Levinson 39 vs Bricasti M1

I bought from George Meyer AV in LA.  They’re an authorized Levinson repair shop.  It was just recently completely refurbished.  I would not be surprised if they had a spare Philips laser or two.

George-  went direct today.  ML39 to Rowland Model 1.  It was interesting.  On one level the transparency was amazing.  But maybe too much so for me.  I’ll have to listen some more.  But since I stillI play vinyl it’s kind of a hassle to rewire.

But the most impressive thing was changing the Levinson to Rowland chain to XLR.  I know the manufacturers recommend that but since I was running RCA, I thought oh well.  Maybe down the road.

Then I reminded myself (I have a project studio) that I have tons of XLR cables.  So I threw Mogami gold cables in...  Wow is an understatement.  Not only did they sound better than my Nordost Frey or Organic (by Argento) the imaging snapped more into focus and there was quite a bit more detail.  All for less than 200 bucks.

ill probably try some expensive XLR but let me tell you, I don’t need to look elsewhere.

But maybe too much so for me. I’ll have to listen some more.

I think you may change after a few days/weeks of listening, I’ll say this though, the best recordings now will blow you away, but the bad ones may irritate more because they’re not being softened anymore.
To me this means your getting everything, warts and all, no punches pulled.

Also I’ll leave this thought with you.
As for XLR hookup. The 39’s PCM1702 dac chips are pure single ended. By using the xlr output you are using another opamp in the signal path that pseudo changes se output into xlr. I think the purer sound should come from the 39’s se outputs, not the xlr’s.

Cheers George

I will go back and listen more thoughtfully.  In truth, I only spent about an hour,

Interesting, your comment on XLR.  I read that both the 39 and Model 1 have a true balanced signal path.  Alls I know is that it sounds better.