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Mark Levinson pre-amplifiers compared

On advice from Audiogon discussants...and I thank them....I purchased a ML 523 and have
posted my ML 326-s for sale.

A review of the four ML pre-amplifiers I have owned may interest some.

1. ML 10 pre-amplifier....purchased around 1983 (and returned two weeks later) following a dealer's assertion that it incorporated the characteristics of that brand's more expensive pre-amplifiers, at a much lower price.
False !  It was dull and flat.
2. ML-7, purchased around 1983.  Narrowly chosen over the Spectral DMC-10 (I believe the alpha version).
The Spectral had the ethereal high end which the ML-7 entirely lacked, but at the sonic cost of a 'thin and
watery' mid-range and base.  The ML-7 within its frequency confines was magnificent.
I attempted 12 or so years ago to improve on it, borrowing the top-of-the line CJ solid state
pre-amp for comparison.  The ML-7 easily won.
3. ML 326-s, purchased two years ago.  Finally a conclusive improvement over the ML-7.
The high frequencies were extended and euphonic, the sound more detailed throughout the
sonic range, the tonal balance as accurate as my 'live' music listening experience allowed me to judge.
This is a wonderful pre-amplifier, its tonal neutrality, sweet high frequencies and sonic detail such that if I had not committed to the ML 523 I could forever be happy with it.
4. ML 523.    The sound is immediately distinguishable from that of the 326s.  The 523 offers an 'air transparency' and 'articulate transients' (to quote the Stereophile reviewer) that the 326s cannot match.  This was, to date, most obvious when listening to a choir performance, on vinyl.  The complex tonal characteristics of the different choir sections required no effort of imagination to differentiate, the spatial positioning was equally bold and 'observable', the 'air' around the voices and their high frequency transients a sonic treat.  ML 523 brought something new and irrepressibly enticing to my living room.
I must at the same time comment on the overall tonal balance of the ML 523 which in one sense...and perhaps I am wrong about this.. hewed closer to that of the ML-7 than to that of the ML 326s.   While the ML-7 more or less lacked a top 'top end', it has been described (accurately, I believe) as having 'slam and midrange punch'. The 523 has an overall fuller sound than that of the 326-s. and maintains what one might still call 'slam and punch' throughout the frequency spectrum.

Regarding loudspeakers, the ML 523 makes more evident the high frequency 'ring' and midrange 'bogginess' which render the B&W 802D2's less accurate than their 802D3 successors.  Those faults of the 802 D2's in particular respect of reproducing piano music
bring into perspective an aesthetic dilemma.  The D2's are gorgeous sculpted loudspeakers, D3's close to being eyesores.  Purchase of D2's 'upgraded' with the D3's high and mid-frequency sections, but retaining the woofer cabinetry of the D2, would for me be a no-brainer.  I said as much to B&W in an e-mail, but of course they did not reply.

Would replacing my 532h amplifier with a ML 534 make much difference ?

Thanks to all,
'seventies'

seventies
mayoradamwest
116 posts
 
@seventies for what it's worth, I'm planning on buying 802 D3s to replace my 805 D3s as my main 2 channel in the next year. They show up here on Audiogon fairly regularly for at least 30% off MSRP, which seems like a pretty good deal. At their $22k list price, it's a bit out of my comfort zone, but 14-16k I can somehow justify (especially given the resale value). Good luck on the pre-amps! They all sound excellent, and you plan seems sound.
seventies OP
31 posts
 
mayoradamwest,
I await your opinion of the 802d3's.  I note that mmcelyea is using
sopra 3's with the Levinson 534 amp and is very pleased.  The sopra 3's. which I'd not previously know of, have a similar retail price to that of the 802d3's.
As I considered purchasing the 802d3's I could not decide between the black and the rosenut....black seems to sell for less.
Many years ago I took home a pair of B&W bookshelf speakers, the
nautilus series, hoping to save space and mate them with a subwoofer.
Within a few days I'd returned them and purchased the nautilus 802's,
the immediate predecessor to the 802D, and happily lived with those for
over a decade.
I will report my own experience with the ml 534 if I succeed in selling my 532h for a decent price.
mmcelyea
26 posts
 
I was able to sell my 532h fairly easily. The sopras and the 802 are priced similar and both have high end tweeters. Since you are most interested in that part I'll give more detail. 

