CES 2009

The Harmon Specialty Group was demonstrating Levinson's new $30,000 No.502 surround processor together with Lexicon amps and a complete Revel Ultima2 speaker system, the latter anchored by the big Revel Ultima2 Salon2s on the right and left front channels. It sounded outstanding, but this did not surprise me after my recent review of an Ultima2 Studio2 system.

The system also included the new Samsung 1080p projector on which Joe Kane consulted extensively. On a 100" wide screen, it looked superb, with plenty of light output, great detail on Blu-ray discs, and good blacks.

Outside the demo room, Levinson had the new No.53 digital amp on static display (shown). A Levinson rep took great pains to emphasize that this monoblock amp, at $25,000 a copy, is not Class D, but rather a proprietary Mark Levinson company design.