mark levinson 23.5 or Ayre V5? That's the problem

I take exception with Karls comment that ML amps are sterile and sanitized.
I've owned a #23 and currently
a 27.5 and I like them very much. They lack the brittle
edge of many solid state amps, have solid well-defined
bass and a warm midrange. I've owned tubes (ARC D-125),
and a Threshold 400A, Dyna 416, Pass Aleph 5, and others.
I find the Levinson amps the most to my liking. However,
as stated by Karls, YYMV.

the 23.5 is a very good amp but he NEED very good cables
pre and cd player.

The point is the current range of 3kk amps is sterile. This is borne out by my listening, indeed. Previous amps, and reportedly the 4kk series, are not so bad.

I am currently driving a pair of Mahlers with a Plinius SA250MKIV AMP with marvelous results....

Actually, Ivanj, I felt the same way about the older stuff too, just somewhat more or less, depending on the particular model. I haven't heard anything 4xx. To use an analogy, I feel like ML aims at the Mercedes crowd, when I'm a Porsche guy. Refinement carried to the point that the joy of the experience is filtered out; technically excellent but the raw excitement is gone. Nothing wrong with that, just not my particular cup of tea.