MARK LEVINSON No.5101

It is rare to see new SACD players on the market and when Mark Levinson announced the No.5101 two years ago it caused correspondingly strong stir in audiophile community. The slot loading drive of the No.5101 works reliably and reads disc information fast, however, it is noisy. Not that it is noisy on loading (which it is no more than any other cheap drive), but it is noisy in operation. The spinning disc is audible even from distance and this becomes rather annoying during late night listening sessions when the volume is at soft levels.

The Mark Levinson´s Precision Link DAC proved its qualities many times in the past, at least to my ears. I like the way it lets me hear the soundstage that is spacious with plenty of depth and accurate positioning of instruments within it. It this aspect the No.5101 is not different and throws rather big and attractive soundstage that borders panoramic with some music material. I like that the No.5101 has no problem with spatial relations of a violin and a piano in an acoustic recording, and I like even more that both instruments have their respective depth, that they are not two dimensional images only. What I don´t understand is why, with the No.5101 as a source component, there is so little ambient information. The softest ambient clues - like reverbs from the walls that were picked up by microphones – are diminished in their presence. The more I was listening to various naturally recorded music the more I was missing the clearly audible variations between small dry studios, spacious cathedrals and concert halls. Although the No.5101 could throw a lot of loight on other details, the ambience was partially homogenized. The most interesting thing is that I am not sure whether it is positive or negative as the No.5101 lets me focus on the music instead digging into sound. Yet, for a high fidelity device at this price point, I would prefer more transparency. Perhaps this is also the reason for CD and SACD layers of hybrid discs sounding alike? Other players, including Mark Levinson´s own No.519, let me hear the superiority of the DSD encoded files much more clearly.

Harman International delayed the official launch of the No.5101 into distribution network several times. However, not a single exhibition opportunity was missed to show off the No.5101 to trade visitors and build the expectations. It remains mystery to me why these auditions and test sessions were not used to address some software and hardware issues that the No.5101 has. Perhaps it is just the expectation bar that has been raised too high.