New retail was $15k, I have original box, manual, remote, cord. Works great, I'd say an 8 conservatively. The unit has both XLR and RCA analog outputs although it's fully differentially balanced design. The outputs are variable to go direct to amp but no digital input. There is a digital out.
You'll easily find glowing reviews of this unit. It should be on Audiogon soon with asking price of $4495.00. NOW > $3995.00
Excerps from 6Moons ---
Under the hood however it would appear that Harman’s mighty resources have been more successfully exploited. The ML website states: "[For the N°512] Levinson engineers devised a proprietary anti-jitter technique employing a memory buffer and a Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) circuit. After the transport reads and decodes the digital stream it is sent to a memory bank that stores it temporarily. The DDS circuit then accurately reclocks the output. By placing a buffer between the player’s transport and the rest of the digital circuitry and reclocking the signal, any jitter introduced by the transport itself is effectively removed."
I’m tempted to say "unique signature" because this player is far from run of the mill. Richness is the first word to mind when the play button is hit. My initial listening notes pointed to a generous midband accompanied by dry and punchy bass. Listening to Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly I was amazed how this nascent digital recording opened up and bloomed in a startling glue-you-to-your-seat manner. I imagined for a moment that this is how it must have sounded in the control room of The Village Recorder. It was just so supremely pleasurable. Instrumental and vocal articulation both were of the highest order and the N°512 was clearly class-leading in its ability to convey detailed acoustic information concerning the studio environment. Width, height and depth attributes were all clearly discernible without ever serving to unrealistically stretch the overall presentation.
Conclusion: A few of my listening sessions were happily shared with friends and it was noticeable at their close how many commented that they felt emotionally drained. And it’s true, the N°512 engages you with your music collection in a manner that’s rare. But the way the N°512 wrought this effect was interesting. It wasn’t by being best at conveying edge of your seat excitement. Rather it was through the sheer luminous filled-out beauty of the sound. Indeed at times the listening room felt almost in danger of being flooded by the music.
What really convinced me that I was in the presence of something truly special here was the way the N°512 helped me ‘crack’ the DNA of many of my favorite performers. The prime example of this was Bryan Ferry. In twenty years of listening to his music I’ve simply never realized what a truly accomplished vocalist he really is. His perfect phrasing and dry-as-a-desert-skull humor emerged in a way that lesser equipment had previously conspired to mask to some degree.
