Soliciting Member Perspectives: Levinson vs Bryston vs Audio Research

clearthink,

This is supposed to be a fun thought-experiment that engenders friendly conversations about 3 marquis brands. Please cease with the proselytizing & pedantic lecturing.


OldManDave

@n80 - Sounds like a damned nice rig! Certainly no shame there!!

@minorl - thanks for your thoughtful post.  However, I am really just wanting people to talk about the three brands so we can all learn from the exchange.  As for specific recommendations pertaining to my direction - no need to worry about it right now.  I tend to collect vintage stuff & have pieces of equipment from all three of the brands I targeted for this discussion.  Eventually, I do plan to re-do my primary system in the brand I am leaning towards...but I do not want to bias the conversation by announcing which.  

Right now, my primary system makes me quite happy.  I am running a Parasound Model 2100 PreAmp & Model 2250 v1 amp into 2 different pairs of speakers [never play them simultaneously]: #1 Klipsch Forte II & #2 Gallo Reference 3.1.  I am running 2 DACs: Levinson No. 36 & ARC DAC-8.  My subwoofer is a Gallo CL-12.  The digital sources are SonyES 608ESD single CD, SonyES C77-ES 5-disc changer, Pioneer Elite MJ-17D mini-disc & Bryston BDP-1.  The analog sources are Nak CR-5A cassette, Marantz ST7001 tuner & an AT LP-1240 TT through a MacIntosh MP-100 phono preamp.  Definitely a mixed bag of toys!  However, they all cohabitate and make wonderful music together.  I am still amazed at how differently the Klipsch vs the Gallo speakers sound.  Also, the substantial difference between the music made by the 2 different DACs.  Thus far, I would be hard-pressed to declare either individual piece in each competing pair to be clearly superior.

Thanks again.

@jafant 

Thanks, I am rather fond of my "mixed bag" of equipment too.  Like I mentioned above, have always leaned towards more vintage stuff.  My favs being 70's Yamaha [CA-1010], 70's/80's Carver [C-1/M500t] & 80's Nakamichi [CA-5/PA-5] & have PreAmp/Amp or integrateds from each that I thoroughly enjoy.  
Of late though, I have been bitten by the bug & wanting to move up to ML, ARC &/or Bryston...the more vintage pieces of ML & ARC, of course.  Mostly, I enjoy having fun conversations with other audiophile nerds, like myself, but sadly find that my home geography suffers a severe lack of us.  That has prompted me to engage in A-gon's forums, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

OldManDave