8
9
Operation:
You can place the X Phono anywhere you wish. There are however practical
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considerations to placement that have the potential of enhancing performance.
Phono cartridges and associated wiring are by design very subject to ill effects from
electromagnet pollution. The X Phono has the potential for very high gain and
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exceptional resolution, and it is not capable of discriminating between music and spurious
noise as a result of location.
It is therefore advantageous to place your turntable in an area as free from electrical noise
as possible. It is additionally advantageous to transfer the signal as cleanly and directly as
possible from the phono-cartridge to X Phono by as short a path as possible. A path
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removed from the in
fl
uence of
power lines and large power supplies. Careful
AC
placement in this regard will pay sonic dividends.
When attaching cables to the Xs Phono or any audio device, the
connection to house
AC
power should be the last connection made and the
fi
rst removed.
Once you have the X Phono control chassis and power supply chassis in place you may
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connect them with the two supplied Powercon
™
terminated umbilical cables. These
cables are non directional. The power
receptacles on the chassis are identical, one
CON
for left and one for right, it doesn't matter which one is which.
Insert the power
terminated cable end into the matching chassis socket, rotate the
CON
cable end clockwise till the connector locks the cable into place. You should be able to
hear and feel the connector lock, make sure it does. To remove a connector, pull back on
the locking tab, rotate the cable end counter-clockwise 1/8 turn and remove.
The X Phono has 3 pairs of
inputs and will accept 1-3 tone-arms. The inputs area
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RCA
laid out on the back of the control chassis in blocks, Right Channel and Left channel. All
inputs are identical. Each input has an auxiliary ground connection (white binding post).
It is generally a good idea to connect this ground to your turntable. If you have multiple
tone-arms on one table then some experimentation with grounds may be required for
lowest noise.
The X Phono will output either a balanced or a single ended signal. Theoretically the
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balanced connection holds promise of transmitting signal from the X Phono to the line-
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stage with the lowest noise
fl
oors. Depending upon your line stage you may wish to try
both. There is no reason that the Xs-phono could not drive two devices simultaneously as
for example a line-stage and an A/D converter.
Presuming the umbilical power cables, analog input and output are all connected, go ahead
and connect to the
mains at this time. Please verify the line voltage at your location
AC
with the label on the back of the X Phono stage.
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The X Phono has no power switch, it's designed to be always be powered up. You should
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see a power
On the supply and lamps around the loading switches on the control
LED
chassis. If you do not then check the fuse on the power supply rear panel. The value of
the required fuse is printed on the rear of the power supply. In all instances the fuse will
be a type 3
/ Littlefuse series 313 (1/4" x 1-1/4") (6.3mm x 31.8mm) glass fuse.
AG
When you plug the Xs Phono into house power it takes upwards of 60 seconds for the
unit to reach operational status. When the mute
goes dark, the X Phono is fully
LED
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operational.
Adjustment and Loading:
The X Phono allows: Resistive loading between 30 ohms and 47k-ohms, capacitive
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loading between 100pF and 750pF, Gain between 56dB and 76dB, and high pass function
from the front panel of the control unit. The active value will always be indicated by a lit
LED.
Cartridge loading and gain is a compromise between what works best for the cartridge and
what sounds best in your system.
Start with a dynamic recording, the manufacturers suggested resistive loading, 100pf and
56 dB gain. If the gain seems low, increase it to 66 dB, if you start hearing distortion of
the loudest notes, reduce the gain. Listening to a wide variety of music try increasing or
decreasing the resistive loading. As you change the settings it will either sound better or
worse. Do not decide on a setting based upon only one recording.
When you decide upon a setting press the "save" button. This will allow you to return to a
favorite suite of settings. You may save settings for inputs 1, 2 and 3.
Use of the high pass
fi
lter is optional, it adds a 3dB roll off at 20 Hz to minimize low
frequencies, otherwise low frequency extension is to below 5 Hz.
Once a setting is saved you may return to it by pressing the input selection button;
however the front panel controls are always active and may be used to slightly compensate
for less than ideal recordings without losing the saved settings.