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Mark Levinson is recognized as the founder of Mark Levinson Audio Systems (MLAS), an audio manufacturer based in New Haven, Connecticut, where he helped create products such as the LNP-2 preamplifier and promoted high-end audio technology in cars. Following the company's bankruptcy in 1980, the rights to the Mark Levinson brand were passed to Harman International with no involvement from the founder.
Levinson is also a professional bass player and recording and mastering engineer. In his early years, he played with Sonny Rollins, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Jimmy Garrison, Stan Getz, and others. In his four decades designing and marketing high-performance audio products, Levinson made recordings of jazz, blues, classical, and Indian music.
At the age of twenty-one, he built the stage mixer used at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1968. From that point on, Levinson's ambition was to create audio playback equipment that would emulate the qualities of live performances as closely as possible. His mentor, Richard Burwen, encouraged him to always ask difficult questions and never settle for easy solutions.
Mark Levinson in the Cello showroom, NYC 1990
Cello is a luxury audio company founded by Levinson in 1984, with which he introduced several novel audio concepts. Notably, Levinson collaborated with engineers Tom Colangelo and Richard S. Burwen, introducing products such as the Cello Audio Palette—a sonically transparent equalizer that subsequently saw adoption in professional recording and mastering studios, including those from Polygram, BMG, and Atlantic Records. The design of the equalizer's circuits is based on specifications developed by Dick Burwen, Levinson's electronics mentor. These specifications also helped him to develop the early MLAS preamplifier designs.
Red Rose Classic speakers
In the late 1990s, Levinson worked at Red Rose Music on the development of critically-acclaimed amplifiers such as the Affirmation and loudspeakers such as the Rosebud MKII. Red Rose Music’s first power amplifier won the Product of the Year award from a popular Italian magazine.
In 2007, Mark Levinson founded Daniel Hertz, an audio engineering and manufacturing company based in Neuchatel, Switzerland, with a division and subsidiary in Venice, Italy, where all Daniel Hertz speakers are hand-built. Since Harman International owns the rights to the Mark Levinson brand, Levinson could not use his real name for the company. Instead, it was inspired by his parents' names; Daniel being his father's first name and Hertz his mother’s maiden name.
Levinson believes that the company's new technology is "the first fundamental development in the audio industry since the 1970s" and that its products are the creator's best accomplishments in product design.
In 2007, Mark Levinson was invited by LG Electronics to upgrade the company's products' audio quality. Reportedly, the products tuned by Mark Levinson have received good reviews and were the recipients of industry awards on multiple occasions.
At Daniel Hertz, Levinson and his engineering team developed a new class of audio chips with embedded C Wave (Continuous Wave) software called Mighty Cat. The Mighty Cat chips, in combination with the company's own audio architecture and speakers, are promoted as delivering the experience of pure analog from any digital source, including streaming. This solution is based on the company's continuous wave technology and class-D chipsets, embedded in the Daniel Hertz Maria amplifiers.
Maria amplifiers are integrated digital-to-analog converters with a native resolution of 384kHz that transforms directly to analog power outputs with the shortest signal path possible, circumventing signal degradation.
Due to the amplifiers' high output current and low output impedance, the Mighty Cat power stage can drive speakers with no audible noise. Power supply regulation is provided by a custom switching mode power supply, while the analog inputs have one megohms input impedance, an innovation introduced by Mark Levinson, which eliminates the loading of analog source devices.
Daniel Hertz's Max Studio Monitors were personally designed by Mark Levinson. By design, the Max Studio Monitor is a reference nearfield monitor intended for professional studio use and homes. The monitors feature a cabinet that is larger than an average bookshelf speaker due to the 24mm (.9”) thickness of the walls, internal air volume, and bracing. The rectangular black matte finish cabinets are built with premium plywood. The choice of drivers relies on a compression driver and molded dispersion horn combined with a custom 8" woofer.
Mark Levinson promoting Daniel Hertz' Max Studio Monitors
Throughout his career, Levinson worked on the development of many audio products at several companies. Below is a partial list of products he has helped develop to date:
- LNP-1 Preamplifier
- LNP-2 Professional Preamplifier
- JC-1 Moving Coil Cartridge Preamplifier JC-1AC Moving Coil Cartridge Preamplifier JC-2 Straightline Preamplifier
- LNC-2 Electronic Crossover ML-1 Preamplifier
- ML-2 Class A Mono Amplifier with regulated power supplies
- ML-3 Stereo Power Amplifier
- ML-5 modified
- Studer A-80 professional tape recorder with custom electronics ML-6A Dual Mono Preamplifier
- ML-7 Preamplifier
- ML-7A Preamplifier
- ML-8 Microphone Preamplifier ML-9 Power Amplifier
- ML-10 Preamplifier ML-11 Preamplifier
- ML-12 Power Amplifier
- Cello Audio Palette analog equalizer
- Cello Audio Suite
- Cello Performance mono power amplifier with regulated choke power supplies
- Cello Encore preamp
- Cello Encore 1MΩ preamp
- Cello Encore mono power amplifier
- Cello Duet 350 amplifier
- Cello Amati loudspeaker
- Cello Premier loudspeaker
- Cello Master loudspeaker
- Grand Master reference loudspeaker
- Cello Serafin active monitor loudspeaker
- Cello Legend loudspeaker
- Cello Strings cables and interconnects, featuring Litz construction, Teflon dielectric, and Swiss-made Fischer connectors
- Cello Reference digital to analog converter
- Red Rose Music Model One Reference amplifier
- Red Rose Music Model Two amplifier
- Red Rose Music Model Three preamplifier R
- Red Rose Music Model Five integrated amp
- Red Rose Music Passion amplifier
- Red Rose Music Affirmation amplifier
- Red Rose Music Rosette amplifier
- Red Rose Music Rosette Two phono stage
- Red Rose Music Spirit integrated amplifier
- Red Rose Music Genius integrated amplifier with inboard USB digital-to-analog converter
- Red Rose Music Revelation loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music R-3 loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music Rosebud loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music Rosebud II loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music Classic loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music M1 Multi-Channel Power amplifier
- Red Rose Music M2 loudspeaker
- Red Rose Music M-3 subwoofer
- Red Rose Music Meditation loudspeaker
Levinson is a supporter of indigenous American music. In 1994, he helped Tim and Denise Duffy found the Music Maker Relief Foundation, which assists destitute elderly blues and folk musicians chiefly in the Southern U.S. The foundation provides financial support to artists in various forms, including paying for their medical care and expenses as well as instruments. Music Maker also arranges performances at clubs and music festivals in the U.S. and abroad for musicians.
Music Maker uses a Mark Levinson-designed portable recording system to record musical performances. Tim Duffy has used this equipment to make studio-quality field recordings. Music Maker has been endorsed by BB King, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and others.
Levinson and actress Kim Cattrall were married from 1998 to 2004. During their time together, the couple co-wrote the book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm (2002).
