All-Time Favorite
This review may be compact, but that’s not a reflection of how I feel about this player. In fact, this is my all-time favorite CD player, with a solid second place for the Wadia 861. A proper review was just never written because I knew early on that this player was here to stay and I always thought that I’d write a review later.
This is the first ‘S’ category Levinson that I’ve had in the system and I have to say that it seems to really make a difference. It can also be that an integrated cd player is simply more together sounding than separates, with their jitter issues, but this player sounds more agile and timely than both the 36 and 360 DAC did some time ago with several transports. The 390s sound is very organic, with full, agile bass, a very natural mid and airy, fluid highs. It is full, slightly warm and harmonic but uncolored and natural sounding at the same time. It throws a wide and deep soundstage and it just doesn’t sound like a CD player. The only criticism I can have is that it is not the most physical sounding player. It is always well-mannered and simply will not shout at you. But I like that in a CD player:-)
Above: the green-colored board is not the Arlon board and there never was a 390 (non-S version), so this must be the 39.
Above: the beige-colored board is the celebrated Arlon version used as standard in the 390S
Side Note
The 390S has a high-quality analog volume control that can be switched in- and out of circuit. Unlike other volume controls on CD players, the 390S’ variable level should not be set to 100 for unity, rather somewhere around 63. Importantly, while I am no fan of connecting CD players directly to power amplifiers, the 390S is the best CD player that I have yet heard when connected as such. Unlike CD players with digital volume controls, the sound is always highly resolving, even at very low levels. However, switching the variable volume control in circuit changes the sound. On the fixed setting, the player sounds very smooth, tonally rich and full and quite relaxed, but on variable, the tonality becomes thinner and the whole sound is tighter, less free-flowing. My advice, therefore, is to not use the volume control if a preamp is already in place.
Later I also obtained a 360S DAC and only recently it occurred to me that the 360S uses 4 PCM1704 multibit DAC chips while the 390S CD player uses 2 AD1853 chips, which are Delta/Sigma chips, so essentially bitstream units. Naturally Levinson did not pick just any 1-bit DAC but opted for a special hybrid multibit Delta Sigma design, but still, bitstream DACs tend to sound different than multi-bit DACs. This will also go a long way toward explaining the differences between the 390S and 360S.
Read also
390S as part of a high end CD player comparison
I recently bought a used ML 39 and fortunately, it was being well kept and serviced by the previous owner.At the moment, i am hooking it up to a floorstander speaker i.e Akoustik Lab Bolero Grande and the interconnect and speaker cables are Nordost Red Dawn .I am currently searching for an amplifier that would be the perfect fit with the ML cdp.Your thoughts and comments shall be deeply appreciated.Btw, is there a huge difference between the ML 39 and the 390s? Thanks in advance,Sir.
I can’t comment on your amp query, this is very personal, but I can add some thoughts on your CD player question. While I have not personally owned the 39, I have had the 36, 360 and 360 DACs. Between the 36 and 360 is a big difference on all accounts: much better low level resolution, more transparency and better speed and transient attack, and the s version improves further on this in terms of technical excellence. In comparison the 36 sounds like a different brand. Having heard these differences and looking at the visual differences in circuitry between 39 and 390S (the output stage of the older one looking much like the Proceed CDP) I would not be surprised if the 390s sounded quite different from the 39 as well.