536 MONAURAL AMPLIFIER
534 DUAL-MONAURAL AMPLIFIER
Since 1972, Mark Levinson has been
dedicated to the uncompromising art
of sound, with the guiding principle of
musical purity above all else.
To achieve that goal like never before,
Mark Levinson engineers scoured
company archives, ultimately
developing a circuit-design philosophy
called Pure Path. On a conceptual
level, its hallmark principles include a
discrete, direct-coupled, fully balanced,
dual-monaural signal path that
delivers unrestricted, uncompromised
sonic purity.
Far from merely arranging high quality
components in an intelligent manner,
Pure Path is the meeting of science
and art: Mark Levinson engineers are
tasked to create the best possible.
PRECISION.
POWER.
PURITY.
The pursuit of perfect amplication
is a well-known theme in high-end
audio. New technologies present new
approaches, while looking to the past
provides inspiration for the future.
It was in that spirit that the
536 and 534 ampliers were
developed: advised by classic
Mark Levinson amplier designs
such as the 33 and ML-2, and
with a specic target sound: a deep,
expansive soundstage, accurate
image placement, extended low bass
response with good pitch denition,
and detailed high frequencies free
from “etching.”
These fully differential, fully discrete,
monaural and dual-monaural
Pure Path ampliers drive virtually
any loudspeaker effortlessly in
class A for most listening conditions
for impeccable imaging, musicality,
and openness. A direct-coupled signal
path; a highly linear, low-feedback
design; and voltage gain and drive
stages operating entirely in
class A, are joined by the modern
system integration capabilities
provided by Ethernet, RS-232, and USB
for monitoring and network control.
DESIGN
PHILOSOPHY
The 536 and 534’s core design
principles are their very high openloop linearity and extremely high
bias current. Because the amplier
circuitry was designed to have such
intrinsically high performance,
it requires very little feedback to
achieve impeccably low distortion
and enormously wide bandwidth.
Employing unusually high bias
current enables superb linearity with
wide bandwidth: nearly immune to
the effects of parasitic capacitances,
the ampliers are able to change
voltage with unreserved agility.
These design principles create
the hallmarks of Mark Levinson
amplication: effortlessness,
openness, and unadulterated
smoothness throughout the entire
frequency range, regardless of load
or listening level.
MADE IN THE USA
All Mark Levinson equipment
employs electronic components
carefully chosen for their specic
task. Tantalum nitride thin-lm
resistors in critical gain-setting and
feedback locations make the sound
revealing and effortless, free of
the low-level nonlinearities caused
by lesser resistive materials. An
extremely costly material, tantalum
nitride typically nds use in sensitive
military equipment because it is
unusually stable with respect to
temperature, exhibits very low noise,
and is unaffected by magnetic elds.
Similarly, lm-type capacitors in
critical ltering locations perform
extremely consistently, regardless of
temperature and frequency.
Housed in an aircraft-grade
6000-series extruded and machined
aluminum chassis, the 536
and 534 feature extremely high
build precision, to exceedingly
low tolerances. Attention to
detail is evident even in individual
components, each of which is
carefully selected and precisely
placed for ultimate sonic purity and
visual composition.
Mark Levinson equipment
is designed at the HARMAN
Engineering Center of Excellence in
Shelton, CT, prototyped in-house, and
handcrafted exclusively at an ISO9001
facility in Massachusetts under strict
Mark Levinson engineering and
quality supervision.
ART MEETS SCIENCE
Mark Levinson takes pride in both
the art and science of engineering.
To that end, components are selected
based not only on their technical
merits, but also on their sonic
capabilities.
The ampliers each contain 24
discrete 15A, 260V, 200W TO-264
bipolar output transistors and 24
discrete 230V, 70MHz TO-220 bipolar
driver transistors. Power supplies
contain 16 discrete, high speed, 40A,
250V TO-220 Schottky rectiers and
36 lter capacitors for a grand total
of 169,200 microfarads in the 536
and 118,800 microfarads in the
534 of storage capacitance.
The ampliers also feature
custom-designed, low noise toroidal
transformers, rated for 1,800VA and
1,900VA total continuous power,
respectively, with separate secondary
windings for each output stage.
The output stage and power supply
components are over-specied to
offer unsurpassed performance
and reliability.
