Mark Levinson No 30.6 Owners manual
Owner’s Manual
Nº30.6
Reference
Digital
Processor
Madrigal Audio Laboratories
R
WARNING: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRIC SHOCK, DO
NOT EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE TO RAIN OR MOISTURE.
CAUTION
RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK
DO NOT OPEN
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO
NOT REMOVE COVER. NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE.
REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL.
The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert
the user to the presence of uninsulated “dangerous voltage” within the product’s enclosure that
may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons.
The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence
of important operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the literature accompanying
the appliance.
Marking by the “CE” symbol (shown left) indicates compliance of this device with the EMC
(Electromagnetic Compatibility) and LVD (Low Voltage Directive) standards of the European
Community.
NOTICE
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to
Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency
energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to
radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television reception, which can be
determined by turning the equipment on and off, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by
one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna;
• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver;
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected;
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
CAUTION: Changes or modifications to this equipment not expressly approved by the manufacturer could
void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.
The information contained in the manual is subject to change without notice. The most current version of this
manual will be posted on our web site at http://www.madrigal.com.
Important Safety Instructions
Please read all instructions and precautions carefully and completely before operating your Mark
®
Levinson
digital processor.
1. ALWAYS disconnect your entire system from the AC mains before connecting or dis-
connecting any cables, or when cleaning any component.
2. This product must be terminated with a three-conductor AC mains power cord which
includes an earth ground connection. To prevent shock hazard, all three connections
must ALWAYS be used.
3. AC extension cords are not recommended for use with this product.
4. NEVER use flammable or combustible chemicals for cleaning audio components.
5. NEVER operate this product with any covers removed.
6. NEVER wet the inside of this product with any liquid.
7. NEVER pour or spill liquids directly onto this unit.
8. NEVER block air flow through ventilation slots or heatsinks.
9. NEVER bypass any fuse.
10. NEVER replace any fuse with a value or type other than those specified.
11. NEVER attempt to repair this product. If a problem occurs, contact your Mark
Levinson
12. NEVER expose this product to extremely high or low temperatures.
13. NEVER operate this product in an explosive atmosphere.
14. ALWAYS keep electrical equipment out of the reach of children.
15. ALWAYS unplug sensitive electronic equipment during lightning storms.
®
retailer.
From all of us at Madrigal Audio Laboratories, thank you for choosing your Mark
Levinson Nº30.6 Reference Digital Processor.
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A great deal of effort went into the design and construction of this precision device. Used
properly, it will give you many years of enjoyment.
Table of Contents
Unpacking and Placement .........................................................6
Unpacking the Nº30.6 ........................................................................ 6
Placement of the Nº30.6 .................................................................... 6
Operating Voltage..................................................................... 7
A Quick Start… .......................................................................... 8
Break-in period ................................................................................... 9
Special Design Features ........................................................... 10
Powerful DSP ................................................................................... 10
“24/96” & HDCD® ........................................................................... 10
An Intelligent FIFO™ ........................................................................ 10
Superior isolation between sources ................................................... 11
Fully balanced design ....................................................................... 12
HDCD® Gain-Matching ............................................................ 13
Front panel, Nº30.6 ................................................................ 15
Display, Nº30.6 .......................................................................19
Rear panel, Nº30.6 .................................................................. 21
Male XLR output connector (digital) ................................................ 21
Linking connections ....................................................................... 22
Building link cables ........................................................................ 23
Female XLR input connector (digital) .............................................. 24
Male XLR output connector (digital) ................................................ 24
Rear panel, PLS-330 ................................................................ 26
AC power cord polarity .................................................................. 27
Setup and Installation .............................................................28
Nº30.6 Input Names......................................................................... 28
Making Digital Connections .............................................................. 28
Making Analog Connections ............................................................. 29
Making Link Connections .................................................................. 30
Making Power Supply Connections ................................................... 30
Naming Your Inputs .......................................................................... 30
Linked functions ..................................................................... 33
Record link ....................................................................................... 33
Standby link ..................................................................................... 33
Alias link ........................................................................................... 34
Play link............................................................................................ 34
Display Link ...................................................................................... 34
Polarity link....................................................................................... 34
HDCD Link ....................................................................................... 34
Troubleshooting ...................................................................... 35
Care and maintenance ............................................................. 37
U.S. and Canadian Warranty .................................................... 38
90-Day Limited Warranty .................................................................. 38
Five Year Extended Warranty ............................................................ 38
Obtaining Service .................................................................... 39
Specifications .......................................................................... 40
Dimensions ............................................................................. 41
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Unpacking and Placement
Unpacking the Nº30.6 Unpack your Nº30.6 Reference Digital Processor and PLS-330 Power
Supply and remove all accessories from the cartons. Keep all packing
materials for future transport.
