Mark Levinson 26 pre amp

You're right, it's very hard to find "Golden Age" Levinson gear cause everyone's hanging onto it. If you really want to drive yourself crazy with waiting, but wind up with an even better preamp than a ML 26, wait for a 26S. It's lightyears ahead sonically -- ditto for the 25 vs. the 25S phono preamp. And a great ML amp? The ML 23.5 over the ML 23 any day! One of the most musical (tube-like) SS amps ever made -- along with the 20.5 monoblocks.

All these units were produced with RCA connectors instead of Camacs in their later production runs, an especially helpful feature with the preamp The preamp is also more desireable with the optional pair (just one!) of balanced inputs (I use mine with my DAC)

Thanks Paul and Nsgarh,

It has been 4 months waiting already. Although some friend offer me 38 and 38s preamp as well as good preamp like ARC LS7 and Sphinx Project 8 etc. I want to wait for 26 or 26s because I don't want to try other preamp with a risk of not match of 27 power amp and then draw a conclusion of Mark amp is not good enough. Should someone know any 26 or 26s avaliabe. I am interest to buy at reasonable offer.

Ken,

You might have to wait a long time. The 38s is a very good preamp and you can always get your money out of it. You should take it until a 26s (NOT a 26!) comes along.

But other preamps will work well with a ML27. Just make sure it has balanced outputs so you can use the balanced inputs on the 27.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I waited almost a year to find a 26s, and another 6 months after that to find a 25s.

how does the older pre and amp ( 23.5 and 26) compare to the newer one
i have 380s and 336 what are the sonic difference.