MARK LEVINSON No. 5105

TURNTABLE

Despite having been in business since 1972, Mark Levinson did not release its first turntable, the No. 515, until 2017. This new No. 5105 does not replace the No. 515, nor is it a ‘stripped down’ version of it. In fact, despite the similarity in the model numbers, the No. 5105 is a completely new design, specifically intended to be the analogue front-end for Mark Levinson’s 5000 Series components.

Equipment

One reason it is a completely new design is that whereas the No. 515 turntable was made in the United States in partnership with turntable specialist VPI (based in Cliffwood, New Jersey), the No. 5105 turntable is made somewhere in Germany, in partnership with a German turntable specialist whose name Mark Levinson is not prepared to divulge.

This makes the No. 5105 something of a multi-national effort, what with US-based Mark Levinson being owned by US-based Harman International, which is in turn owned by Samsung, which has its head-quarters in Seoul, in South Korea.

Unlike the vast majority of turntables, which have their plinths made from timber, a composite material or masonry, the plinth of the Mark Levinson No. 5105 is made from a 50mm thick block of aluminium alloy that is milled from a single solid billet before being bead-blasted and black-anodised. It is supported by three height-adjustable aluminium feet inside each of which is an internal suspension system that Levinson says minimises the transmission of vibration.