The Mark Levinson No.585 has (finally) arrived in the UK. The company’s only integrated amplifier was first seen at CES in January and combines a 200 watt output with analogue and digital inputs. The DAC section is ready for hi-res PCM and DSD over USB and there are six digital inputs to feed it with, analogue sources are limited to four and as you might expect both are accessible via single ended or balanced connectors. As is the Mark Levinson way the No.585 is a dual mono construction in both preamplifier and power amplifier sections and, should the desire to replicate cannon fire be too strong. the latter will deliver up to 350 watts into four Ohms.
Those with collections of MP3 downloads will be able to take advantage of Harman’s Clari-Fi processing which is designed to “restore” the sound quality of any compressed file format. How successful this is remains to be seen but this strikes me as something worthwhile and about which more should be done. The DSP onboard this amp is based on an ESS Sabre 32-bit DAC, this converts the bitstreams coming from the S/PDIF and AES/EBU inputs while a Cmedia USB processor handles hi-res signals arriving at the asynchronous USB input prior to conversion.
A preamp/subwoofer output can be used to set-up a 2.1 speaker system while Ethernet, RS-232, IR and 12V trigger ports facilitate the amp’s use in integrated A/V systems of the professionally installed variety. Build quality is as ever with the brand in the serious league, extruded and machined metalwork and two-tone colouring that’s embellished with red LEDs tell you that this is a Mark Levinson. As does the £10,500 price tag.
Mark Levinson is distributed in the UK by www.karma-av.co.uk
Jason Kennedy