Mark Levinson No. 5909 - High Resolution Wireless Headphones with Active Noise Cancellation (Red)

Product Information

Vocals were pristine with near perfect timbral accuracy. Vocals were rendered with the clarity, detail, and the flat-out hair-raising purity that you’ll experience from a high-end loudspeaker. For example, Elaine Paige’s iconic rendition of “Memory,” from Cats, played through the No. 5909 was intimate, energetic, and intoxicating. Strings have good energy and timbre making the No.5909 a great choice for string quartet pieces. Piano notes are delivered with excellent weight, detail, and very realistic timbre and it was rather impressive how well the headphones reproduced one of the most challenging instruments to get right. With such a high asking price, it is not unreasonable for consumers to expect great sound quality from the No. 5909 and it certainly doesn’t shy away from that ask. I did my listening using both the wireless and wired modes and while there are some differences between the two, the gap when using LDAC and aptX Adaptive was not as wide as you might expect. Mark Levinson No. 5909 review As the price tag demands, the No.5909 bring wired-standard sound to wireless convenience

There are three distinct wired modes, which is a unique feature of the No. 5909. The first is active analog audio mode, which works with the USB-C-to-3.5mm cable. It processes the audio signal through the No. 5909’s internal EQ and allows you to cycle through ANC and transparency modes. The headphones must be powered up before you plug in the cable to enable this mode. That an unremarkable button is the first and last of our criticisms gives you a strong hint at the answer to the question we posed at the beginning of our review: can wireless performance ever be so good as to justify such an expense? Again, the No. 5909 need to perform substantially better than the class-leading crop of cheaper competition – and they do. As recently as a decade ago, our understanding of listeners’ headphone preferences and the measurements that would best predict them were still in their infancy. That all changed thanks to Dr. Sean Olive and the world-renowned research team at Harman International. This is the same team whose pioneering research, led by Dr. Floyd Toole in the 1980s, gave us the definitive guide for the acoustics and psychoacoustics of loudspeakers, and Todd Welti’s subsequent research in the 2000s that determined the ideal number of subwoofers in a rectangular room and their optimal locations. While there is a mild lower treble emphasis, I think it is fair to say that Mark Levinson has played it rather safe in the top end; the treble has good extension with a mlld degree of emphasis but then a decrease in presence between 7 and 9KHz which is commonly where a lot of listeners experience fatigue.euros may seem crazy for a set of wireless headphones. But that’s nothing in comparison to what you’ll pay for even the most affordable ML amp. The integrated No. 5802 with digital inputs only costs 10 times as much, and it only goes up from there! Photo: Geir Gråbein Nordby Expensive innards Mark Levinson, as a Harman company, has access to the minds – and ears – that created the Harman curve, which is a representation of the sort of sound supposedly preferred by most of the people most of the time. Usually this sort of marketing-speak suggests nothing more than endless focus groups and a result that’s inherently compromised; but in this instance, the goal is to reach an ideal. Comfort: very good to excellent. Slightly heavier than expected but well balanced with comfortable headband and very comfortable pads, which I believe are leather. EDIT: The pads ARE removable. ANC is very good to excellent. I don’t have the Sony’s or APM here to compare but after several commutes, I can say I don’t feel the need to have a set with stronger ANC. Multipoint technology is available to pair the No. 5909 with two devices simultaneously, but it is a mess. Several times, the headphones crashed, producing this unbearably loud static noise, and powering off when attempting to pair them with a secondary device. When the feature did work, lag was present on my secondary device, or nothing would play at all. Mark Levinson No. 5909 review: Verdict

I have had them for about a month now, so far they are the best sounding wireless headphones I have heard. I prefer them over the B&O. I'd never touch a focal product for my own reasons Nevertheless, surely the audacious move by such a big company would have spurred some brands to consider similar ambition. The rise in pricier wireless headphones of late, like these Mark Levinson No. 5909, the T+A Solitaire T and the forthcoming Bowers & Wilkins Px8, might suggest so – though the maturation of headphone and Bluetooth technology will have naturally played its part too. The earpads are leather and very soft, and due to the closed design, things do tend to get a little warm but that is to be expected and is totally normal for a design such as this. They also have a metal mesh material over the bass port. The Focal Bathys and B&W PX8 are serious competitors at better price level, not speaking about the MW75, which is almost the same headphone and almost as good. A comparison between these would be very helpful. :) The Harman target curve is a sound curve that both trained and untrained listeners preferred for headphone listening. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this response curve closely resembles the in-room response of an accurate loudspeaker in a semi-reflective room, as shown from Dr. Toole’s research.Guitar notes have both enough edge and growl to sound quite realistic when the music calls for it, but there is also rather convincing reproduction of decay and notes are able to linger and fall off making it sound rather realistic. What makes this headphone special isn’t necessarily its pedigree, premium materials, onboard tech, or noise-cancelling performance (though it has all of those, too). Rather, what’s notable is the No. 5909’s voicing to the so-called Harman target curve for headphones. The result? A gorgeous headphone worthy of the Levinson heritage that will exceed the sonic expectations of even the most demanding music lover. The imaging factor is hyper-balanced, meaning the width and height are equal, as is the depth of field. Sometimes many headphones have one element of the imaging that is superior to the rest by a large factor.

The Mark Levinson headphones have 40mm Beryllium (strong and lightweight) coated drivers and are acoustically tuned to the Harman Curve (famous among headphone enthusiasts because it provides a desired acoustic response that achieved the highest subjective scoring in tests done some years ago). Let’s just say the Harman Curve is the more pleasing tuned speaker/drivers curve for many. There are 3 levels of ANC and 2 levels of awareness available as well as being able to turn both ANC and awareness off. The bass contouring offers 3 settings of neutral, enhanced, and attenuated and while this is a good first step, I can’t help but think a headphone at this price should have a full equalizer and maybe even a parametric EQ. Mark Levinson No. 5909 are very exclusive headphones, which elevate wireless sound to completely new heights. The noise reduction itself is good, but still not among the best. The sound, however, is top notch. Driving for massive staging can sometimes ruin the density factor of the entire headphone and make it sound thin and stretched. The No. 5909 is quite dense and hefty for a dynamic driver.Along with a high-resolution wireless sound, the 5909s also are equipped with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). ANC has climbed the audiophile ladder as one of the more important qualities in the wireless headphone world, so this aspect of the 5909s would have to compete with some of the best ANC cans today, like the Sony new generation WH1000-XM5 (I also reviewed these headphones at length for Audiophilia). Suffice it to say I had pretty high expectations.

The Mark Levinson No. 5909 have a USB-C port for charging, but the headphone can also function as a USB audio device. A USB-C-to-3.5mm audio cable for connection to an analog audio source is also provided.The bundled audio cables let you enjoy the No. 5909 with different setups. Each of them performed up to standard. Mark Levinson No. 5909 review: Active noise cancellation As for headphones used for comparing the Levinson 5909s: Sony WH1000-XM5, Bang & Olufsen Beoplay HX, Focal Bathys (review forthcoming) and Bowers & Wilkins PX-8. Also wired headphones, the Focal Clear and Hifiman Arya. Streaming was done through Qobuz, Tidal, and Apple Music. Following the departure of Mark Levinson who has not been associated with the company for many decades, the company took a few wrong turns but now seems to be on very solid ground. Levinson and Krell were fierce competitors in the 1980s battling it out for supremacy in the world of uber high-end audio solid state amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, and CD players. Percussion has good snap but cymbals need a touch more energy to sound entirely realistic. The treble won’t please those looking for a flat response, but it won’t offend anyone by being too bright or fatiguing either.