I just bought this Marl Levinson No. 585.5 integrated amplifier preowned but by the condition it could be new, it’s that perfect. I got a great price . It’s also a beast at 77 lbs , spoke with the previous owner he said it may have only 50 hours of run in and he never even used the USB input!
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Disappointed by the Aesthetics ? Or you wanted to change ?
Hi FR I just wanted to simplify. I also get tube anxiety lol. I’ve owned Levinson in the past and always enjoyed the sound, reliability and build quality. The metal work is just gorgeous!
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The man himself has not worked for the company that bears his name for decades after a massive falling out with the board. He’s the lead engineer and designer at Daniel Hertz Audio now. But I’m not sure how successful that is really turning out. A lot of very interesting concepts but they seem hard to find a market.
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Teac PD-505T transport arrived this morning.
Lovely proportioned bit of kit.
Very quick listen to check it’s all ok and has cracking vocal textures on the Blue Nile.
Will let it settle in.
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Anything “Blue Nile” - Adam - more bangers 
BW
R
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My sonic adventure with various network filters, including fiber, EtherREGEN, used Cisco, Network Acoustics and various cheap LAN plugs, has led me to try an expensive industrial switch available for only $20 from eBay:
The Korenix JetNet is designed for the extreme conditions (power loss, humidity, temperature, vibration) on 24/7 surveillance aboard public transportation. KORENIX JETNET 3006-M12 ETHERNET SWITCH | eBay
Give it a decent power supply and it will block some of the nasties which can obscure the fine detail in your music. A new cheap thrill for 2025.
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Hey R,
Ok just snuck out in between meetings now that it will have warmed up a bit and went for some Faithless in the guise of good old 2.0 album, and oh my word, texture, details and slam is the order of the day, and its really showing how good the Technics amp and indeed the Kef R3 Metas are.
I’ve always used Chord coax cables in the past but with the recent USB experiment from Wiim Ultra into the SMSL Dac I went Audioquest and therefore went the same on Coax for this, so don’t know how much the cable is helping this, but its sounding fearsomely good.
Very impressed.
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That’s correct
Had this little two weeks now with matching psu and it’s suddenly got very good, I’ll be honest is very very close to my old zenith mk2. Bass and lower mids have filled out and it’s got an easier more flowing sound now. Chuffed!
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Six months ago, I set up a system consisting of a NSS 333 streamer going into a NAC252/SCDR preamp, feeding a NC 250 amp, driving a pair of TADs ME1.
I used a pair of old Chord Carnival speaker cables to connect the amp to the speakers. I had them in store for a long time. They are cheap. I decided to use them until the speakers were run in and then go for fancier cables.
I decided to buy a pair of Kudos KS-1 which have great reviews on the forum and with several dealers. In addition, they are not too expensive which was important to me since I have always questioned the impact of cables (unless they are really poor). If the impact of the new cables would have been limited, I wouldn’t have been disappointed.
I just received the KS-1 cables today and have installed them. I must admit that, right from the beginning, they have a decisive impact. The music is more precise. It is also more detailed. I hear things which I didn’t previously. The bass goes further down and seems more controlled. The stage is larger and the positioning of the instrument is more precise.
All in all, I am very happy to have been proved wrong about the effect of speaker cables. Given their price the Kudos KS-1 cables are a fantastic addition to my set up.
PS: The cables are terminated with Naim plugs on the amp end and Z plugs at the other one as suggested by Signals. Very simple.
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Bling bling! Nice.
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Yes Mr. Zen after Levinson was booted out a group named Madrigal Audio took over for maybe 20 years. before Harmon International bought out Madrigal.
I got a chance to tour the Levinson factory in the 80’s amazing attention to detail and build quality… ML products are still made in Connecticut USA and still have the great build quality!
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Just connected the Fosi Audio V3 Mono amps to my SN2 via the sub out powering my Dynaudio Contour 3.4 speakers and right from the off I have to say I’m hugely impressed.
I bought them to go with a WiiM Ultra so of course the pre amp section of the Supernait is far superior to that but I still have to say that these little chip mono amps ridiculously good for the money I ‘m really looking forward to getting them into my 2nd system to see how they sound there but at the price of a pair of Chord Shawline interconnects they a stupidly good.
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I haven’t actually bought it, but it’s on loan from Musical Surroundings. This is a Clearaudio Universal 12" tonearm. I currently have two of them (but in black, with RCA connections). However, since I acquired my Boulder phono-stage I want to change to balanced (XLR) phono cables so I don’t have to use RCA-XLR phono adapters. It’s supposed to sound better, with a lower noise floor.
This requires sending my arms back to Clearaudio in Germany for a rewire to DIN termination. Then I can chose whatever phono cables I need (probably Siltech’s DIN-XLR). Musical Surroundings loaned me this, one of their service arms with DIN termination and a Cardas DIN-XLR cable so I can (1) make sure that’s what I want to do, and (2) have something to use while my arms are gone for the rewire. When I get them rewired I think I may pay a bit extra ($200 extra per arm) and get the silver litz wire (default is copper litz).
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Oh, lovely!
Which motor control, arm and cartridge have you chosen and how are you enjoying it?
Best regards, BF
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Thank you. I upgraded the arm to the HB SG1 as this had the original mk1. I also had it serviced by Vertere. The motor drive is the SG1. I don’t imagine I’ll be upgrading the power supply any time soon. This was already quite a big purchase for me but I couldn’t resist.
I’m currently having speaker cables built along with a new power cable for my DAC so that was another big purchase. And I thought I wouldn’t be doing any upgrades this year. Who was I kidding?!
Cart is grado ref 3 carried over from the MG-1.
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