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Fremer lays an Ostrich egg...

From the start, let us say i am a little biased. i read with particular interest the review about the Levinson 53 Amplifiers in the current Stereophile, amps i currently own of course. i also have a Levinson 326S preamp, an EMM Lab CDP, and Von Schweikert VR9SE speakers, all linked up with transparent wire.
my previous amps btw were Levinson 33H mono's which i loved.
According to Mikey, the amps basically suck. no life. no harmonics. uninvolving. flat. they measure great for the most part, except for some anomilies outside of stuff the human ear can detect anyway. they are put together nicely too. But... they have a (dreaded) switch-mode power supply which i get the distinct impression MF decided ahead of time was going to screw up the sound. and so it did (i guess- who really knows what goes on in his head?) so every OTHER sentence in the review emphasizes transparency and dead quiet, neutral sound while the "meat" of the article states the amplifier doesn't have "heart and soul". the Absolute Sound did not reach the same conclusion, but did intimate the amps had an austere quality.
AND THIS is MY review- the ML#53's are not for everybody. they are DEAD NEUTRAL. they are DYNAMIC. DETAILED. my system COOKS when i put on a really good recording of a really good performance. if however the signal lacks in significant areas then I HAVE TO EXTRACT THE MUSIC out of the sound my speakers are making. if i love the performance this is easy for me to do. if i don't care that much about the CD, then it gets sold or just not played that much. other good attributes- the amps never get HOT, they are not impossible to move around (with a little help), they have protection circuitry that kicks in whenever the power goes out. AND FINALLY there is a pair of speakers they won't power up somewhere on the planet. i would like
to see them so i can warn people not to match them up. this could take awhile however.
it floored me when Fremer sold his SF Amati Homage speakers and got Watt Puppy 7's instead. He couldn't say enough good things about the Sonus Fabers, and yet he traded them for a much more analytical sounding speaker, probably for the super-detailed, super focused sound. His reviews of $$,$$$ phono stages are hilarious- what a set of ears he possesses!
when it comes to VPI turntables, he disliked the Aries but LOVED the less-accomplished Scoutmaster. I would guess the Classic-3 is pretty good as well, but i have 0.01% confidence
in M.Fremers' opinion of it. BUT i would welcome anyone ELSE'S professional opinion. At $6,000 it's not an inexpensive investment. add an SDS and a cartridge (and a record cleaning machine) and you're looking at $8500. If in fact VPI (and SO MANY OTHER TURNTABLES) have long engineered an OUTBOARD MOTOR UNIT to isolate noise and enhance the sound, wouldn't you want to know EXACTLY what the deal is with the Classic line? i sure would, and i am a HUGE fan of SOME of VPI's products and i own several.
OTOH, i am a mere peon, peasant, ignorant on the subject of SOTA Analog, and whatever other descripion you might want to label me with. But i think i can say my opinions are consistent and follow a logical pattern.
trying to detect that quality from M.F.'s writings is difficult and at times impossible. and yes, even laughable. i myself have owned (over a long period of time) Levinson, Krell, S. Faber, Pass, and Rowland amplifiers and listened to them in my own home. the ML#53's are very accomplished amps and represent some of the best solid state available, cleaner and faster than the ML-33H's that Stereophile liked so much. Yes they are probably better suited for classical and jazz, and hi-rez recordings are invaluable to bring out the best in them.
but they do not "sound flat and uninvolving". amps don't generally do that anyway- speakers do. Put on a Rachel Podger SACD on Pentatone of Mozart and/or Haydn (or Julia Fisher) and bathe in the warmth of
the sound flowing out of your speakers. Everyone (including ordinary people with ordinary hearing) who have heard my system thinks it sounds "really nice". That's good enough for me. I also think it sounds "really nice".
And i can be pretty picky.
french_fries
psag
518 posts
 
Great thread. Its refreshing to read a rare negative review, and MF should get credit for that. But as a reviewer he has a responsibility to try and get at the truth, quite apart from providing entertainment or supplying subjective opinions. I suspect that the Levinson amps are outstanding performers, but simply didn't sound good to MF, in his system, with his musical selections. Is is possible that certain euphonic distortions, previously taken for granted, were lacking? Or maybe it was just an equipment mismatch.

