Help - Mark Levinson Owners

Larryi is right on. You don't need a top-of-the-line cord with the Levinson power supplies. I currently use a Shunyata Diamondback on my Levinson DAC, and a Taipan on my Levinson amp. The Taipan is overkill for the amp.

Other gear in my system have shown much greater gains with expensive power cords.

.
I have to politely disagree with Rex & Larryi. In my system, the sound from my Levinson 23.5 improves greatly and degrades greatly depending on which power cord that is in place.
.
I strongly suggest that you look for a good deal on some used high end power cords, do your own comparative listening, and decide what you like from there. You can easily resell the cords you don't want to keep on Audiogon with little or no loss of money.
.
I went through about 10 different brands and models of power cords in the process when I was looking for an ideal cord and I can assure you I am glad that I did.
.
A good power cord on a pre-amp or CD player is a relatively inexpensive upgrade that can bring a lot of improvement. For me it was a good as a component upgrade.
.
Good Luck and let us know how you make out.
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

Hi Cello - I'm not sure exactly what you're disagreeing with :-)

I too have found that some power cords cause great degradation on my Levinson gear. I would strongly recommend AGAINST using cords from PS Audio, JPS, or Cardas with Levinson gear - they had overwhelmingly negative effects when I tried them.

I have also found definite benefits and improvements with some power cords, just as you did. My point was, with the current Shunyata line in particular, that I did not need to buy the top-of-the-line cords to get these benefits. There was no need to buy an Anaconda when a Taipan did the trick.

There was another brand that I tried that showed improvements, but didn't reach the improvement level of the Shunyata Taipan until I got up into the $1000 range.

OTOH, I have other gear (source and pre) that showed continued improvements with more refined power cords.

I hope this makes what I said originally a bit more clear.

.
Rex,
.
I have not had good results with the Shunyata cords (specifically, the Black Mambo). It was certainly better than the stock cords, but killed the detail and left the bass very unfocused, boomy and not at all tuneful.

I have had dramatically good results with the NBS Statement PC and significantly better and terrific results with the top end of the BMI products (Shark and Whale Supreme in particular).
.
My point is that in my system, a great power cord that matches up well with your system, room and sound preference makes a huge difference in what a Levinson Amp is capable of putting out. There was a Jaw dropping difference for not a lot of money.
.
I would suggest that Piperdan experiment with used cords (they sell at great discount to the list prices)and see what works for him. A used BMI Shark can be bought for around $ 300.00 - 350.00 and a Whale Supreme for a bit more. Both of these cords were dramatically better than the Black Mambo (which did help the Levinson Amp, but was no where near as beneficial as the BMI cords).
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

Cello - perhaps you mean the Black Mamba? A "Mambo" is a dance :-)

A couple of points:

1. The Black Mamba is about five years old. Technology marches on. Using a five-year-old cord to generalize about all of Shunyata's current products is not quite fair.

2. The Black Mamba is/was a Noise Reduction power cord, designed predominantly for digital source components. I can't think of a worse cord to use on a Levinson amp. The Levinson amps are served properly with a Pacesetter cord, not a Noise Reduction cord.

So, I'm not surprised you didn't like the Black Mamba with your Levinson amp. It definitely wasn't the right match.