i would (briefly) like to sum up a few issues regarding Mark Levinson amplifiers and i base this on my own personal experiences as well-
1. industry leader in amazing-sounding solid state. Huge pride of ownership (at least for me).
2. owned a 23.5 stereo amp that made some of the sweetest music i have ever heard in my home. beautiful, compact, elegant, superb bass, a true dual-monoraul design.
3. my next experience was with a pair of 33H mono blocks. they were nothing less than amazing sounding- DYNAMICS! TRANSPARENCY. EFFORTLESS,
one day one channel went out on me. the repair was quite expensive but the authorized service (Pyramid) was very thorough and explained what had gone wrong in detail. the shipping was also horribly expensive, too. but in the end it was still worth it. the amps did wonderful things (they Sang) through Egglestons, and then Von Schweikert speakers.
4. other levinson pieces included transports, DACS, CDP's, all performed great.
there was an incident involving the #37 transport which was unreasonably expensive to repair and i was just as upset about it as everyone else. i know these transports had a limited life-span and created a lot of negative press, but they also happened to sound really good. At the same time, other manufacturers' players also developed problems- they just didn't have the higher-than-normal expectations that the ML brand generated.
the company has undergone ownership changes and those incredibly-high expectations have suffered, but once again it's still a pretty esoteric brand. and the clean aesthetics they still insist on (instead of worthless/even silly gimmicks) have my enduring respect. and they still have a lot of product categories to re-introduce (such as an internet-ready DAC, or an Integrated Amplifier, a new Phono Stage, etc.)
unfortunately (as M.Fremer recently discovered reviewing the Dartzeel Monoblocks)
NOBODY is perfect. i can't imagine what i would do if something like that happened to me (i won't be spending that insane amount of money anyway- $72,000/channel?). i thought that sort of thing only happened with tubes. It's nice to know he thought they sounded good, though..