The input stages contain matchedpair, low-noise, high-gain, dual
JFET input transistors, which in turn
are connected in a double cascode
conguration to bipolar transistors;
the combination of devices offers
inherently low distortion and wide
bandwidth, as well as the ability to
effortlessly swing large signal voltages.
This circuit operates in a fully balanced,
differential conguration and uses
discrete TO-126 bipolar pre-driver
transistors to accurately drive the
massive output stages.
IN SUMMARY
• Class AB design, operating
in class A for most listening
conditions
536 rated at 400W into 8 ohms
•
and 800W into 4 ohms, stable
into 2 ohms
534 rated at 250W into 8 ohms
•
and 500W into 4 ohms, stable
into 2 ohms
• Fully discrete and differential
signal path, input to output
• High linearity, low-feedback
design for low distortion and
wide bandwidth
• Voltage gain and driver stages
operate in class A
• Direct coupled: no capacitors in
the signal path
• Custom-designed, low-noise
1,800VA and 1,900VA toroidal
transformers
• High-current linear power
supplies employing lownoise, high-speed discrete
Schottky rectiers and multiple
paralleled lter capacitors
• Mirror-image symmetrical
design
• Four and eight binding posts
with Hurricane terminals
for standard and bi-wired
loudspeaker connections
• System controls: Ethernet,
RS-232, IR input, 12V trigger
input and output, USB
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534 SPECIFICATIONS
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536 SPECIFICATIONS
CONNECTIVITY
• INPUT CONNECTORS: one pair Balanced, one pair single-ended
• SPEAKER CONNECTORS: four pairs of Hurricane loudspeaker outputs
banana-plug sockets per channel, except on 230 VAC version
CONTROL I/O
• Ethernet, RS-232, Trigger In and Out, USB-A, Mini USB
RATED OUTPUT POWER
• 250 wpcRMS@ 8Ω, 20Hz to 20kHz @ <0.3% THD, full output from 2.83VRMS
AUDIO PERFORMANCE
• FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10Hz to 20kHz ±0.2dB
• SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO: >85dB, reference level: 2.83VRMS
• INPUT IMPEDANCE: 60 kΩ balanced; 30 kΩ unbalanced
• VOLTAGE GAIN: 26dB
• INPUT SENSITIVITY: 2.83VRMSoutput at 142mVRMSinput
A/C POWER REQUIREMENTS
• 100V~, 120V~, 230V~, factory set for destination country, 1500W
DIMENSIONS
• Height (with feet): 7.75” (19.7cm)
• Height (without feet): 7” (17.8cm)
• Width: 17.75” (45.1cm)
• Depth: 20” (50.8cm)
CONNECTIVITY
• INPUT CONNECTORS: one Balanced, one single-ended
• SPEAKER CONNECTORS: two pairs of Hurricane loudspeaker outputs
banana-plug sockets per channel, except on 230 VAC version
CONTROL I/O
• Ethernet, RS-232, Trigger In and Out, USB-A, Mini USB
RATED OUTPUT POWER
• 400 wpcRMS@ 8Ω, 20Hz to 20kHz @ <0.3% THD, full output from 2.83VRMS
AUDIO PERFORMANCE
• FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10Hz to 20kHz ±0.2dB
• SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO: >85dB, reference level: 2.83VRMS
• INPUT IMPEDANCE: 60 kΩ balanced; 30 kΩ unbalanced
• VOLTAGE GAIN: 26dB
• INPUT SENSITIVITY: 2.83VRMSoutput at 142mVRMSinput
A/C POWER REQUIREMENTS
• 100V~, 120V~, 230V~, factory set for destination country, 1500W
DIMENSIONS
• Height (with feet): 7.75” (19.7cm)
• Height (without feet): 7” (17.8cm)
• Width: 17.75” (45.1cm)
• Depth: 20” (50.8cm)
WEIGHT
• Net weight: 107 lbs (48.5kg)
• Shipping weight: 124 lbs (56.3kg)
For more information, visit www.marklevinson.com
WEIGHT
• Net weight: 100 lbs (45.4kg)
• Shipping weight: 114 lbs (51.7kg)
HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated
8500 Balboa Boulevard, Northridge, CA 91329
marklevinson.com
©2017 HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated. Mark Levinson is a trademark of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated.
All rights reserved. Features, specications and appearance are subject to change without notice.
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