It simply sounds great

None for my needs

I recently made my first move out of low-fi into this class of stereo equipment. I purchased the Levinson No. 383 along with a pair of Audio Physic Virgo speakers and an Arcam FMJ-CD23 cd player to completely replace my old NAD AV713 receiver, Phase Technology PC-80 speakers, and old Sony ES cd-player system. I had never owned mid/high equipment before, but demoed a bunch of things...

Compared to my old system...do I even need to say that the Levinson 383 is better? All aspects of my listening experience have been improved.

Compared to other stuff I listened to, I am *very* pleased with the 383. Here's how I went thru the decision process:

5 stars for value (compared to systems with comparable sound, it is cheaper)
5 stars for performance (compared to comparably priced systems, it sounds better)
Levinson 383 vs. Krell (FPB-series) and Levinson (33x) seperates - There is no question that the seperates were better...more presence, more detail, etc. However, my listening room is far from ideal, and I found it quite hard to justify spending what would have been at least $10K more for seperates + all the required interconnects on even the lowest of these seperates-lines. My current room is 24ft long by 16ft wide by 9ft tall with lots of un-curtained windows. In a bigger room with better surface treatments, the seperates *might* be worth it. But not for my situation.

Levinson 383 vs. Krell KAV-300i and KAV-500i - despite the power rating difference (100wpc vs. 150wpc vs. 250wpc), the Levinson *clearly* outperformed both the 300i and the 500i in every respect. I think the difference is that Krell has taken a lot of the circuitry from their bigger amps and put them on silicon chips (to save costs) whereas the Levinson uses all the same components in the 383, and only saves costs by using smaller power supplies. Note that the 383 is still more than $1K more than the 500i and $3K more than the 300i...most likely because Levinson didn't cut the corners that Krell did for their integrated amps. I also liked the 383 better than the Krell KAV seperates I listened to, but the comparison might not be fair since I was listening to different CD players in those instances. I believe that the 383 is worth the price difference over the Krell integrated amps...and that the 300i simply isn't worth buying (if *really on a strict budget and can't spare the extra $1K, the 500i is ok...but you can get better stuff than the 300i for the same money).

Levinson 383 vs. other seperates (Classe, Naim, Rotel, and Arcam) - for my Audio Physic speakers, the Levinson 383 was simply better in all respects than these others (I was surprised at how much better it was than the Naim stuff...admittedly, I was demoing the entry-level Naim components). However, if you have speakers that need a lot of power (like the B&W Nautilus series), you could make an argument for the Classe or Rotel...more power for the same price. It won't be as clean as the 383, but those speakers might simply need the horses.

If you don't have the money to buy the absolute best seperates, this Levinson 383 is the next best thing....I've been thrilled with it!

Similar Products Used:

demoed Krell integrated amps and seperates from Levinson, Krell, Classe, Rotel, Naim, and Arcam

Loud, clean and invisible.

Heavy, expensive, hard to find information about it.

I will be honest here. When I am in a stereo shop I feel like a little kid in a candy store and I buy as much for my eyes as I do for my ears. If I heard a piece of equipment that just sounded perfect yet I did not like the way it looked or felt I would never buy it.

One day in a local stereo shop I saw the Mark Levinson no383 and spun those big, beautiful aluminum knobs. It was over, no matter what it took this amp would be mine. Three months later it was mine.

Im running a modified Ah! Tjoeb 99 tube CD player through it and into a set of PSB Stratus Goldi speakers. Before the 383 I was using a 80wpc NAD 317 amplifier which is now being sold on ebay. I really did love this amp. It was also very clean and loud and I did not have a single gripe about it. If the 383 did not exist the NAD would likely be mine for a long time to come. It is a great amp and you can pick up a used one for ~$400, I can't think of a better deal.

I am happy to say that the sound quality did not diminish any, in fact it may have gotten a little better; hard to tell when amps get this good if there is improvement from one to another. It is louder because of the extra 20 watts and it doesn't bust its gut when the NAD would at higher volumes. But mostly, when music is playing I just sit and stare at it. This amp is a piece of art and if you have never spun a knob on a $6000 piece of electronics then you should give it a try. The feel is heavenly.

The only bad thing is that the unit is pricey as hell. I shopped around and found a 3 month old one for a great price who's owner decided to buy a new car and needed cash. I got it for $2000 cheaper than new and it seems new in every way.

Also, try as I might I can not find a single mention of this amplifier except for on the Madrigal web site. I like to read about stuff but information for this unit seems to be unavailable. It is also quite heavy at 80 pounds. I had to build a special table just for it.

If you haven't seen one of these then try to. It is a drop dead gorgeous amplifier with the best feeling knobs of all time. It also sounds quite good.

And that's the truth....

Similar Products Used:

NAD 317, Marantz

Best integrated amp

Little bass and missing more power

I had for 2 weeks this amp to test at my home. My system is Martin Logan ReQuest and a NAD 540 (Rowen edition). The ML 383 is maybe the best integr. amp but you will miss some power and bass specially in biger rooms (40-60 m2). It sounds pretty good but after this test I got a preamp-poweramp combination (ML 335 with ML 380) spending twice and mutch more satisfaction

Similar Products Used:

Denon PMA 790

Great Tonal balance, Comparable to more expensive Mark Levinson Products

None noted for the moment.

As an owner of the first Levinson intergrated amplifier for 2 weeks,I can honestly say that this product is comparable to the more expensive 380+334 combination. The sound of 383 in my system (Sony SCD-1, Egglestonworks Fontaine)certainly beats my previous Ayre K3+V3II: more coherent from top to bottom, tighter bass, wider soundstage, better image focus...It sure matches very well with my Egglestonworks.

