Turntable Reviews

Mark Levinson No.5105 turntable Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Belt-drive turntable with high-mass aluminum plinth, pivoted tonearm, and installed Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge.
Dimensions: Turntable: 17.24" (438mm) W × 15.55" (395mm) D × 4.23" (108mm) H (not including record weight). Weight: 75lb (34kg).
Tonearm: Pivoted, with 237.8mm pivot-to-spindle distance, effective length of 254mm, and 16.2mm overhang. Offset angle: N/A.
Ortofon Quintet Black: Moving coil phono cartridge. Recommended downforce: 2.1–2.5gm. Recommended load impedance: >20 ohms. Internal impedance: 5 ohms. Output voltage: 0.3mV. Channel balance (@1kHz): <1.0dB. Channel separation (@1kHz): >23dB.
Finish: Black.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 1006. Made in Germany.
Price: $6000 ($7000 with Ortofon Quintet Black phono cartridge). Approximate number of dealers: 60, plus 4 online. Warranty: 5 years limited, non-transferrable.
Manufacturer: Mark Levinson, Harman International Industries, 8500 Balboa Blvd., Northridge, CA 91329. Tel: (888) 691-4171. Web: marklevinson.com.

COMPANY INFO
Mark Levinson
Harman International Industries
8500 Balboa Blvd.
Northridge, CA 91329
(888) 691-4171
marklevinson.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
davip's picture
Submitted by davip on March 31, 2021 - 12:18pm

Plastic motor pulley
Undecoupled motor
Plastic-wrapped plywood plinth (sorry, 'medium-density fibreboard')

$10K.
Absurd.

Mark Levinson, the OEM reseller of this sees buyers coming at that price. Is gluing two bits of Aluminium to fibreboard what passes for turntable engineering in this new century? Nope, it's just cheaper and easier to bolt a motor to a piece of plywood and bask in the profit-margin.

Thank heavens for Linn and SOTA...

mtrot's picture
Submitted by mtrot on March 31, 2021 - 5:00pm

$10k is the price for the 515. The retail price for this 5105 is $6000. Yes, the way reviews here are written does sometimes make it take a while to figure out what the actual price is of the item under review.

Jim Austin's picture
Submitted by Jim Austin on March 31, 2021 - 6:16pm

... in the Specifications sidebar.

Jim Austin, Editor
Stereophile

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 1, 2021 - 4:36am
mtrot wrote:
...the way reviews here are written does sometimes make it take a while to figure out what the actual price is of the item under review.

As well as the price being listed on the Specifications page, as Jim Austin points out, Mikey discusses the price of the No.5105 in the paragraph beneath the photo in the section titled "The No.5105 turntable."

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

helomech's picture
Submitted by helomech on April 2, 2021 - 3:45pm

It has an Acoustic Signature tonearm. The other giveaways are the square belt, pulley diameter, 13lb platter, and record weight.

shawnwes's picture
Submitted by shawnwes on April 3, 2021 - 11:38am

Speed control seems to be the one thing that many manufacturers need to work on. I get similar results to the "after the belt was cleaned" measurement Michael got from my 40 yr old Ariston RD11 Superieur on it's original motor.

I wish I could remember the table but I read one review recently of a budget table (well under $2k IIRC) that had rock solid speed control. In the ML snack bracket and higher I would expect the same.

Johnnyjajohnny's picture
Submitted by Johnnyjajohnny on September 17, 2021 - 3:39am

Could it have been the Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB that Fremer reviewed on [Analog Planet]?
Otherwise, maybe another direct drive turntable, since their speed accuracy is generally far better than belt drives (with exceptions of course). I have a belt drive, but I'm considered going direct, just to get rid of that issue.

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