That one looks an awful lot like the one that Fred (from the Studer list) was selling about a year ago (it went for $12k). Here's a link to an interesting thread we had going about them in the early days of this forum.
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,56.0.html
I guess Charlie King (stellavox) has a Cello repro amp that he's been fooling with but I'm not sure if that was one of Levinson's designs or not (he was partnered up with a couple of guys at Cello but I guess you'd know about that since I recall that there were a couple of Cello reviews in Ultimate Audio right?).
Aside from those ML designs, of course TdP has built a number of modified Technics RS machines (Mikel and [mia] Danny Kaey both have one). Rich Brown (U47) told me that he knows of a John Curl modified Technics too. And I'd still love to hear one of the Manley Tape Head set ups one of these days.
Steve:
Thanks for the informative link. Lot's of good info!
Spoke with Charlie recently when considering what to do as far as a tape preamplifier and he was fooling around with some surplus Cello parts. And no, never did Cello in UA, just ML. I was always under the impression most of the later Levinson gear was the result of Tom Colangelo (and of course Mark engaged, paid might be too strong, designers such John Curl). If memory serves me right, John Curl worked for Ampex for quite some time and made some important contributions to their tape decks-not to mention being involved with the sound of the Grateful Dead live sound system.
As far as ML5s, I seem to remember one being on display at Lyric Hi Fi for many years (I assume that Mike Kay got that as an investor in ML). Never got to hear it (did hear the Goldmund Reference in those days) though several friends had and were quite impressed. Problem was that Mark seemed to favor certain qualities in his recordings such as timbre, dynamics, resolution and frequency response to the detriment of instumental focus and imaging. One can hear that on his LPs that are really sensational-or the early Cello speakers/equipment of its day.
AFA tape decks go, will write up for PFO my experience of putting together the J-Corder/TP Technics 1500 with Repro amp. George Cardas is making me some special cables to run from the tape heads to Repro and Repro to preamp. Should be an interesting test of the 15 ips tapes. Expect down the road to try a few tubes-with some guidance from Paul and Doc, most like trying either an Ampex 6922/7308 or Mullard equivalent :)
Myles