CES 2015

I had made an appointment to meet Kevin Voecks, leader of Revel?s loudspeaker design team, at the Harman exhibit, which was held in the exhibit area of the Hard Rock Hotel. He was eager to show me Revel?s most cost-effective loudspeaker system to date, the $2000/pair Concerta floorstanding loudspeaker, but I explained that my CES 2015 show beat was products over $10,000. He walked over to another side of the exhibit, and showed me new products from the Mark Levinson line.

He was joined by Jim Garrett, Director of Marketing and Product Development at Harman. First, they told me that the Mark Levinson manufacturing and design headquarters has moved back from Indiana to Connecticut, specifically Simpson, Connecticut. That setup has allowed them to move ahead with previously planned products, such as the $12,000 No.585 Integrated amplifier (above) and the $30,000/pair No.536 monoblock amplifiers that Kal Rubinson described earlier in this report.

Both amplifiers were on static display and Jim walked me through the No.585. Although I had seen mockups of this amplifier at the 2013 CES, the final product is now shipping with many enhancements since then. The 74 lb component has four analog audio inputs and 6 digital inputs (one asynchronous USB, one AES/EBU, two coaxial S/PDIF and two optical), and has an ESS Sabre 32-bit/192kHz D/A converter. It has dual analog preamp-outs with switchable 80Hz, 2nd-order crossover filters for 2.1 channel capability to use with a pair of subwoofers. The output stage is fully-differential, class-AB and the amplifier is rated at 200Wpc into 8 ohms.

The system can be controlled via Ethernet, RS-232, IR input, and 12V trigger input and output. Firmware updates can be performed via USB flash or Ethernet.