Mark Levinson No. 431 (what a champion)
tophatjohnny
Posts: 4,182
After a year with my Auralic Vega G2 I was thinking it couldn’t sound any better but how wrong I was! From a Liberty Audio B2B 100 All Mos-Fet 2 channel beauty that is a honey of an Amp to the ML no.431 as it’s replacement, what a treat!
The power switch on the B2B 100 came unsoldered so the “what if” bug bit me and I made a couple of calls which steered me to this baby!
I knew so little about Mark Levinson Amps and don’t see much talk about them here but from a reliable and well respected source I took the plunge and couldn’t be happier!
This particular amp doesn’t have a lot of hours on it and still looks brand new! It
was a great find!
I know squat about this stuff but learning as I go. This amp has a separate power supply for both R and L, all new to me.
Set up was a breeze outside of this bad boy weighs in at 95 lbs ! Twice of the amp it replaces!
The amp arrived early Tuesday morning and within a half hour it was all up and running!
Sound?? Oh my goodness, like I’ve never heard my Vega G2 before and an instant SQ boost to my Usher CP 6381C’s . The detail in the music became so much more lifelike and the authority in the bottom end is so fresh and might I add refreshing!
There is no question in what I’m hearing and feeling except what took me so darn long to add an amp worthy of kicking the G2 in the but to my 2 channel rig??
I’m sure there are even better amps out there and even better ML amps but I can say the No.431 has kept me listening to my Vega G2 almost nonstop since I put it in the rack and it slaps smiles on my face with each listen !
The power switch on the B2B 100 came unsoldered so the “what if” bug bit me and I made a couple of calls which steered me to this baby!
I knew so little about Mark Levinson Amps and don’t see much talk about them here but from a reliable and well respected source I took the plunge and couldn’t be happier!
This particular amp doesn’t have a lot of hours on it and still looks brand new! It
was a great find!
I know squat about this stuff but learning as I go. This amp has a separate power supply for both R and L, all new to me.
Set up was a breeze outside of this bad boy weighs in at 95 lbs ! Twice of the amp it replaces!
The amp arrived early Tuesday morning and within a half hour it was all up and running!
Sound?? Oh my goodness, like I’ve never heard my Vega G2 before and an instant SQ boost to my Usher CP 6381C’s . The detail in the music became so much more lifelike and the authority in the bottom end is so fresh and might I add refreshing!
There is no question in what I’m hearing and feeling except what took me so darn long to add an amp worthy of kicking the G2 in the but to my 2 channel rig??
I’m sure there are even better amps out there and even better ML amps but I can say the No.431 has kept me listening to my Vega G2 almost nonstop since I put it in the rack and it slaps smiles on my face with each listen !
"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
*****************************
*****************************
Comments
-
Nice amp
-
Nice amp and review Johnny. I am looking forward to hearing it sometime.
-
way to go Johnny!Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears
-
Congrats on the new amp.
-
Enjoy the new Amp Johnny!Home Theater
Parasound Halo A 31 OnkyoTX-NR838 Sony XBR55X850B 55" 4K RtiA9 Fronts CsiA6 Center RtiA3 Rears FxiA6 Side Surrounds Dual Psw 111's Oppo 105D Signal Ultra Speaker Cables & IC's Signal Magic Power Cable Technics SL Q300 Panamax MR4300 Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables Audioquest Forest USB Cable
2 Channel
Adcom 555II Vincent SA-T1 Marantz SA 15S2 Denon DR-M11 Clearaudio Bluemotion SDA 2.3tl's (Z) edition MIT Terminator II Speaker Cables & IC's Adcom 545II Adcom Gtp-450 Marantz CD5004 Technics M245X SDA 2B's, SDA CRS+
Stuff for the Head
JD LABS C5 Headphone Amplifier, Sennheiser HD 598, Polk Audio Buckle, Polk Audio Hinge, Velodyne vPulse, Bose IE2, Sennheiser CX 200 Street II, Sennheiser MX 365
Shower & Off the beaten path Rigs
Polk Audio Boom Swimmer, Polk Audio Urchin
-
Very nice!!
-
sweet !
bkPS Audio S300 , WiiM Ultra , Yamaha wxc-50 , Salk SuperCharged Songtowers , Kimber Kable 4TC, Sony 48” - BEDROOM
B&K EX-442 ( it will go in my casket when I die ... ) , PS Audio 4.6 preamp ( old school , but it still jams on ... ) , Eversolo DMP-A6 , Boston Acoustic voyager 7’s - POOL
Parasound A21, Eversolo DMP-A8 , Kimber Kable 4vs , Ascend Acoustics ELX Ribbon Towers , Sony XBR-A8F 65” OLED - DEN , MAIN system
Onkyo TX-nr609 , Polk atrium 7 , Boston acoustic sound ware (4) , Boston acoustic sub , B&W center , Sony 65” TV - PATIO -
Nice Amp. Enjoy. Hope all is well.
-
Congrats Johnny!Yamaha RX-A2070, Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amp, Benchmark Dac1, Bluesound NODE 2i, Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport, Parasound Zphono USB Phono Preamp, Fluance RT85, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Polk L600's, L400, L900's, RC80i's, SVS 3000 Micro, Audioquest Interconnects and Digital Cables, Nordost Silver Shadow Digital Cable, Cullen Gold and Crossover Series Power Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 12AWG OCC Speaker Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha Analog Interconnect Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 11 OCC Custom Power Cable, Signal Power Cable, Furman PL-8C 15 Power Conditioner, Sony 65" 900F, Sony UBP-X700, Fios, Apple TV 4K, Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables.
-
Drool!!!!
-
95lbs?! That is one honkin m-u-t-h-a of an amplifier! Look at that bad boy:
-
I always enjoyed ML gear.
My 2 friends both have Mark Levinson 536 monoblocks.
Stereophile ML 536 MonosMagico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R -
Johnny, What a beauty!"Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"Anger is just anger. It isn’t good. It isn’t bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters.
You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice. Jim Butcher
Harry / Marietta GA -
OMG! Someone placed four cans of Labatts blue in there!!
95lbs?! That is one honkin m-u-t-h-a of an amplifier! Look at that bad boy:
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
Not to worry this thing will keep em cool! It just doesn’t break a sweat and sounds amazing at low volumes as well as greater volumes ! Perfect piece for my set up! 😉
"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
***************************** -
Dang, that’s nice looking bet it sounds awesome
-
One of THE BEST sound experiences that I have ever had (and one the most realistic as well) was at an invite only in store demo event of the Polk SRT system featuring Matt Polk that I literally walked into by accident and wound up crashing. The system was being driven by Proceed electronics (Mark Levinson's former "budget" brand) Matt was playing some organ recording and I was sitting in the back of the room behind several rows of chairs filled with people. Despite that fact, once he switched the system from stereo mode to wide mode with the SDA controller my head instantly turned upwards! They used to say that you couldn't record height information onto a stereo recording.
LIES!
Suddenly I could hear the entire hall from floor to ceiling. From front to back and I was stunned!!
Best SDA I have ever heard.
Mark Levinson and Krell are both originally from my home state of Connecticut (along with Avel-Lindberg transformers)
-
How cool that must have been! Not sure where mine was made but it came from Connecticut and the original owner sure babied this amp! Even came with white gloves like my Auralic Vega G2 was delivered with the white gloves? It is the nicest sounding amp I’ve ever owned and it is keeping me glued to the sound! Love it !!"if it's not fun, it's not worth it & remember folks, "It's All About The Music"!!
*****************************
