Rather than tack listening impressions onto the end of my prior post I decided to start up a new one to discuss the ML 53s now that I'm gaining some first-hand experience.
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I picked up the ML 53s from my dealer yesterday and loaded them into the system last night. As I was coming from the VTL MB-450s I needed to make a couple of other changes in addition to the amplifiers.
My speaker cables are Transparent Reference XL MM2 and are calibrated for the VTLs. After discussing the evaluation with Transparent it was decided that the speaker cables should be changed out as well given the fact that the network specs for the VTLs are vastly different than the 53s. The only cables that my dealer had which were calibrated for the ML 53s were a pair of Reference MM (which is the next step up in the Transparent line). I'm trying to keep this in mind as I perform my evaluation.
Second, the VTLs use 20A IEC power connections and the 53s use 15A. I use Transparent PLMM MM1 cables for the VTLs (top end, one generation old), but availability forced me to use PowerLink Super (mid range, current generation).
As it stands now the system is setup as follows:
Wadia S7i CD player
VTL TL-7.5 Series III Preamp
Basis 2800 table / Vector 4 arm / Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge
VTL TP-6.5 Phono preamp
Mark Levinson No. 53 amplifiers
Rockport Aquila speakers
Interconnects are all Transparent Reference XL MM2 (balanced)
Speaker cables are Transparent Reference MM2
Physical Details
The 53s aren't as physically massive as I had expected, but they are still heavy at 135lbs each. They're about 9 inches wide by 20 inches tall and 20 inches deep. From the exterior build quality appears to be excellent with little ringing from the heat sinks and absolutely no flex in the chassis. They look great in my room. Having witnessed the No. 33 and 33H in person in the past these look downright small in comparison.
Connection is pretty straightforward with power, speaker, and signal connections arranged vertically in that order from the bottom of the amplifier up. In general I'm not fond of the arrangement of the connections on the rear panel as the speaker terminals are too close to the power connection. This makes it very difficult to route the speaker cables away from the power cord as the pig tails on the Transparent cables are short and very stiff.
Once wired up there's a main power switch on the rear panel and a standby button on the front. When powered up and active the Mark Levinson logo glows red.
Given the massive heat sinks I was expecting these to at least run warm, but was surprised to find that the temperature remained fairly constant regardless of load. The amps run slightly warm to the touch and the best equivalent that I can come up with is a household heating pad set on low. Compared to the VTLs, which could heat my living room at idle, these are ice cold.
First Listening Impressions
First off, please keep in mind that I've had 3 different VTL MB-450 iterations in my system and the observations that I make below about their quirks and performance remained constant over all 3. In other words, if I mention noise I'm extremely confident that there's nothing wrong with the VTL as all three behaved similarly.
I spent about 4 hours with the 53s last night and as such can't make any definitive judgement of the sound yet. I can, however, relay some of my initial impressions.
The first thing that I noticed was the fact that the 53s have less apparent gain than the VTLs simply based on where I need to set the volume on the preamp to achieve familiar listening levels. With the VTL I would typically listen with the volume control set at about 35% to 45%, but with the 53s I had the volume up to 60% to get a familiar listening level with familiar material.
I've never run the VTL preamp with a non-VTL amplifier so I have little basis for comparison, but I always felt like the MB-450s were operating with a significant amount of gain. The change from mute to level 1 (out of 99) on the preamp would always result in output that was clearly audible and not quiet. This always bothered me as I felt that I was never in the gain sweet spot of the preamp.
Once music was playing I immediately noticed the absence of noise. The MB-450s always produced an audible hiss from the speakers which was never objectionable and what I would consider to be par for the course for tubes. With the 53s in place the difference was pronounced and the only way that I can describe it is as a total absence of noise. Not only were the amps dead quiet at idle they produced a sound which appeared to be completely absent of any contribution from the amplifier.
To use an often overused audiophile statement: The background was completely black with noticeable space around performers. I've always laughed at this statement, but I'll eat crow with the 53s. There's nothing there but the signal and to my ears the noise floor is so low that I'm clearly hearing things which my brain was never able to fully assimilate in the past.
