CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Mark Levinson № 5101

The № 5101 from Mark Levinson combines a slot-loading SACD drive, a network streamer and a digital-to-analogue converter in a single chassis. It belongs to the 5000 series, went on sale in October 2020 at USD 5,500, and is designed, engineered and built in the USA. Besides SACD it plays CD-A, CD-R and CD-RW discs.

Key specs that matter

The Precision Link II converter section is built on a 32-bit ESS PRO Sabre chip with jitter elimination. Full-scale output reaches 6.0 V RMS on the XLR pair and 3.0 V RMS on the RCA pair. Wideband unweighted signal-to-noise exceeds 106 dB balanced and 94 dB single-ended. With 16-bit 44.1 kHz material THD+N stays below 0.003% balanced and 0.004% single-ended, falling to 0.002% and 0.003% with 24-bit 192 kHz files. Digital inputs are one Toslink, one coaxial and one USB-A port, and optical plus coaxial digital outputs let the disc drive feed an outboard converter. The case is 126 mm high, 438 mm wide and 466 mm deep and weighs 11.5 kg. Consumption is 32 W in operation and under 0.4 W in standby.

Engineering and use context

Five separate ultra-low-noise regulators supply the converter chip, and its current output goes to a discrete I/V converter that is fully balanced. The analogue section uses the brand's PurePath topology - discrete, direct-coupled and dual-monaural. Power comes from a linear supply whose toroidal transformer is deliberately oversized. Seven digital filters can be chosen for PCM and four for DSD. Network playback runs over Ethernet or 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and covers FLAC, WAV, AIFF and OGG to 24-bit 192 kHz, DSF and DFF to DSD128 (5.6 MHz), AAC to 24-bit 96 kHz, plus MP3 and WMA. Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Napster are built in along with internet radio and podcasts, and an Android and iOS app handles control. The front panel is a 25 mm slab of bead-blasted, black-anodised aluminium carrying a glass display and machined buttons, and a newly designed aluminium IR remote comes in the box. The top cover carries debossed ventilation slots and a screen-printed logo.

Pairing

An amplifier or preamplifier with XLR line inputs lets the dual-monaural balanced output stage run end to end over balanced cables, while RCA inputs remain an option for single-ended systems. The USB-A socket reads music stored on a drive, while a NAS on the home network supplies larger libraries.

Alternatives

Mark Levinson's № 519 is a larger disc-and-network player with a CD-only transport, its own level control and a Class A headphone jack.