Some of the top high end manufacturers are relentlessly pursuing the goal of musical truthfulness. Some of us applaud them. To some more senior pairs of ears, said equipment may sound cold, sterile, uninvolving, etc. Furthermore, subjecting said equipment to mediocre recordings will often produce mediocre sounding results. To those of us who are first and foremost interested in hearing how the recording really sounds, this is a price we are willing to pay. Its just a matter of recognizing that we can't have it all. The reward comes when we hear our systems fully and faithfully reproduce a superior recording.
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
Great thread. Its refreshing to read a rare negative review, and MF should get credit for that. But as a reviewer he has a responsibility to try and get at the truth, quite apart from providing entertainment or supplying subjective opinions

Amen
Let's go back to the real world and the Business. There is no negative review possible. Not from a professional reviewer who get money for his writing.
Harman always got top "Product Placements" in History, we should ask, what happened??
A reviewer who woke up and discovered his ears? (Hardly)
A reviewer who understood what was going on sonically? (Nahhhh)
A reviewer who woke up one day and day and swore, he will tell the truth, because he wants to have a better world (Santa Claus lives)
Harman wanted the amps back (Maybe)
Harman refused to buy more ads? (Hm)
Harman didn't lick the shoes from someone? (Possible)
Harman Marketing asked "What is "a Framer""? (Could be)
The amp will be replaced anyway (We will see)
Stay tuned ....
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Psag,
The idea that the truly 'accurate' amps may mistakenly be deemed flat,clinical and sterrile makes little sense.That type of presentation is artificial and incorrect, I realize some prefer this sound and call it 'neutral' and true to the source. I`ve never,ever in my life heard any instrument played or any vocalist sound remotely close to this in a live enviroment.

The notion of 'true to the recording' as opposed to what your ears hear in reality is the wrong direction IMO.
The last thing you`d confuse a live sax,trumpet,piano or singer with is dry,thin,flatten and lacking body and the natural color and tone they obviously produce in person.

I believev Fremer called it as he honestly heard this amplifier, if you like this type of sound then great,these amps are for you.How did natural tone,timbre,pitch,harmonics and full expression of an instrument`s body become a coloration?This makees no musical reality sense at all.The warmth,bloom,vivid colors, tone and density of sound I 'always' hear live is what`s accurate,why? because it`s real and you`re in the same room with it to experience it.
Regards,
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
I agree. The best technical performers do not always put out the best sound. I did hear these amps @ CES driving the big Revels. Thought they were ok, but no big deal, really.
vicdamone
850 posts
 
Chadeeffect, oops, my bad no link here. If you like you can go to AA where I do have an email link.

I have a small highly dampened bedroom that my Son and I use to do some surprisingly good computer recording. We use these recordings to produce track samples as well as to hear mixable computer files sent to us.

The playback side is a ten inch DD sub and a pair of small two way Avalon Mixing Monitors driven by the Hypex nCores which are crudely assembled with balanced inputs onto wooden planks. They are tucked away inside a heavy cabinet so its impossible to get a photo of them. The assembly is nothing I'm proud of even though I have to laugh every time I see them.

They replaced a pair of NuForce 9SE v3s which I was very fortunate to sell for over twice the price of the nCore kits. Sonic differences are an across the board improvement that I would subjectively quantify as: if going from sets of included cheap interconnects to Cardas Reference is a 3 on a 1-10 scale and a cheap phono cartridge to my Benz Ruby Z being an 8, then the nCores are about a 6. How that for silly?

If you've been listening to good switching amplifiers for any length of time all those attributes remain. Via my main system the nCores seem less forward because there seems to be more air in the highs and upper mids. Their sound stage is both wider and deeper. In general a more pleasant and richer presentation that I can easily recommend as worth the effort of the assembly. The most foolish place bet on a craps table is snake eyes, only you win.

For all the negativity audiophiles give for their dissatisfaction with switching amplifiers I find makes them outstanding in the studio. There is no mistake you're hearing it all without embellishment or softening. As a Bass player this becomes very important being able to dial in the string to fingerboard growl and the pegbox mic.
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