Mark Levinson celebrates its 45th anniversary with its first turntable

By Andy Clough
published

What better way to mark an important birthday than with a new turntable? That's exactly what luxury US hi-fi brand Mark Levinson has done, revealing to the world what it considers to be the first deck to be worthy of the brand's name.

It's developed the No.515 turntable in partnership with VPI Industries, and the deck is designed and built in the USA, with its global launch taking place at CES 2017 in Las Vegas this week.

There's nothing basic about the design: it is based on a vinyl-wrapped and highly damped MDF and aluminium sandwich main chassis, supported by machined Delrin and aluminium feet with a vibration-damping polymer.

The hefty aluminium platter rotates on an inverted bearing, which uses a stainless stell shaft spinning in a phosphor bronze bushing "for maximum rotational accuracy".

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A high-torque AC synchronous motor is mounted to the chassis and housed in its own mechanically isolated enclosure. The platter is driven by a pulley and triple belt drive system for "smooth, quiet operation" at 33 and 45rpm.

A 3D-printed tonearm with integral headshell and stainless steel counterweight is mounted to a rigid, aluminium arm base with adjustable vertical tracking angle. A stainless steel record weight and platter mat complete the set-up.

Mark Levinson says the No.515 turntable was designed to complement the company's Pure Phono stage included in its No.526 and No.523 preamplifiers.

The deck will be available with or without a factory installed moving coil (MC) cartridge this summer, with prices starting at $10,000 for the non-cartridge version.

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Andy Clough
Andy Clough

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.