Included with your new Mark Levinson processor is a pair of knit,
white gloves designed to assist you in the initial unpacking and placement of your new purchase. Please accept them as a token of our appreciation for having purchased one of our products.
Placement of the Nº30.6 The Nº30.6 should be placed as close as possible to your digital source
equipment, thus keeping interconnect cabling short. We strongly recommend shelf mounting to allow for proper ventilation. The Nº30.6 is
designed for continuous operation, which is why it features a standby
mode rather than a full “off” mode—it is designed to be connected to
the AC mains at all times for the best performance.
Three DC cables are provided to connect the PLS-330 to the Nº30.6.
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Their lengths allow you to place the PLS-330 so that it won’t induce
hum in the Nº30.6 and other sensitive components. (The best location
for the PLS-330 is often near the floor, since it does not require any day
to day user interaction). Other associated equipment should also be
placed so that it doesn’t induce hum in the Nº30.6 and other sensitive
components.
Be sure to allow 3 to 4 inches of clearance above both the Nº30.6 and
the PLS-330, to allow heat dissipation through air circulation.
Drawings are included in this manual to facilitate special installations
and custom cabinetry (see “Dimensions”).
Operating Voltage
The PLS-330 is set at the factory (internally) for 100V, 120V, 220V,
230V, or 240V AC mains operation at either 50 or 60Hz. (230V/50Hz
only in European Union countries, in compliance with CE regulations.)
This voltage setting cannot be changed by the user. Make sure that the
label on the rear panel of the PLS-330 (above the AC cord) indicates
the correct AC operating voltage for your location.
If the voltage indicated on your PLS-330 is incorrect, or if you wish to
change the AC operating voltage of your Nº30.6/PLS-330 as the result
of moving to a different country than the one in which you purchased
your digital audio processor, see your Mark Levinson dealer.
The Nº30.6/PLS-330 can be powered by a normal 15-ampere AC mains
line. If other devices are also powered from the same AC line, their additional power consumption should be taken into account.
For optimal sonic performance and longevity, the Nº30.6 is designed to
remain powered at all times (the
processor’s outputs and turns off the display). There is an initial breakin period of approximately 300 hours before the Nº30.6 achieves optimum performance.
standby switch merely mutes the
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A Quick Start…
We recognize that many people are understandably eager to begin listening to their new components, and that reading the manual is often
done (if at all) at a later time—perhaps while listening to music
through the new product itself. We strongly recommend that you read
this manual thoroughly, as the Nº30.6 Reference Digital Audio Processor incorporates several unusual features which enhance its operation.
Fortunately, we can help you get some music up and running on your
system quickly, so that you may begin enjoying your new digital to analog converter while reading more about it. The goal here is simply to
make some music as quickly as possible.
The following procedure assumes that the rest of your system is already
connected (e.g., preamplifier to power amplifier, to speakers, etc.).
1 Turn off your associated components
This minimizes the opportunity for a momentary electrical surge
disturbing your system while making connections. If you have a
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large power amplifier, allow its power supply to fully discharge before proceeding (which may take as long as several minutes).
2 Connect a digital source to either input 1 or 5
Inputs 1 and 5 on the Nº30.6 are configured from the factory for
CD transports, the most common type of digital transport. Input
1 is an AES/EBU (XLR-type) digital input; Input 5 is an S/PDIF (RCAtype) digital input. These digital inputs are found on the rear of
the center section of the Nº30.6. Use high quality digital cable
such as Madrigal MDC-1 for XLR-type, or MDC-2 for RCA-type
connections.
3 Connect a set of analog outputs to your preamplifier
The Nº30.6 has two identical sets of balanced (XLR) analog outputs and one set of single-ended (RCA) outputs. They are found
on the two towers (which house the analog circuitry). As viewed
from the front, the left tower contains the Left channel and the
right tower contains the Right channel. Use high quality cable
such as Madrigal CZ Gel.
4 Connect the power supply leads from the PLS-330 to the
Nº30.6
There are three power supply leads which run from the rear of the
PLS-330 to the rear of the Nº30.6. The analog DC cables for the
left channel and the right channel towers use special five-pin connectors on both ends. The digital DC cable for the center section
uses a two conductor connector at each end. These cables are not
directional.
