For those of you looking for a high end turntable, your search is over. Premium stereo component manufacturer Mark Levinson recently released their $10,000 № 515 Turntable. The № 515 turntable was designed and built in collaboration with recognized high end audio manufacturer VPI Industries. Although VPI designs and builds exceptional turntables in their own right, this is the first turntable worthy of the Mark Levinson name.
Founded in 1972 and acquired in 1990 by Harman International Industries Inc., Mark Levinson is synonymous with high-end sound. Its eponymous founder, an aspiring musician said to have built a stage mixer at Woodstock, jump-started the craze for premium home audio equipment. To commemorate its 45th anniversary this year, the brand teamed up with another top-rated manufacturer, turntable maker VPI Industries Inc., to create its first record player, the No. 515.
When Mark Levinson wanted a turntable to partner its vinyl-friendly No523 and No526 preamplifiers it turned to fellow US brand VPI for help with the mechanical design.Precedents are not hard to find for collaborations such as this alliance between Mark Levinson and VPI. You can go all the way back to the Tandberg-badged Thorens TD-150s of 50 years ago, or look to current efforts such as the Clearaudio-made Mclntosh turntables or the plethora of machines Pro-Ject produces for others. The bottom line is that - like Mac's decks - the £10,000 Mark Levinson No515 is not a case of badge- engineering: it's an all-new model that happens to be made for them by VPI.
Harman’s Luxury, Lifestyle and Professional Solutions businesses were front and center at CEDIA 2017, held at San Diego Convention Center from September 5th – 9th.
This unusually comprehensive network player/preamplifier illustrates the benefits of a modular design approach - and proves both highly flexible and a pleasure to use.The start of every review for HFN is a commissioning email from editor PM, and in this case it contained the immortal line At £21k, what kind of competition is the No519 up against?'. That's the kind of simple- sounding question likely to give anyone serious pause for thought. Yes, £21.000, which means it's by far the most expensive network playback device to pass through my listening room, and makes even my reference player, at around two-thirds the price complete with obligatory power supply, look like something of a snip.
Mark Levinson No.585: $12,000With twice the output power, twice the number of digital inputs for its built-in DAC, and a price tag that's twice as high, the Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amplifier handily exceeds its predecessor, the No.383. (Perhaps they should have called it the No.766?) The class-AB No.585 is advertised as delivering 200Wpc into 8 ohms, and its DAC, which offers resolution up to DSD256, includes an asynchronous USB input alongside two (S/PDIF) RCA inputs, two TosLink inputs, and a balanced XLR jack for AES/EBU.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — 3GT Racing announced that Mark Levinson, the manufacturer of award-winning high-end home audio equipment and car audio systems, will be the primary sponsor of the 3GT Racing No. 14 RC F GT3 for the 12-race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule.
Yes, you read that correctly: Mark Levinson introduced a turntable (pictured below). A collaboration with VPI just conceived within the last 6 to 9 months, the ’table was reportedly played publicly for the very first time at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas on the night before the show.
What better way to mark an important birthday than with a new turntable? That's exactly what luxury US hi-fi brand Mark Levinson has done, revealing to the world what it considers to be the first deck to be worthy of the brand's name.
What’s more common than high-priced, heavyweight, high-end integrated amps? High-priced, heavyweight, high-end integrated amps that incorporate an internal DAC. You can argue about who was the frst to offer a high-end integrated amplifer, aiming to offer the performance and advantages of (and thus monetise) their high-end brand identity at more approachable prices. If you really wanted to get archaeological on the subject one might brandish names like Lentek, but for me, the frst company that actually made the concept work was Mark Levinson with their No. 383. It wasn’t the frst to market, but it was the frst such product that embodied both the superb ergonomics and build quality of the fagship products with more than a slice of their musical qualities too. The fact that it still holds its own today is no mean feat and rather proves the point.
