For decades Mark Levinson has been a manufacturer on audiophiles' short list of go-to companies. The latest product from the iconic Harman brand is the new No 534 Dual-Monaural Amplifier.
Featuring the company's proprietary Pure Path circuit design, Mark Levinson says the amp is designed to deliver, “a deep, expansive soundstage; accurate image placement, extended low-bass response with exceptional pitch definition, and detailed high frequencies free from 'etching.'”
Designed as a fully discrete, high-current, low-feedback two-channel amplifier, the No 534 Dual-Monaural Amplifier is rated to produce 250 watts into 8 ohms, 500 watts into 4 ohms, and Mark Levinson points out the amp is stable down to 2 ohms.
“Since 1972, Mark Levinson has been dedicated to the uncompromising art of sound, with the guiding principle of musical purity above all else. To achieve that goal like never before, Mark Levinson engineers in our Shelton, Connecticut Electronics Center of Excellence scoured company archives, ultimately developing a circuit-design philosophy called Pure Path,” says Jim Garrett, director of marketing and product management, Harman. “On a conceptual level, its hallmark principles include a discrete, direct-coupled, high linearity, wide bandwidth, dual-monaural signal path that delivers unrestricted, uncompromised sonic purity.”
Explaining the build of the amplifier, Mark Levinson states the No 534 employs a direct-coupled signal path, a linear, low-feedback design, and voltage gain and drive stages that operate in Class A.
Some of the features built into the amp include a choice of RCA (single ended) and XLR (balanced) inputs, four pairs of gold-plated binding posts that incorporate Mark Levinson's hurricane knobs to facilitate bi-amping and bi-wired connections, and Ethernet and RS-232 ports for integration into control and automation systems.
Mark Levinson adds the No 534 like its other products utilizes carefully chosen electronic components such as gain-stage JFET pairs with high gain, low noise and low distortion, film capacitors for use in filtering locations, and resistors in gain and feedback settings that use tantalum nitride thin-film elements. Levinson emphasizes the choice of these types of products are critical to the performance and reliability of its products.
“In fine audio equipment, those characteristics make the sound even more revealing and effortless, free of the low level non-linearities caused by lesser resistive materials as they heat and cool under dynamic conditions” says the company in a press release.
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