Mark Levinson started his reputation building preamplifiers and power amplifiers of unsurpassed quality in the 1970’s. The M5 is known as TELIKOS, the ancient Greek word for ultimate or final. Mark states that TELIKOS is likely to be his ultimate and final statement in power amplifier designs.

Since high-sensitivity Daniel Hertz speakers produce 100dB of sound pressure level (SPL) with only 1 Watt of power, the M5 amplifier is designed to deliver superb performance in the milliWatt range. It's also an exceptional performer at all power levels.

The M5 is a mono amplifier designed and built without compromise, tuned especially for maximizing the performance of Daniel Hertz speakers. It can also be used to drive other high quality speaker systems. Audio experts have often used tube amplifiers with high efficiency speakers because tube amplifiers often have excellent performance in the milliWatt range. Usually, high efficiency speakers use less than 1 Watt for normal listening. The downside is that tube amps generally lack the damping factor, output current and voltage swing to take full advantage of the wide dynamic range of high quality speakers. The M5 delivers exquisite detail and smooth, open sound in the milliWatt range, but can deliver well over 200W into 8 Ohms, giving Daniel Hertz speakers a dynamic range exceeding 120dB SPL. The speed, bass control, warm, natural sound, and fantastic punch make listening to music a new experience for even the most jaded listeners.

The M5 has built-in active crossover networks for bi-amping speakers to professional standards. A toggle switch on the front panel allows the user to select LP (low pass filter), Flat (full range) or HP (high pass filter. This feature lets the user drive the Daniel Hertz M1 speakers or the M2’s with the M3 18” subwoofer with no outboard crossover boxes. Only one RCA interconnect from the HP amp to the LP amp is required to achieve bi-amplified operation. The front panel volume control on the M5 allows the user to change the volume level in steps of 1dB to optimize the subwoofer level or mid/high frequency level for the particular room acoustics and personal taste of the listener, from 0dB to -14dB. Switching is in precise increments. There is no audible switching noise when levels are changed.
The M5 has one RCA input, one RCA fixed output, and one RCA variable output (from the volume control). Insulated three way speaker output connectors meet the most stringent safety requirements. We recommend the use of Daniel Hertz Premium 500 Swiss-made speaker wire for connections to Daniel Hertz speakers.

The M5 utilizes pure Class A circuitry for the power range required to drive Daniel Hertz speakers for normal listening. Additional headroom enables large peak signals to be reproduced with ease. The M5 operates warm but not hot; only moderate ventilation is required. The M5 has no fans. A giant handmade torroidal transformer is a special feature of the power supply, which has been finely tuned to optimize performance of the M5. Large heat sinks are provided to enable the M5 to deliver high power for extended periods of time with no fan cooling and no risk of thermal overload. Two M5 can be stacked if desired, for compact installations.