Smooth performer
Relaxed and full sounding player that is essentially quite natural, with a warm midrange. Rhythm (PRAT) is not its strong suit and it can also be slightly tame dynamically. It really needs an agile and open/dynamic system to match. A sophisticated DAC that is very refined but not very visceral.
Hi Christian!, I know you had a lot of experiments with #36 … (I just got one) can you give me some advice about this DAC … does it react noticeably to AEC/EBU digital cables? or can you limit yourself to simple ones (for example Belden or Gotham) which cable harness did you like more? … maybe silver or copper? …
Which digital data source is better for it? – CD transport or computer/server … #37 … 30.5 … it’s already dangerous to look for – the drives are dead and cannot be replaced (Madrigal modified them) …
The best digital source is the one you find sounds best. It depends on whether you prefer cleanness, transient behavior, attack, dynamics, etc, or warmth, body, fulness of timbre, lushness, etc, to name two extremes. It might surprise that both servers and CD transports can each have the qualities of each extreme, depending on the model/system/software etc you choose. I lack the time to dive too deeply into this in the comment section, but hope this makes sense.
Regarding the Levinsons, I had a Philips CD-Pro mechanism changed in a 390S quite some time ago by an independent repair shop in the Netherlands, and according to the engineer who carried this out for me, the Madrigal mod was nothing more than an external clock feed, where the mech relies on the Clock mounted on the DAC board, rather than the one on the mech PCB. He had no issues carrying this out, the player sounded superb after this changed, and continues to do so to this day, in a friends system.
All sources and DACs I used respond to the cables used. Again, which is best is in the listener’s ear. I will say that, unless you are deliberately tweaking the sound to counteract another aspect of your system, or you find digital to sound too clean, you don’t really need very expensive digital cables if you prefer a clean and neutral sound. I always use Mogami 3080 Neglex AES/EBU.
Between 37 and 31.5, I would suggest going 37, as it is much more affordable, and is consistently said to sound very close. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to confirm this for myself. You could also opt for the 31 which has a swing arm mech that seems to have eternal life (although it sounds very different).