Mark Levinson unveils its flagship 'Swiss army knife' No.585 integrated amp

Harman's luxury audio division – the owner of high-end brands such as Mark Levinson, Revel, Lexicon and JBL Synthesis – has ambitious expansion plans, with 17 new products planned for release over the next 24 months.

The company has created a new, state-of-the-art engineering facility in Shelton, Connecticut, USA and its director of engineering, Todd Eichenbaum, has joined Harman after 20+ years experience at Krell.

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The first product to come out of the new R&D centre is the $12,000 Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amplifier. Robert Lardon, general manager of Harman's Luxury Audio Group, describes it as a "Swiss army knife product" because of the number of things it can do.

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The No.585 also has six digital and four analogue inputs – including USB, optical, coaxial, AES/EBU XLR and RCA.

Due on sale in September, the No.585 will be followed next year by the Mark Levinson No.585P with built-in phono stage, priced at $13,500. There'll be a "whole suite of new Mark Levinson amps", says Lardon, new streaming products from Lexicon and a new disc player – possibly with SACD.

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.