You know how I know that the Mark Levinson No. 53 power amplifiers are really, really good? No, it's not that they have the Mark Levinson brand on their faceplates or that they cost a whopping $50,000 a pair or that they blew my fragile little mind at a private audition. It's because a handful of industry executives, who have every reason to hate the amps because they sell competing and obnoxiously expensive audiophile amps, can't stop raving about the Mark Levinson No. 53. Heartfelt compliments from your most enthusiastic competitors are a very good sign for future success.

The Mark Levinson No. 53 mono amps are designed to replace the historical Mark Levinson No. 33 reference monoblock power amps, which were both physically huge and ultimately somewhat unreliable out in the field. The Mark Levinson No. 53 is a much smaller tower-style design that, under the hood, goes in a new direction. You might be happy to know that the Mark Levinson No. 53, which weighs about as much as a Toyota Prius, is a hybrid digital amplifier design, which means it melds a traditional class AB or class A form with the quiet, clean sound of today's best digital amps. And no, Mark Levinson is not using a B&O Ice amp in their No. 53, like so many others in the digital amplifier market do today. The Mark Levinson No. 53 highlights a new amplifier design called Interleaved Power Technology (IPT), which is likely to trickle down the Mark Levinson line in years to come as it aims to bring the best of both worlds together in one amp.

High Points
• The Mark Levinson No. 53 is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of the ultimate audiophile amplifier world, as it brings the best of two things together in one product. In the case of the Mark Levinson No. 53 amps, you get the clean vast power of a digital amplifier with the weight and balls of a class AB amp design. Nobody has brought this to the high end before.
• The Mark Levinson No. 53s are smaller and more reliable than the No. 33s and replace the need for the Mark Levinson No. 33 amps for nearly all consumers worldwide.

Low Points
• The tower configuration of the Mark Levinson No. 53 amp makes it hard (if not impossible) to sell to the non-audiophile who doesn't want big amps on the floor next to his speakers. Yes, it will go over well in Tokyo, but in the United States, people who can actually afford Mark Levinson No. 53s (like Bentley driving, NetJets flying fat cats, a.k.a. the ones who are actually buying stocks in a very down market) would likely want to hide them in a fan-cooled equipment rack. Harman needs to engineer a rack-mountable version of the amp, much like their Mark Levinson No. 436 monoblocks.

Conclusion
Before you make some "I-get-my-audiophile-news-from-some-computer-lover-website-written-by-a-dorky-GenY-kid-who-graduated-college-18-months-ago-and-thinks-a-$199-Blu-ray-player-is-expensive" joke about the price of the Mark Levinson No. 53 amplifiers, you need to appreciate just how insanely good they sound. Look up your local dealer and make sure he is getting a pair and, even if you show up driving a car that costs less than the Mark Levinson No. 53s, make an appointment to hear them. Along with the Halcro dm58s and Krell's Evolution 900 power amplifiers, the Mark Levinson No. 53s are a must-hear and set a benchmark for performance that you need to experience to believe.