There is also a kind of "sweetness" that is not audiable from previous Levinson products. It is very involving tonally. The pace is also fast enough for me to enjoy classical and jazz music (I don't listen to rock).

In addition, the sound improves on a daily basis in the first 2 weeks. The manual says that the sound wont be fully broken in until 300 hours of listening. I believe it.

Great sound, very user friendly remote control and user interface, and, above all, at a very attractive price for a Levinson product, the 383 is a dream for every Levinson fan who found previous products too expensive.

Similar Products Used:

Ayre K3, V3II

None

All the weaknesses with Mark products, added with the obvious weaknesses with integrated amplifier

This Easter weekend I surfed through the Ocean Centre in T.S.T. and walked into Excel shop, trying to listen to the Revel Performa M20 bookshelf speakers new from Revel. First the young shop keeper used the Mark 383 Integrated Amplifier to push the little speaker. I told him that this Mark 383 is not up to the standard. He then repeated told me that it is the best integrated available and asked me which brand name I am using. I replied that I am using the Spetral products. Obviouly this guy knew nothing about the Spectral products (who later mentioned my amps. as "Spectram", and there isn't a brandname called Spectram. There is a digital amp. from the States called Spectrum, O.K.?). Let me tell you. The Mark 383 has poor dynamics, lacks details, performs very poor on extremes, especially on the high to ultra-high frequencies ranges. Moreover, as the previous Review has mentioned, I find the recent Mark products sound very mechanical and technical. No wonder there are so many Mark 332 and 333 all around the secondary market. An inexpensive Meridian Pre-amp and amp combo could easily beat this Mark 383.

Anyway, there is something interesting about the guys in Excel. I am sure many audiophiles in Hong Kong will find the guys in Excel very unfriendly and looking down on people. About the guy I talked to, I am sure he hasn't heard the Spectral before. I didn't want to argue with this guy, but if your customer is commenting on something, why didn't you as a shopper listen first and then discussed the pros and cons of the commented brandnames. I remember that one time the fat guy in the Mongkok Excel connected the Mark Tower to the Sonus Faber Guarneri, played the Jurassic Park Original Sound Track (I mean the foot step section) and then told another shopkeeper that: "See, there is bass from the Guarneri. GEE! Boys!, The Guarneri should be used to listen to the beautiful violin sound from Heifeitz, not to play loud the Bom Bom Bom sound of dinosaurs! I had another experience with Excel. One time I was in the Central Excel and listened to the Thiel PCS (whichh is quite good, in terms of the coherence sound of the coaxial mid and high tweeters). I then lightly knocked on one Dyaudio Confidence Bookshelve to see how the loudspeakers box sounded, which was common for audiophiles. That shopkeeper came straight in my face to tell me not to touch their speakers. Gee! how much is your Confidence, a few thousand USD only! May be I am nuts, but I find the shopkeepers in Excel very impolite, very rude and always look down on walk-ins who do not dress up.

I feel very sorry for the brandnames they carry, the Mark Levinson, the Sonus Faber and still other brandnames because Excel now only has shopkeepers who knows nothing about high fidelity, about this and that products, with little knowledge in classical music. Maybe they know too many millionaire and do not want to deal with the general public. That is why the sales of these products keep on dropping.

Maybe that is my personal comments. But we audiophiles will surely miss the musical sound from the ML2, from the 20.5 and the 26S. Now those were the days. The Mark produccts now are very different. The pre-amps. and the D/A sound dry, analytical and unmusical. The power amp. only delivery sheer power, not music. I know that the circuits used in the power amp are nothing new, but just "Old wines in new bottles". Try to hear the Spectral 150 and 20 pre-amp and you know what I am referring to.

Guys in Mark, Krell, Sonus Faber, VDH and Siltech listen: The poor service and treatment of Excel is not my personal experience. A whole lot other audiophile I know also got humiliated by those ignorant shopkeepers. It is time to change your dealers!!!

P.S. About the Revel Performa M20, it sounds like a good AV loudspeaker only.

Similar Products Used:

Jadis JA-60, Accuphase E460, Krell products

no harshness

Dynamic,transparency,openess

Very poor fine dynamic,a dull boomy sound...I was very
surprised and disapointed especially for the price 8000 USD
in France!

Clean smooth sound with solid bass, excellent ergonomics

Imaging not as 3-dimensional as high-end separates, strains a little when played loud

If you're looking for a high-end pre-amp/amp but don't want to spend the money or don't have the space for separates, this is a great product. I'm using this in a condo with limited space and am very pleased with the results. It has the best ergonomics of any preamp I've ever used - it's very easy to program the alphanumeric readout to display anything you want for each input, and only active inputs are displayed. This makes it very easy for occassional users to understand how to control the system.

The rest of my system consists of a Mark Levinsion No 39 CD player and Revel F30 speakers using Madrigal CZ-Gel balanced interconnects and Nordost Red Dawn speaker cable. I've also got a few other sources including a DVD player, VCR and tuner.

The sound is very smooth and clean with great bass. The sound stage is a little flat compared to the best electronics, but excellent for this price point. Dynamics with the Revel speakers is also excellent (although Revel's are known for their excellent dynamics).

It lacks the ultimate power reserves that products like the Levinson 336 and Krell FPB300 have, but does a very good job on my Revels in a modest size room. I would not recommend this amp if you are driving inefficient speakers in a large room, particularly if you like to play your system at high volumes. But for smaller rooms and/or efficient speakers, it does just fine.

Overall, it's an excellent product and a superb value compared to high-end separates.

My rating of four stars is compared to the best separates. Compared to other integrated amps (such as those from Krell, Classe and Bryston), I'd definately give it five stars because of its superior detail, better power reserves, and significantly better ergonomics.

Similar Products Used:

Madrigal, Krell, Classe, Bryston separates and integrated amps