Fresh from CES 2019, Harman are giving British Hifi fans a chance to hear their new Mark Levinson 5000 Series Integrated Amplifiers.

“The Nº5805 and Nº5802 were created to deliver all of the performance and quality expected from Mark Levinson while implementing state of the art features and efficiencies gained from decades of superlative audio engineering and technological advancements,” said Jim Garrett, Senior Director, Product Strategy & Planning, HARMAN Luxury Audio. “Proudly designed, engineered and precision crafted in the USA, the 5000 series looks great, sounds amazing, and is re-defining performance expectations.”

The foundation of the Nº 5805 is its patent-pending, fully discrete, direct-coupled, dual-monaural line-level preamp circuitry. A unique single gain stage mated to a digitally controlled resistor network for volume adjustment maintains maximum signal integrity and widest possible bandwidth. Each of its three stereo line level inputs—one balanced XLR and two single-ended, using custom Mark Levinson RCA connectors—has its own individual high-reliability signal switching relays. Like the 500 series components, the Main Drive headphone output employs a preamp output stage specifically designed with the current and power capacity to drive headphones directly, in Pure Class A, without a separate headphone amp. The № 5805 also includes newly designed MM/MC phono stage with front panel selectable gain levels and infrasonic filters, and rear panel capacitive and resistive loading settings.

Building upon thisanalogue platform, the Nº 5805 adds digital audio capability through the Mark Levinson Precision- Link II™ DAC. The latest generation ESS Sabre 32-bit D/A converter with jitter elimination circuitry and a fully balanced, discrete current-to-voltage converter form the heart of the digital audio processing stage. Four digital audio inputs are provided: one coaxial and two optical S/PDIF, and one asynchronous USB for playback of high resolution PCM (up to 192kHz/32 bits) and DSD (up to DSD 5.6) files. A powerful XMOS USB audio processor also decodes and renders MQA-encoded files.

The № 5802 is an all-digital integrated amplifier featuring the same Precision- Link II™ DAC expanded to six digital audio inputs: One AES, two coaxial and two optical S/PDIF, and one asynchronous USB for playback of high resolution PCM (up to 192kHz/32 bits) and DSD (up to DSD 5.6) files. The Nº 5802 includes MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology, which enables play back of MQA audio files and streams. A Bluetooth receiver equipped with AptXHD enables the highest quality Bluetooth playback available.

Both amplifiers feature fully discrete, direct-coupled, class AB amplifier channels powered from an oversized (500+ VA) toroidal transformer with individual secondary windings for the left and right channels. The voltage gain stage employs a topology directly descended from the acclaimed Nº 534 amplifier, which is mated to an output stage comprising two high-speed driver transistors operating in class A and six 260V, 15A output transistors. Two Thermal-Trak devices in a unique configuration give stable output bias regardless of load or temperature. Four 10,000-microfarad capacitors per channel, located directly on the output stage circuit board, easily provide enough current for a conservative 125W/channel at 8 ohms, 250W/channel at 4 ohms, and stable operation down to 2 ohms. Both amplifiers use one-inch thick, bead-blasted, black-anodised, solid aluminium front panels, machined and contoured to flow seamlessly into the glass display, which itself is recessed into a bead-blasted, clear-anodised aluminium bezel.

At the Bristol Show, Harman brands Arcam and Mark Levinson can be found on the Ground Floor in Bristol 12 and the Ground Floor in Empire 2, 22nd – 24th February 2019, 10:00am – 5:00pm, at the Bristol Marriott City Centre Hotel.

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