year or AXPONA.
This year, my friend Kevin Voeks ("Acoustic Technology Manager), was there and boy, did that make a huge difference. They had a very small room but boy, was the sound so sublime. A few years ago they set out to rebuild the Mark Levinson brand and started to design lots of products. Now many of them are shipping including the new source, pre-amp and power amplifiers. Speakers were my favorite, the Salon 2.
I love the industrial design. They bring the old look but fully updated for modern times.
The new Mark Levinso 526 pre-amp:
The Mark Levinson 536 Monoblocks. These put out crazy power like 800 watts into 8 ohms and 1600 watts into four:
The new source with streaming and such:
You can see Kevin on the right with his ipad:
Kevin has an amazing master collection of reference clips. The fidelity was to die for on these:
Desafinado by Ana Caram: http://www.shazam.com/track/54161909/desafinado#referrer=shz.am
Super delicate performance.
Magnetic Lies by Malia & Boris Blank: http://www.shazam.com/track/105637333/magnetic-lies#referrer=shz.am
Very open and clean.
Where Or When by Harry Connick, Jr: http://www.shazam.com/track/321453/where-or-when#referrer=shz.am
Superb imaging.
Slow Train (original) by Hans Theessink: http://www.shazam.com/track/56232280/slow-train-original#referrer=shz.am
Superb vocals and clean bass.
Pop Virgil by The Stanley Clarke Band: http://www.shazam.com/track/147042779/pop-virgil#referrer=shz.am
On the design side, Kevin explained how they are talking the old Mark Levinson designs and keeping what was great about them, and improving them to bring ultra high reliability. Very enjoyable time there. Hope to make it back to their suite again.
