Immense Struggles Mark Levinson has Endured and still Maintains such an Awesome Zeal and Passion for Creating Truly Wonderful Music Reproduction Equipment! Pure Class Act Mikey!💯✌️
Mike, we really appreciate how you’ve captured such passionate music lovers, and true craftsman on your holiday. Thanks for bringing us along the adventure. We’re excited to hear about what you are bringing back to the tribe (including what ML has coming). Best. -Jason
One of the most insightful and enjoyable series of you tube videos I’ve seen. Thoroughly enjoyed this and I was always a fan of the Mark Levinson amplifiers back in the day. Lovely to see Mark enjoying life in Italy now. Well done from me Mike!
Thanks Mikey great insight to a Audio Legend.Great interview on both your parts.Hearing Mark Levington's name and products all these years and hearing how things came to him thru out his life and the passion for music I could have listened for couple more hours
Wow Mikey, what a compliment from such giant of the HiFi world. Mark is such a remarkable human being and for a maker of such esoteric hi-end equipment to have as his end game the desire to bring affordable hi-end sound quality to the rest of the world from the design of a micro chip is equally remarkable. Thanks for sharing this with your RU-vid and audiophile community. Great work.
Seeing Mark tuning and playing his Sarod made my day!! The fact that a person so accomplished is so humble and so wanting to learn more speaks volumes of the man’s talent. Not to mention that he’s one helluva musician ❤❤❤
Another awesome segment with Mark, Mikey! My respect for him has leaped quite a bit thru your window into the world of Mark Levinson, the person. And he clearly nailed those attributes in you that make you a great person in this business and in real life. 👏🏻👏🏻👊🏻👍🏻
All from your trip is entertaining and priceless and very much appreciated, but the last part of this video was super personal and honest. Bold question to ask because you will seldom get a real answer, but this felt real. Keep it up.
Thanks Man, there are some folks that feel they "know me" in a negative way, based on my willingness to be honest and direct. My path would always be easier if I played the game, but I chose honesty as a virtue.. I know the majority can see that.. thanks !
Ha ha, i used to covet my lg phone because it had a quad dac. They really did sound better than other phones. I used to stream from my phone to a headphone amp into some powered monitors. Sounded pretty good for meager dough.
This is priceless Mike. I ma so sorry that I discovered too late that you were already in Serbia with Dejan (NAT), because I just wanted to shake hand and thank you for the enormous contribution to the hi-fi audio world. Maybe some other time. All the best :-)
Mark seems like such a wonderful person. Typical, I feel of a friend you would have. At the end of the video, he sang you some great praise. I am sure it means a lot coming from someone like him. Well deserved if you ask me. I can listen to him talk forever. These were all great Mikey, enjoy the rest of the vacation.
This is what happens when you don’t sell out and go down the main stream. I know very well this to be true in my journey also. LESSONS to be passed on to you & others! Such a Kind Man
I once heard a system with the only solid state amplifier of the company called Cayin, which is in tube amplifier business. The speakers were Dynaudio 1000. I thought I was listening 10s of 1000s dollars system. Then I found out the amplifier was abandoned by this brand, and it was selling for just $80 on used markets. 265ai or something like that was the model. Dynaudio 1000 had superlative articles about them. But I told myself Get away out of here.. I learned it was all about OCD.
Hearing these two beautiful people playing, so simply recorded yet with such a natural outcome, I keep wondering ( not for the first time), what the F..K! are all these people doing in the recording chain and ruin music in the end. I wish for a company to come out with strictly live recordings, Alan Blumlein original stereo recording technique, two channels only, directly to tape or DSD. No more processing till the end customer, period! Who is ever gonna do the damned right thing??
@@OCDHIFiGuy didn't know.kudos. recording should be done at higher rates. I only listen to 16/44, by the way, I think there's still potential in it, as happens with vinyl.
Not to diminish the value of this interview, but I have a silly comment. This series of interviews has taught me that my apple phone actually has stereo. This is the first RU-vid video that is recorded in a way in which that is noticeable. When rolling the phone to landscape. Your voices each come from the left and right side. So, it takes Mark Levinson to get good sound out of my phone? Irony at its finest. HAHA and at the 7:32 mark Marks mic drops out and it goes mono.
@@donguin1885 I don't think you understand. It's a Daniel Hertz chip. Nothing from the shelf like Phillips. 1541 is an old DAC chip. Mark is using something nobody else has. No other company, no other amp. Only Maria. It's a patented algorithm.
Mark has overlooked many great designs, his ML2's and ML7 when I heard them as a young man got me hooked on how real a stereo system could sound, but today the hobby went to where the very well-off can afford it and that cuts out a lot of middle-class buyers but then it is a niche market so perhaps product is made for those who can afford 10's of thousands for speakers, preamps, and amps. Many though are overbuilt to justify the asking price, Is a DAC cost as much to make a car? and Cable as much , then amps and preamp on and on. This is a dying hobby because it depends on the 5% of income, and those making good money with famlies to raise just cannot see spending or having the income to blow on audio gear. I looked through magazine today and it takes me 10 minutes or so, $25,000 for 2-way small speakers, $30,000 amps and up, and then gear at $15,000 called a bargain, they need to call their magainze Audio for the well off, the lawyers and doctors issue because the gear pushed and the market is no longer for the majority of buyers. Death to this hobby sad to say.
Well I don't mean to be rude, but the level of millionaires is growing exponentially. China buyers alone can keep most stupid priced hifi manufacturers running to the bank. So the hobby is not over. It's not ending. It's getting even more expensive because people are buying it. If they didn't, prices would have to drop. More correctly the middle level is being eviscerated. It's either cheap Chinese drek or hyper exclusive.
I think you made my point. It is not a hobby for the average person anymore. It is always a small part of audio sales, but now it's extremely tiny aim at the rich. Which is why MQA and SACD made no headway because 99.5% don't care, so why would a company produce them if there is little to no interest. Boomers are the hobby when we go the hobby goes. It is what it is. Early days it was attentable for the average working guy, might be one piece at a time but you could build a decent system and it sounded like music. Enjoy your channel.
Ever consider the Chinese are demanding higher cost products to make us chase the dollar like greedy addicts just so they can offer the cheap solution and implode the USA Market ? 95% of manufacturers tell me it's Chinese demand that made thier prices triple. Mark is not one of them.
