The Mark Levinson No 585 integrated DAC/PRE/AMP

[Mivera]

Hi Guys,

I have been having a very close look at Mark Levinson's latest crop of gear, and it appears they are making some excellent new products these days. The No 585 was the first unit released under their new way of thinking, and it looks like a very impressive unit. I suppose when you are a $7 billion a year company, you can afford to invest in some pretty serious R&D. Has anyone ever heard this unit? Back in the early 90's when I started loitering in high end stores at the age of 13, the ML products were always what I drooled over. I used to take the brochures home and read them over and over for hours dreaming about owning something from them one day. Because of this, I think I'm going to use the latest crop of ML gear as a reference point for my gear.

Beautiful industrial design of the case:

 

[amirm]

The Mark Levinson brand went through quite a turmoil for a while. It was handed from one group to another in Harman. A couple of years ago they finally landed in the right group, got the additional support they needed and a whole bunch of new products got started in design. This is one example of it. I have not heard it unfortunately.

It did get reviewed in stereophile: http://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no585-integrated-amplifier

 

[Mivera]

The Mark Levinson brand went through quite a turmoil for a while. It was handed from one group to another in Harman. A couple of years ago they finally landed in the right group, got the additional support they needed and a whole bunch of new products got started in design. This is one example of it. I have not heard it unfortunately.

It did get reviewed in stereophile: http://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no585-integrated-amplifier

Yes I read that. There's loads of good reviews. But I think that should be expected from a $7 billion company. Nobody would be brave enough to give a bad review.

Have you heard this unit Amir?

 

[Thomas savage]

sounds like a bargain..

 

[amirm]

I have not heard it Mike.

 

[Mivera]

I have not heard it Mike.

Oh I just caught that you already said that You should bring one into your store so I can come listen to it

 

[Mivera]

sounds like a bargain..

I'm sure spending $12K here will get you a better product than $12K with Devialet based on my experience hearing the $18K Devialet 400 system. However the reviews are all the same between the 2 anyways.

 

[Thomas savage]

I'm sure spending $12K here will get you a better product than $12K with Devialet based on my experience hearing the $18K Devialet 400 system. However the reviews are all the same between the 2 anyways.

well mike we all know the hi fi press are.... not always the best place for true insightful revelations that are pertinent to you..

or

full of self interested , self promoting crap that is nothing more than offensively misleading hype.

 

[Mivera]

well mike we all know the hi fi press are.... not always the best place for true insightful revelations that are pertinent to you..

or

full of self interested , self promoting crap that is nothing more than offensively misleading hype.

Well rolling everything into 1 box makes a lot of sense for most people. Although it's hard for many traditional tweakers to see the value.

 

[amirm]

Oh I just caught that you already said that You should bring one into your store so I can come listen to it

We shut down our retail business a while back so no opportunity for that. I almost bought this unit just to use it for its DAC/Pre and then I heard the announcement of the DAC/Pre so I am chasing that now.

 

[Mivera]

We shut down our retail business a while back so no opportunity for that. I almost bought this unit just to use it for its DAC/Pre and then I heard the announcement of the DAC/Pre so I am chasing that now.

If you brought it in, couldn't you sell it if you wanted? Is there a rule that you can't sell the 2 channel stuff?

Yeah that DAC/pre is what I really want to compare the PD2 with. It uses DSP algorithms to correct poor quality source music just like I was talking about, and caused an uproar discussing on WBF. It just sucks that you have to downsample quad DSD to double in order to listen to it. At that price point, and since they use a DSD 512 capable chip, I'm not sure why. But at the end of the day it's how it sounds that matters.

 

[Mivera]

Found a video on the 585:

 

[amirm]

Nice. I know Chris Robinson that talked at the start of the video and know of Todd but have not met the others.

 

[Mivera]

Cool. Let me know what you bring in. It's not much further for me to drive than Vancouver to come listen to what you have.

 

[Opus111]

Gratifying to see an amp where the reservoir caps are right where they're needed - on the amp board itself. Also that they're using multiple paralleled smaller values to reduce the ESR and ESL. Nippon Chemicon too. Kudos.