The 534 treble is more extended and detailed but not bright. There is less hash with the 534 less digital sounding treble is how I describe it. Smoother over all with more ambiance. It's a very quiet amp.

It's not just the topend  that's better, every area is but I was most surprised by the treble
seventies OP
31 posts
 
mmcelyea,
You have persuaded me to purchase a 534 as soon as I have sold
my 532h and hopefully my 326s, both of which I just advertised on Audiogon, US Audiomart, and Craigs list but to date without
viable response.  I have not previously sold on Audiogon so am 'learning the ropes' Advice in that area would be welcome, as you are to call me at 978-4756987. 
On another 'note', the 802d2, 523 and 532h combination reveals certain virtues and defects of digital sources that I could not previously appreciate.  For instance, I just received box sets on Decca of Chopin and Schubert solo piano music, excellent artists but poor recordings, the piano sound coarse and tinny, and inferior that on CD's of the old Anni Fischer Beethoven sonata recordings.  So a question that may go unanswered is whether recordings companies such as Decca's 'bargain' offerings are inferior to the (same) recordings sold earlier as individual CD's or part of more expensive collections. 
seventies OP
31 posts
 
mmcelyea and others,
I can now report my experience with the ML 534 as replacement for the ML 532h.  Indeed the 534 'ups everything' but in a manner which
greatly surprised me.  The 534's improvement on sonic clarity and reproduction of transients struck me as equal to that brought by replacing the ML 326s with the ML 523.  (I'd long believed that the pre-amplifier contributed well over half of sound amplification's net quality.)
Only once before, auditioning a 'cost no object' Spectral/Rockport based system, did a piano sound to me like a fine piano.
On connecting the ML 534 I suddenly had that piano in my living room.
The sound was immensely pleasurable, as perhaps only those who have sat within several feet of an expertly played Steinway or Mason and Hamlin piano can fully ascertain.
The sound was different from that produced by the Spectral-based system.  The transients were not as quick, but the midrange was fuller and more satisfying, and the shape of the piano notes, the sculpted legato sound that pianists strive for, was equally or more audible.
And in the same context as the foregoing comparison, as one might suspect, the ML's reproduction of digital music was smoother, less 'grainy', and more pleasing.
Comparison of the ML 534 with the 532h independent of sonic 'clarity' is evocative of comparison of the ML 523 with the ML 326s.
In both instances, Todd Eichenbach, the chief ML designer, has returned to ML's roots, as once brilliantly exemplified by the ML 7.  The 326s and 532h had an open and uncolored sonic quality with seemingly flat response throughout the frequency range, but at the expense of 'meat on the sonic bones'....an analogy one might extend to British as opposed to American loudspeaker preference.
Regarding amplification-transducer paring, the 523-534 combination does much to address the exaggerated brightness of the B&W D3's.  Perhaps more interesting, and insofar as improvement in one part of a system exposes flaws in another, the ML 523-534 are suspect of delivering more detailed information to the B&W D3's midrange drivers than those can optimally reproduce.  One asks to what extent a better midrange cone material might redress that issue, as B&W attempted in replacing Kevlar with 'Continuum' in the D3.
So I will seek rosenut 802D3's at a bargain price, and accomodate their esthetics.  Could those be improved with a few coats of lacquer over the factory finish ? Might a pair of 'prestige' 802 D3's become available at a bargain price ?  Might a subwoofer-803 D3 combo equal the performance of the 802 D3's ?
More to discover