Mark Levinson Adds The No. 5101 Streaming SACD/DAC To The Line

Straight out of Munich, Mark Levinson by Harman is debuting a new disc spinner turned all-things-digital-audio called the No. 5101. Also enabled with the responsibility of digital streaming and digital decoding from an eternal source, the newest edition to the Levinson family offers everything you would expect from a modern day digital audio product and leaves little else on the table.

Outfitted with the latest round of ESS Sabre chips, the No. 5101 not only accommodates SACD playback but also allows for streaming with NAS drives, DLNA and UPnP over a wireless network or even wired directly. One coax and one optical connection serve as connections for an external DAC and another pair of the same duo serve as output duties that can be connected in this fashion to the Levinson’s own No. 5802 or 5805 integrateds we first saw at RMAF in 2018.

Tech specs from the Munich PR release:

“A toroidal transformer mated to 13,600uF of filter capacitance forms the heart of the linear power supply which powers the DAC and all analog circuitry. Individual regulators for each channel assure dual monaural operation… the power supply, transformer and control PCBA’s are encased in a steel cage shield isolated from the digital and analog audio signal path. The robust slot-loading transport is suspended on steel standoffs floating on a PVC and styrene-butadiene rubber sandwich and shielded with a steel cover.”

While not the most exotic of industrial designs, the outward casework always looks the part and seems to emanate a high class, high quality product. If the items we heard at RMAF last year are any indication, the new 5*** series of components has a lot to offer, even for its mid-sized price tag (in audiophile terms at least).

The new Mark Levinson No. 5101 by Harman Streaming SACD player will retail for $5,500 when it becomes available in Q4 of this year.