Having owned 3 pairs of ML-2s, I can say with confidence that they are NOT the best sounding Mark Levinson amps. They do have somewhat "dark" sound that plagued some of the early ML amps, and they can be hard (and $$$) to repair if and when they fail, and they DID fail. 27.5, 23.5, 20.5(6), and later 3XX series amps are all much better sounding |
All I can say is you must have heard tired ones, I heard a fully restored pair through 2 pairs of stacked ESL:57's with Kelly Decca ribbons from 12khz up and they were magnificent, and they wiped the floor with the massive ML3 that was on hand. And that's why the ML site calls them the "Legend" Cheers George |
I also ran a pair of stacked Quads for over a decade with a pair of ML2s so I am qualified to comment. Yes the ML2s can and do sound wonderful with the Quads but do sound dark and grainy when compared to some of the better modern amps. That said, I no longer own any ML amp (I prefer Goldmund amps), though I still own and enjoy a ML-7A preamp, which remains one of the best preamps ever |
All ML are great, except for one. They really tried to cure the evils of that topology class, but only made things worse, it was never going to happen the doomed Class-D No53 monoblocks https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no53-reference-monoblock-power-amplifier Cheers George |
