Levinson DAC s

Back when I had a 36, I bought a Sony 7000 when it came out based on all the "great sound" comments. The Sony, in no way, compared sonically to the Levinson 36 when playing CD's. Now I am using a Levinson 360 and just recently purchased a Sony 9000 DVD/SACD player. Again, while the SACD sounds different, the cd portion does not compare with the Levinson. It is the same song and dance from the sony crowd "sounds better, blows it away, etc, etc." Go and listen to the Sony and then listen to the Levinson, and judge for yourself as to which is better for you. Ultimately it comes down to money, and if you can afford it, I feel pretty confident as to which piece you will prefer. Good listening.

I own a 36 and have auditioned and will probably (almost definitely) buy a Sony 9000. However, I will not use the Sony as a CD transport or CD player. For that the Levinson 36 and 37 will be used. I will caution you that the 36 is very sensitive to the transport being used. I have used it with other high quality transports, but the 37 made a significant improvement. I agree with Krocdoc--you won't be disappointed in the 36 performance.

I used the Levinson 36 for 3-4 years, with a 37 transport which I still use, and then upgraded it to the 360S. The 36 was quite fine, but the 360S was significantly better. If you get a really good price on the 36, it's a good buy beause you can always upgrade it. But don't let anyone tell you the 36 and 360S are pretty much the same--they're not.

Hi Usblues, I took the same path as Mgottlieb. The 36 has a nice balance of sonic virtues that sound just right. I made the upgrade to the 360s when they first offered it and the 360s took a great leap in performance over the 36 in ever way and kept the perfect balance without any annoying artifacts. IMO I don't think you can go wrong as I'm sure as technology evoles ML will offer future upgrades. All the best, Tom

I own a 360s and use the Sony 9000 as a transport with a
Perpetual Technologies PA-1 upsampler and Transparent Reference digital cables(coax,aes xlr)and love this combo.
The A-B comparisons between the Sony 9000 and the 360s,
put the Levinson in another level. Better layering, larger
soundstage, more body are just some of the differences between the two digital front ends. Levinson wins. Go listen
My question is how much better is the Levinson 37 as a transport over using my Sony 9000. Has anybody compared
them?