Mark Levinson № 5105

This Mark Levinson turntable closes off our group by virtue of being the most expensive to buy without cartridge, albeit only $500 more than the Holbo on the previous pages. On the other hand, it comes out cheaper with either pre-installed cartridge option. You can purchase the No. 5105 either without a cartridge, in which case the retail price is $12,499, or factory-fitted with an Ortofon Quintet Black low-output moving-coil cartridge, in which case the retail price increases to $14,499.

With Mark Levinson having been in business since 1972, you might have expected them to have turntables on offer since the early days. But actually no, its eponymous founder, once an aspiring musician who (legendarily) built the stage mixer for Woodstock, never did turn his hand to the black arts, and by the time Harman took over the company in 1990, the CD was in its ascendancy (CDs overtook cassette sales in 1991).

So it took the revival of vinyl to prompt the creation of the first Mark Levinson turntable, which arrived only in 2017, the No. 515. 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