As many have stated here and elsewhere power seems to be unlimited. I never experienced any sign of the amps breaking up nor did I ever feel that dynamic passages were being compressed. Granted, I didn't turn the volume up to unreasonable levels, but in the listening I did I got the impression that the 53s weren't working very hard at all. This is a quality which I have never experienced in the past regardless of amplifier technology (with a possible exception of the VTL Siegfrieds). No signs of strain, no glare, no harshness, and simply no audible traces of the limits of the amplifiers.
My final observation was that there was a tremendous amount of detail on tap and I think that this is a combination of the Levinson house sound mixed with unlimited power and the absence of noise. In the gee-whiz audiophile department I could hear numerous artifacts of the recording venues and processes which I've never heard before. One such example is musicians milling about and turning pages of the score during Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. I've always heard this artifact in the past and primarily filtered it out as background noise, but with the 53s it wasn't some rustling in the background it was actual people moving about, shifting their bodies, and turning pages. Not only was this activity clearly audible, it was produced by multiple people spread out over the soundstage (although the string bass and cellos were the worst offenders). Truly incredible.
I have a lot more to convey, but will save that for a later post as I need to continue my evaluation and contemplate what I'm hearing.
Right now I'm pondering two questions:
1) Is this level of hyper-detail an advantage or disadvantage? In many cases I found myself paying more attention to the details and ignoring the presentation as a whole. I'm familiar with this as a side-effect of my evaluation process, but with the ML 53s it's extreme. In some cases I was getting distracted by audible reflections within the recording space rather than paying attention to the actual instruments or appreciating the entire performance.
2) Do I like the ML 53s? The jury is out on this one. I can really appreciate them and what they can do, but I'm not sure yet if I even like what they are doing. This will take some time.
In closing, my past impression of Levinson's reference sound has been one of hyper detail and I'd say that this carries over to the 53s. In the past I was involved in a discussion about the 33 with a comment that went along the lines of, "Rather than presenting a violin section as a massed group of strings the Levinson presents a group of individual violins." The 53 possesses much of the same behavior.
-----
I picked up the ML 53s from my dealer yesterday and loaded them into the system last night. As I was coming from the VTL MB-450s I needed to make a couple of other changes in addition to the amplifiers.
My speaker cables are Transparent Reference XL MM2 and are calibrated for the VTLs. After discussing the evaluation with Transparent it was decided that the speaker cables should be changed out as well given the fact that the network specs for the VTLs are vastly different than the 53s. The only cables that my dealer had which were calibrated for the ML 53s were a pair of Reference MM (which is the next step up in the Transparent line). I'm trying to keep this in mind as I perform my evaluation.
Second, the VTLs use 20A IEC power connections and the 53s use 15A. I use Transparent PLMM MM1 cables for the VTLs (top end, one generation old), but availability forced me to use PowerLink Super (mid range, current generation).
As it stands now the system is setup as follows:
Wadia S7i CD player
VTL TL-7.5 Series III Preamp
Basis 2800 table / Vector 4 arm / Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge
VTL TP-6.5 Phono preamp
Mark Levinson No. 53 amplifiers
Rockport Aquila speakers
Interconnects are all Transparent Reference XL MM2 (balanced)
Speaker cables are Transparent Reference MM2
Physical Details
The 53s aren't as physically massive as I had expected, but they are still heavy at 135lbs each. They're about 9 inches wide by 20 inches tall and 20 inches deep. From the exterior build quality appears to be excellent with little ringing from the heat sinks and absolutely no flex in the chassis. They look great in my room. Having witnessed the No. 33 and 33H in person in the past these look downright small in comparison.
Connection is pretty straightforward with power, speaker, and signal connections arranged vertically in that order from the bottom of the amplifier up. In general I'm not fond of the arrangement of the connections on the rear panel as the speaker terminals are too close to the power connection. This makes it very difficult to route the speaker cables away from the power cord as the pig tails on the Transparent cables are short and very stiff.
Once wired up there's a main power switch on the rear panel and a standby button on the front. When powered up and active the Mark Levinson logo glows red.