5 Connect the AC cord to the PLS-330 and to your AC outlet
The AC recepticle for the power cord is located underneath the
PLS-330, in the center of the unit. (This design reduces noise by
bringing the power into the chassis precisely where it is needed,
rather than routing it throughout the unit.) The Nº30.6 will take a
few moments to initialize and will then be ready to use.
6 Select the input you are using by pressing its front panel
button
7 Turn on the other components; slowly raise the volume
Congratulations! You should now be able to enjoy your favorite
music while reading the rest of this manual.
Break-in period Although your Mark Levinson Nº30.6 digital processor delivers out-
standing performance straight out of the box, you should expect to
hear it continue to improve as it reaches its normal operating temperatures and its various components “break-in.” It has been out experience
that the greatest changes occur within the first 25-50 hours, but that
the Nº30.6 will continue to improve in sound quality for about 300
hours, after which time it remains quite constant.
The only exception to this rule is if power is removed from the unit for
an extended period, allowing it to cool down. In this case you should
expect a brief warm-up period before the Nº30.6’s sound quality is at
its best.
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Special Design Features
Congratulations on your purchase of the Nº30.6 Reference Digital Audio Processor. The Madrigal design team is confident you will enjoy the
outstanding performance of the Nº30.6 for many years. In case you are
interested in technical details, what follows is a brief outline of some of
the key technologies in your new processor.
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Powerful DSP Your Nº30.6 employs four powerful SHARC
to deliver exceptional flexibility and versatility. Together, they form a
single DSP “engine” that can handle the myriad of processing duties
required in today’s rapidly-changing world of digital audio. These duties include decoding HDCD™ and “24/96” decoding, and may be expanded to include many other signal formats over time.
“24/96” & HDCD
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In addition to the common 16 bit at either 44.1 and 48 kHz sampling
rates used by digital sources such as CD and DAT, your Nº30.6 also
supports the two channel 24-bit/96 kHz signal that was defined as part
of the DVD-Video standard (and which will certainly be included as
part of a larger DVD-Audio standard when the industry agrees to such
a thing). As of the writing of this manual, such “24/96” material is just
beginning to become available, and we expect availability to grow
quickly over time.
In addition to true 24-bit capability, the Nº30.6 also incorporates High
Definition Compatible Digital® decoding to take full advantage of the
increased resolution available from HDCD-encoded 16-bit CDs. The
High Definition Compatible Digital® format retains much of the resolution inherent in professional twenty bit recordings, by encoding this
information more efficiently within the sixteen bit space available
within the Compact Disc format.
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digital signal processors
An Intelligent FIFO™ Unlike previous processors which were highly dependent on the quality
of the digital signal they were fed, the Nº30.6 Reference Digital Audio
Processor delivers outstanding performance with even less-than-ideal
digital signals.
“FIFO” stands for “First In, First Out.” It describes a simple buffer in
which the digital information is stored temporarily on its way to being
converted to analog. Just as a large water tower can provide a steady
source of water to a small town, despite hour-to-hour variations in the
supply of water from the well, a FIFO can provide a steady, consistent
source of digital data to the converters which are responsible for changing that data into music. Even if there is significant “jitter” (inconsis-
tencies in timing) in the incoming digital information, the output of
the FIFO is controlled by a special clock with tremendous accuracy.
The result largely eliminates the jitter and allows the musical information to be reproduced cleanly, without jitter-induced distortions.
The trouble with most FIFOs lies in their behavior when the incoming
signal is poor enough to cause the “water tank” to overflow or to be
emptied. Normally, a FIFO would then have to “invent” false data to fill
the gap, throw away excess data, or revert to non-FIFO operation. None
of these approaches are acceptable.
Of course, you could simply use an extremely large buffer. Unfortunately, this solution is a poor one.
A larger buffer implies a longer delay between when information goes
in and when it starts coming back out. With laserdiscs, for example,
you must keep the in/out delay small so as to keep the soundtrack synchronized with the picture on the screen. An oversized buffer would
make every movie’s audio out of step with its video, an unacceptable
situation. It is possible to bypass the FIFO for movies, but you then lose
all of its distortion-reducing benefits.
Superior isolation
between sources
Madrigal engineers have developed a proprietary buffer management
scheme which reduces reproduced jitter to less than 20 picoseconds
while maintaining the synchronization of sound and picture in movies.
