AudioAficionado.org - Levinson Audition Happening Soon!

AudioAficionado.org (https://www.audioaficionado.org/index.php)

- Mark Levinson (https://www.audioaficionado.org/forumdisplay.php?f=181)

- - Levinson Audition Happening Soon! (https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=42291)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdimler (Post 906717)

Karl......my simple setup is a Mytek Manhattan II into a Jeff Rowland 625 S2 into Salon2's. The Mytek has an excellent pre-amp IMO. The 523 provided a measure of smoothness over going direct from the Manhattan II plus a little more body. I also was lucky to have the newest version of the darTZeel NHB-18NS to try. It did everything the Levinson did plus enlarged the image and it just gives a special glow to things like vocals and instruments like violin or cello.

Although both pre-amps provide improvement, without unlimited funds, the cost of gain is too great to justify in my situation.

The Ayre KXR-twenty is supposed to be a world class pre. Would love to try it too. I suspect it is very neutral.

Two other pre-amps on my short list are the Luxman C900-u and older Rowland Criterion.

I agree the DarTZeel is special ... I only wish I could afford the DarTZeel monoblocks to go with it as my entire Levinson setup cost about what the DarTZeel preamp cost! :D

George

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdimler (Post 906717)

K
The Ayre KXR-twenty is supposed to be a world class pre. Would love to try it too. I suspect it is very neutral.

The KX-R and later the KX-R Twenty are the only preamps I've ever auditioned that actually sounded better than my CD Player/DAC directly connected to my amp.

When I had a Levinson No. 380S I used to use "processor mode" to pass the audio from my CD player and used its volume control.

When I moved to the KX-R, I set the CD player to unity gain and now use the volume control on the pre.