Given the massive heat sinks I was expecting these to at least run warm, but was surprised to find that the temperature remained fairly constant regardless of load. The amps run slightly warm to the touch and the best equivalent that I can come up with is a household heating pad set on low. Compared to the VTLs, which could heat my living room at idle, these are ice cold.
First Listening Impressions
First off, please keep in mind that I've had 3 different VTL MB-450 iterations in my system and the observations that I make below about their quirks and performance remained constant over all 3. In other words, if I mention noise I'm extremely confident that there's nothing wrong with the VTL as all three behaved similarly.
I spent about 4 hours with the 53s last night and as such can't make any definitive judgement of the sound yet. I can, however, relay some of my initial impressions.
The first thing that I noticed was the fact that the 53s have less apparent gain than the VTLs simply based on where I need to set the volume on the preamp to achieve familiar listening levels. With the VTL I would typically listen with the volume control set at about 35% to 45%, but with the 53s I had the volume up to 60% to get a familiar listening level with familiar material.
I've never run the VTL preamp with a non-VTL amplifier so I have little basis for comparison, but I always felt like the MB-450s were operating with a significant amount of gain. The change from mute to level 1 (out of 99) on the preamp would always result in output that was clearly audible and not quiet. This always bothered me as I felt that I was never in the gain sweet spot of the preamp.
Once music was playing I immediately noticed the absence of noise. The MB-450s always produced an audible hiss from the speakers which was never objectionable and what I would consider to be par for the course for tubes. With the 53s in place the difference was pronounced and the only way that I can describe it is as a total absence of noise. Not only were the amps dead quiet at idle they produced a sound which appeared to be completely absent of any contribution from the amplifier.
To use an often overused audiophile statement: The background was completely black with noticeable space around performers. I've always laughed at this statement, but I'll eat crow with the 53s. There's nothing there but the signal and to my ears the noise floor is so low that I'm clearly hearing things which my brain was never able to fully assimilate in the past.
As many have stated here and elsewhere power seems to be unlimited. I never experienced any sign of the amps breaking up nor did I ever feel that dynamic passages were being compressed. Granted, I didn't turn the volume up to unreasonable levels, but in the listening I did I got the impression that the 53s weren't working very hard at all. This is a quality which I have never experienced in the past regardless of amplifier technology (with a possible exception of the VTL Siegfrieds). No signs of strain, no glare, no harshness, and simply no audible traces of the limits of the amplifiers.
My final observation was that there was a tremendous amount of detail on tap and I think that this is a combination of the Levinson house sound mixed with unlimited power and the absence of noise. In the gee-whiz audiophile department I could hear numerous artifacts of the recording venues and processes which I've never heard before. One such example is musicians milling about and turning pages of the score during Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. I've always heard this artifact in the past and primarily filtered it out as background noise, but with the 53s it wasn't some rustling in the background it was actual people moving about, shifting their bodies, and turning pages. Not only was this activity clearly audible, it was produced by multiple people spread out over the soundstage (although the string bass and cellos were the worst offenders). Truly incredible.
I have a lot more to convey, but will save that for a later post as I need to continue my evaluation and contemplate what I'm hearing.
Right now I'm pondering two questions:
1) Is this level of hyper-detail an advantage or disadvantage? In many cases I found myself paying more attention to the details and ignoring the presentation as a whole. I'm familiar with this as a side-effect of my evaluation process, but with the ML 53s it's extreme. In some cases I was getting distracted by audible reflections within the recording space rather than paying attention to the actual instruments or appreciating the entire performance.
2) Do I like the ML 53s? The jury is out on this one. I can really appreciate them and what they can do, but I'm not sure yet if I even like what they are doing. This will take some time.
In closing, my past impression of Levinson's reference sound has been one of hyper detail and I'd say that this carries over to the 53s. In the past I was involved in a discussion about the 33 with a comment that went along the lines of, "Rather than presenting a violin section as a massed group of strings the Levinson presents a group of individual violins." The 53 possesses much of the same behavior.
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