Shelton, Conn. – Harman brand Mark Levinson will offers its first new integrated stereo amp in about 15 years with the September shipment of the $12,000-suggested No 585, positioned as the company’s best-ever integrated amp.
The brand has been out of the integrated-amp market for eight years.
To play back new music sources and formats that have arisen in the intervening years, No 585 features asynchronous USB port to transfer and decode high-resolution DSD files and PCM files up to 192kHz/32-bit resolution. The component also decodes compressed-file formats and uses Harman’s Clari-Fi signal-processing technology to reconstruct missing information in compressed files.
Clari-Fi, formerly known as Signal Doctor, is becoming available in automaker sound systems and appears in wireless JBL tabletop speakers and in the Harman/Kardon edition of HTC’s One M8 smartphone for the Sprint network.
Clari-Fi is said to restore lost information rather than add equalization, bass boost, or other effects that Harman says would “alter the intended listening experience.”
No 585 is the first product to be designed at Harman’s new engineering facility in Shelton. It features a next-generation industrial design that blends Levinson’s historical design elements with an updated look.
No 585 features extruded and machined aluminum front panel with two-tone brushed-black and textured-silver finish. The component is accented by the company’s traditional red panel display and LED indicators.
The component is targeted to “audiophiles and music lovers who desire an all-in-one component that delivers musical performance equal to the finest separate components yet is space-saving and easy to use,” said Jim Garrett, marketing and product management director for the Harman Luxury Audio Group. The group’s brands are JBL Synthesis, Mark Levinson, Revel, and Lexicon.
The integrated Class AB amplifier delivers 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 350 watts per channel into 4 ohms. It features a stereo preamp/subwoofer output with a selectable 80Hz high-pass filter to build a 2.1-channel system. It also features Ethernet, RS-232, IR and 12-volt trigger ports to integrate with integrated systems control.
The No 585 offers six digital and four analog inputs, including USB, optical, coaxial, AES/EBU XLR and RCA. It uses fully discrete, mirror-imaged, dual-monaural analog input and output circuitry.
