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In Reply to: RE: What makes an amp sound "boring" ? posted by AbeCollins on November 26, 2024 at 19:46:50:
"Who designed these dorm bathrooms?!" we exclaimed. When we were in college, we liked going around to others' dorms. We were curious to see not just the dorm rooms, but the bathrooms and laundry facilities. The above bathroom had the sinks right in front of the toilets.
If you were at the sinks, brushing your teeth, drying your hair, putting in contacts, applying or removing makeup, you had dormmies going in and out of the toilets behind you. And vice versa.
In the late-1990s, and early-2000s, I had the Mark Levinson Nos. 360 DAC and 380 preamp. Both were good. So when we brought in the No. 383 integrated amp, we had high hopes.
Alas, no matter which and how many sources, powercords, interconnects, speaker cables, and speakers we threw at the No. 383, the latter steadfastly drained the music of life and verve. The No. 383 even made Totems sound lethargic and uninspiring - which was monumentally wrong.
Moreover, the binding posts sucked. They only accepted spades. They were positioned, so that the speaker cable could only approach from the bottom or top. If the speaker cable approached from the bottom, then it blocked the balanced inputs. If the speaker cable approached from the top, that often placed a lot of strain on the leads. Said strain could also, over time, allow the binding post to lose grip on certain spade lugs.
The Mark Levinson No. 431 power amp sounds nowhere near as deleterious as the No 383. But it has the same crappy spade-only posts. This time, the speaker cable can only approach from the side, the benefit of which is that the cables won't block the analog inputs and IEC jack. However, they place rack handles across those posts. So if your speaker cable has angled spades, the leads may not fit through the rack handles, and onto the binding posts.
The Mark Levinsons' binding post and handle placement reminded us of bad dorm bathroom designs.
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- No disagreement here - Luminator 21:26:04 11/26/24 (0)
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