Mark Levinson No. 336 Amplifiers

Mark Levinson No. 336 Amplifiers 

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 10  
[Dec 05, 2020]
gabrielahammond4


Strength:

Log Home Staining I really like it!!!

Weakness:

I recommend this one to my friends!!!

OVERALL
RATING
4
[Sep 13, 2020]
JACCI


Strength:

The positives are not worth noting if the Amp doesn't work . I owned this amp for 20 years , nothing but head aches . I also own a ML 532 H, much better sound without all the snake oil .

Weakness:

Badly made amp AVOID BUYING

Price Paid:
lots
Purchased:
New  
Model Year:
1999
OVERALL
RATING
1
[Jan 05, 2004]
mitchchavis
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Best all around performing amp I've heard. Price is right on the used market.

Weakness:

It's heavy-I move it myself but I wouldn't recommend one person doing the lifting.

I find this amp to be the best all around amplifier for my tastes and with my system. I use it to power a pair of Magnepan 3.6's and my source components are a Levinson 390S CD player and a well Tempered Reference with a Clearaudio Discovery cartridge. I use the Levinson 38S preamp. I moved up about a year ago from the Levinson 335 and although they are very close in sound, the 336 provides a little more authority in driving the Magnepans(which need a lot of power to sound their best). There may be better amps out there but I haven't heard them.

Similar Products Used:

Ayre,Sonic Frontiers,Krell,Conrad Johnson,Classe',McCormack,Aragon.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 08, 2003]
Audioprofessor
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Incredible bass accuracy. Lots of power. Smooth, lifelike sounding.

Weakness:

Realibility sucks - I had two failure during first years. Second time it was in repair over three months. Madrigal says, they have lots problems like my due to bad parts (capacitors) they have used. One of my aacquaintance, who work there, told me that Madrigal pays just above minimum wage to their technicians and assemblers - lots of workers have no previous expirience in electronics. On many technician positions work assemblers. Beside, Madrigal resells returned customers units and demo units as new eqipment.

Incredible bass accuracy. Lots of power. Smooth, lifelike sounding..

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Krell, Marantz, McIntosh.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
[Dec 25, 1999]
Semyon Maslovsky
Casual Listener

Strength:

Deep, detailed, tranparent. Amazing resolution across the board. By far the best I heard in the price range. Solid state, so no messing with tubes. Tons of power (350 watts)

Weakness:

Heavy (165 lbs.) and at ten grand, not cheap. Also needs to be matched to other equipment carefully

This is the best amp I've ever heard. Amazing. Simply puts all aspects of the recording out there. Lifelike and liquid. If you're in the market for a high end amp, give this one a listen. Also works well with speakers that need lots of power.

Similar Products Used:

Krell FPB 600, Audio Research 200.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 16, 2001]
Bernd Winterhalter

Strength:

Smooth, detailed and airy sound. With extentende tigth bottom end. Absolutely no grain. excellent sound stage. Very tube like overall.

Weakness:

None

The ML 336 replaced the ML 333. It is by far better in all aspects and gets you much closer to the real thing.

Similar Products Used:

ML No. 333, Rowland Research, Gryphon, Krell

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 09, 1999]
Chris Rud
an Audiophile

I recently replaced my No. 333 with the No. 336. This amp is a big leap over the No. 333. The highs have more air and are smoother at the same time. It has more authority in the bass with better low frequency articulation. Imaging is about the same but with more depth.
Of all the solid state amps I've heard, (which is a lot) I rank Levinson amplifiers with the best. This thing is so close to the No. 33H's that it is scary!

System: Audio Research Reference One, Eggleston Works Andra's, Mark Levinson No. 37 & No. 36, Transparent Reference Speaker Cable & Ultra XL balanced interconnect.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
[Apr 11, 2000]
Michael
Audiophile

Strength:

Powerfull, Big stable soundstage, bass master

Weakness:

Don't even think to move it !!

One of the best - high tech - amplifiers I've ever heard.
Much better than 333 with less "Mark Levinson sound"
Enough power to drive almost everything.
Huge and powerfull soundstage.
Excellent powerfull and deep, deep bass, top class mids and silky highs from such a big amp !!

But...after a long period of listening few drawbacks

The sound is much more impressive and full bodyed than real life. Everything sounds much bigger than really is, somehow supernatural (that's what I call 'ML sound').
Although the very high mid and treble quality, the top end sounds a little dry and boring especially on small acoustic schemes (jazz and classical).

These drawbacks are not changing the top class of this amp. In my opinion it is a special character that some people may like it and some don't. As the ML 336 is very impressive you have to live with it for a while to be sure...

Finally I bought the Plinius SA-250 but only after direct comparison and under controlled environment. Without this possibility I could keep and be very happy with the ML 336.

System:

Wadia 860x
B&W Silver Signature 30
AudioQuest Diamond X3 & XLO Signature (Balanced)

Michael

Similar Products Used:

Plinius SA-100, Plinius SA-250, Bryston 7B

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jul 02, 2000]
Tom
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Full bodied, excellent resolution of recorded detail, very focused and realistic soundstage, smooth and powerful, alive sounding

Weakness:

Hard to identify faults, personal taste will dictate what one sees as a weakness with this design, maybe a shade less dark or more open in the mids

Not always, but to a large extent, you get what you pay for. For years I've been trying to get the performance of a 'big iron' amp at a fraction of the cost, believing that I was within ~90% of their performance. My recent home trial of the 336, and to a lesser extent the FPB300, was an eye opener. I am currently using a pair of Bryston 7B ST monoblocks driving Thiel CS7.2 loudspeakers. The 7Bs are very powerful, in fact they sound more open, and at ease driving my Thiel CS7.2s at high volumes then either the 336 or FPB300. What the 336 did in my system however was to create an extremely focused soundstage with the venue of the recording, instruments, and voices all solidly laid out in front of me, and separated entirely from the big Thiels. The 7Bs are nowhere near as convincing by comparison. Resoulution of recorded detail is amazing, layers of detail are unravelled that I hadn't previously heard. The bass is solid, deep, rythmic, and makes its presence felt through to the lower midrange. This gives the music a more realistic body and weight that is closer to live. Some have said this amp has a tube like sound, I can't attest to that, although it is smooth, harmonically rich, grain free, and extended at the the extremes. It exhibits a nice balance across the range that is more consistent then the Krell FPB300.

Don't get me wrong, the other amps I've had and currently own are all very good amps, each with their own strengths, and each represents good value. If you have the means, and desire, audition one of the new 33X series amps in your system. I think you'll find as I did that it raises the bar more then a notch or two.

Similar Products Used:

McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe, Aragon 8008B, Bryston 7Bs, Krell FPB300

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 28, 2000]
Adriano
Audiophile

Strength:

Knowing you have one of the best amps available to man.

Weakness:

Not affordable enough to place all the way around in a home theatre set-up.

As good as it gets. This amp will carve sonic reality for you in 3 dimensional space. UNREAL. This is the amp to own if you are an audiophile with the means to purchase it. Absolute heaven. You can not go wrong.

Similar Products Used:

Proceed HPA 2

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
Showing 1-10 of 10  

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