Mark Levinson N32 setting the balance setting the 20 Hz filter, setting the resistive load

setting the balance

setting the 20 Hz filter

setting the resistive load

The balance (Bal) setting is unique to the phono preamplifier, and should be used to compensate for the small imbalances found in most cartridges. The best way to do this is to play a monophonic recording in normal stereo, centering the image between your speakers with the balance control. Once you know the correct balance offset for a par- ticular cartridge, simply enter this number in that cartridge’s phono setup, and the change will be made for you, automatically, whenever you listen to that cartridge. Normal balance will be restored when you switch away from the phono cartridge. Separate balance settings may be saved for Phono 1 and for Phono 2.

20Hz HPF is a 20 Hz high pass filter, sometimes called either an “infra- sonic” or a “subsonic” filter. It is designed to reduce turntable rumble and the cartridge/arm resonances which can often be stimulated by even small warps in the record as it turns. You may either turn it on or off, depending on whether it seems needed for a particular cartridge/ arm combination.

One way to determine this is to play a quiet passage of a recording at a relatively high level with your speaker grilles off. Watch your woofers. If they are moving in and out noticeably without there being a clearly correlated low bass sound, you should probably engage the 20Hz HPF. Otherwise, you are wasting both amplifier power and woofer excursion 23 on something you cannot hear directly; the indirect effect of modulat-

ing the woofer’s output with non-musical, sub-20 Hz information can only be deleterious to the performance of the system.

RLoad refers to the resistive load the phono preamplifier presents to the cartridge. (Of course, any resistance in the phono cables is beyond the

preamp’s control and would be added to this figure.) The optimal value is normally 47kΩ for moving magnet (MM) cartridges, and can range from about 3Ω to 47kΩ for moving coils (MC).

Specifically, we include precision resistor values of 3.3Ω, 5.0Ω, 7.7Ω, 10Ω, 33Ω, 50Ω, 77Ω, 100Ω, 330Ω, and 47kΩ, plus a set of gold-plated terminals that may be used for accessing some “other,” custom value of your choice. You would do so by placing a precision resistor across these terminals located inside each of the phono modules, tightening the screws down, and then selecting other in the R Load menu item.

The best choice for resistive loading is whatever sounds the best with your MC cartridge—you cannot damage a cartridge by playing at the “wrong” resistance. With the Nº32, for the first time, you can make this determination in real time, from your listening position, using the re- mote control to access this menu item.