It employs a buffer large enough to absorb the jitter found in transports of reasonable quality, yet small enough to have impreceptible delay. The rate at which data is released from the FIFO buffer is controlled by software to track the long-term data rate of the incoming signal, allowing the buffer to absorb all the short-term variations which
cause sonic degradation. This approach yields a “smart” FIFO buffering
scheme which rejects virtually all incoming jitter without requiring an
enormous buffer and the consequent audible delay. It also avoids the
sonic penalties associated with the usual strategies used when a buffer
overflows or empties.
The Intelligent FIFO operates at all sampling rates, improving the quality of every connected digital source component.
One of the advantages of a separate digital audio processor is that you
can take the money which might have otherwise been spent on several
built-in D/A converters and put it into one, superior processor which
will enhance the performance of all the transports with which it is
used. Ironically, many outboard processors fail to live up to this potential due to interference between their various digital inputs.
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The Nº30.6 provides outstanding isolation between its inputs, realizing
the full potential of the various digital transports with which it is used.
In fact, every source has its own dedicated digital interface receiver. As a
result, the selected input effectively has the Nº30.6 “all to itself ” for its
conversion to analog.
Fully balanced design The Nº30.6 is fully balanced in both the analog and digital domains. All
digital filtering and processing is implemented in a balanced configuration, and conversion to analog is accomplished in two opposing polarity 24-bit converters per channel.
This approach maintains the integrity of the signal, reducing the opportunities for music-destroying noise and digital artifacts to enter the
signal path.
We strongly recommend the use of quality balanced interconnects such
as Madrigal’s CZ Gel-1 for the best performance. The improvements
are both measurable and readily audible.
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HDCD® Gain-Matching
Some HDCD-encoded recordings are mastered at a level which is noticeably lower (6 dB) than conventional recordings, to allow for greater dynamic peaks. To avoid unexpected changes in average volume when going
from one disc to another, the Nº30.6 can automatically reduce the volume
of all recordings by six decibels. To remind you of of when it is in this
mode of operation, the Nº30.6 will display the input’s name and “
” when locking on a digital input signal in the HDCD AUTO mode.
PAD
In our listening tests, we have determined that the only sonically transparent gain-matching technique is to raise the volume of the preamplifier by
the requisite 6 dB when playing those few discs that require it. All other de-
sign options introduce a compromise in sound quality.
For Best Performance: We strongly recommend that you use the HDCD
MANUAL gain-matching in your Nº30.6 digital audio
processor.
6 dB
If you are using the Nº30.6 with a Mark Levinson preamplifier, simply
name the appropriate input on the preamplifier “No30” (explained in the
preamp manual), and connect the two products with a Communications
Link cable. (If you have a Nº32 Reference Preamplifier, you can select the
name “Nº30.6,” since that preamp has enough extra characters to show the
entire name of the processor.) When you have done so, the Nº30.6 will tell
the preamplifier to change its volume setting as necessary to compensate
for differing CD mastering techniques, and you never have to think about
it. (The preamp’s display will show “HD+6” to indicate a change required by
the HDCD recording being played through the Nº360S; it will revert to normal and show “HD+0” when you return to conventional recordings. Older
Nº38 and Nº38S preamplifiers may require a new EPROM to take advantage
of this feature.) This technique ensures that you always get the best possible
sound from your system, without any unexpected changes in level, regardless of the recordings you play.
If you are using the Nº30.6 with any other preamplifier, follow the steps
below. (You will have to adjust the volume on some HDCD recordings
manually.)
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1 Press and hold the digital record select button on the front
panel
After a few seconds, the display will change to show NAME= and the
current name of the selected input. When you let go, it will still show
NAME= and the current name of the input. (Ignore this for now. You’ll
learn how to rename your inputs to match your sources later on in this
manual.)
2 press the polarity button so the display shows “HDCD
MANual”
Repeatedly pressing the polarity button will toggle the display between “
its volume on conventionally-mastered discs) and “
HDCD AUTO” (meaning that the Nº360S automatically lowers
HDCD MANUAL”
(meaning that gain-matching is turned off; HDCD-encoded discs will
still be decoded properly). If you try to change from one to the other
while a Nº380 is Linked, the Nº30.6 will display “No38 ACTIVE!”
(indicating that the equipment already knows what to do).
Using manual gain-matching ensures that the HDCD digital filter always operates at its maximum resolution, although you may now have
to manually turn up the volume on some HDCD recordings, beyond
your usual settings.
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