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Mark Levinson Sound that Speaks for Itself

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  #51  
Old 11-02-2012, 08:47 AM
BillK BillK is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kfr01 View Post
As much as I love the Audio Research gear (especially the large displays on the Ref. Preamps), I've decided that tubes are out. My favorite time to listen to music is after the world has gone to bed and I am winding down from a long day of work. This sometimes (read: often) results in me falling asleep in my listening chair and leaving the whole system powered on all night.
There's nothing wrong with leaving ARC equipment on save for accelerating hours accumulation.

Be sure to amortize tube replacement cost against the cost of a solid state unit which is usually significantly higher in cost (e.g. ARC Ref 5 SE vs Ayre KX-R.)
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  #52  
Old 11-02-2012, 08:54 AM
mbovaird mbovaird is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillK

There's nothing wrong with leaving ARC equipment on save for accelerating hours accumulation.

Be sure to amortize tube replacement cost against the cost of a solid state unit which is usually significantly higher in cost (e.g. ARC Ref 5 SE vs Ayre KX-R.)
Congrats Bill. I'm in the hunt for some SS amps (can't decide between Classe CA-M600's, Parasound JC-1 or Pass xa160.5/200.5 for my Strads). My issue is that I often only have 15 minutes to listen and I hate turning on the tube amps (2301's) and then right off again. I think all the on/off could reduce the life of the tubes. When I'm going to do 2+ hours of listening, the tubes will go on. My fear is that the Pass labs will sound too much like the 2301's. I think this time around, I want a faster amp. Running my Classe CA-2300 this week (from my family room system in my main system) has showed me how great some SS amps can sound.

Congrats on the ML amp....they are terrific.
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  #53  
Old 11-02-2012, 10:08 AM
tunes tunes is offline
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not sure about the classe and parasound but the strads sound very good top to bottom with the pass xa100.5 amps. If you have a large room (can't tell from your pics) or play really loud, the xa200 may be worth it but I would hazard a guess that the xa160.5 would be ideal and you may even get away with the xa100.5
chris
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  #54  
Old 11-02-2012, 10:15 AM
mbovaird mbovaird is offline
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Oddly enough, that is the recommendation of 4 others I've spoken with. I might go for the xa200.5's. Gasp! 700 watts power consumption at idle. Wow.
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  #55  
Old 11-02-2012, 10:45 PM
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kfr01 kfr01 is offline
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...My issue is that I often only have 15 minutes to listen and I hate turning on the tube amps (2301's) and then right off again. I think all the on/off could reduce the life of the tubes.
I have the same issue. I have to say, the Levinson is beautiful in this regard.

From the manual describing the Levinson's button-operated standby mode:
"Power is connected to the main power supply and voltage gain stages. Power is not connected to the output (current gain) stage. Because voltage gain stages are kept at their normal operating temperatures, the No432/431 remains warmed-up to deliver an optimal performance. In standby, the No432/431 consumes about 50W of power."
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Listening Room (2 Channel): Vandersteen 5A speakers, Simaudio Moon Neo 400M Mono Block Amplifiers, Esoteric D-07X DAC (preamp) via Apple Mac Mini (Roon), Furman IT-Reference 20i Power Cond., Wireworld.
Listening Room (HT Portion): Vandersteen VCC-5 Center, Vandersteen VSM Signature Surrounds, JL Audio CR1 Crossover, JL Audio f110 v2 Subwoofer, Marantz SR 5010 Receiver, Wireworld

Office: KEF R500 Speakers; Sonos Amp fed by Roon
Family Room: Monitor Audio Silver RX6 speakers, McIntosh MA6600 Integrated Amplifier, Pro-Ject RME 9.1 TT w/ Sumiko Blackbird MC Cart.
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  #56  
Old 11-02-2012, 10:54 PM
mbovaird mbovaird is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kfr01

I have the same issue. I have to say, the Levinson is beautiful in this regard.

From the manual describing the Levinson's button-operated standby mode:
"Power is connected to the main power supply and voltage gain stages. Power is not connected to the output (current gain) stage. Because voltage gain stages are kept at their normal operating temperatures, the No432/431 remains warmed-up to deliver an optimal performance. In standby, the No432/431 consumes about 50W of power."
Brilliant! I wonder if the Classe CA-M600 amps I'm looking at do that??
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  #57  
Old 11-02-2012, 11:54 PM
joeinid joeinid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbovaird View Post
Brilliant! I wonder if the Classe CA-M600 amps I'm looking at do that??
Standby power consumption < 1W
Rated power consumption 440W @ 1/8th power into 8Ω

From room temperature, the amplifiers warm up fast. They reach their ideal temperature in less than fifteen minutes and remain there regardless of how hard they are driven. No conventional heatsink can do this.

Last edited by joeinid; 11-02-2012 at 11:57 PM.
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  #58  
Old 09-13-2015, 03:13 AM
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What happened to the ML432?
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  #59  
Old 02-07-2016, 10:11 PM
Old School Old School is offline
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Beautiful Amp!
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