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Owner’s Manual
Nº40
Media
Console
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Important Safety Instructions 1. Read these instructions 2. Keep these instructions. 3. Heed all warnings. 4. Follow all instructions. 5. Do not use this apparatus near water. 6. Clean only with a dry cloth. 7. Do not block ventilation openings. Install in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. 8. Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or another apparatus that produces heat. 9. Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or grounding-typ
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FCC Notice This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pur- suant 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
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Table of Contents Section 1: Getting Started Document Conventions ....................................................1-1 Special Design Features ...................................................1-2 Modular Design ................................................................ 1-2 Extraordinary Flexibility ..................................................... 1-2 No-compromise Audio ...................................................... 1-4 THX Ultra2™ Processing .............................
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Table of Contents Mark Levinson Section 3: Rear Panel Operation Video Processor Rear Panel ............................................. 3-1 Composite Inputs ..............................................................3-2 Video Input Expansion ......................................................3-3 S-Video Inputs ...................................................................3-3 Component Inputs ............................................................3-3 Video Input Expansion .......
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Nº40 Media Console Table of Contents Standby button ................................................................ 4-6 Battery Compartment ....................................................... 4-6 Section 5: Menu System Overview .........................................................................5-1 Navigating The Menus ...................................................... 5-2 The About... Screen .........................................................5-5 System Locked/Unlocked ......
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Table of Contents Mark Levinson Surround Options ...........................................................5-51 Output Zones Menu ...................................................... 5-53 Main Zone Name ............................................................5-53 Default Video System ......................................................5-54 Component Options .......................................................5-54 Message Position ......................................................
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Getting Started 1 Document Conventions This document contains general safety, installation and operation instructions for the Nº40Reference Preamplifier Phono Modules. It is important to read this document before attempting to use this product. Please pay particular attention to safety instructions. Appears on the component to indicate the presence of non-insulated, dangerous voltages inside the enclosure – voltages that may be sufficient to consti- tute a risk of shock. Appears on the comp
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Getting Started Mark Levinson Special Design Features As seen from the rear panel, perhaps the most obvious characteris- Modular Design tic of the Nº40 is its extraordinary modularity. Both the audio processor and the video processor are built on “card cage” designs that maximize hardware flexibility now and in the future. While more costly than an “everything on one board” approach, the extensive modularity of the Nº40's design is the best and most logical response to the rapidly-changing
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Nº40 Media Console Getting Started stereo analog outputs, a digital audio output, and a zone- specific IR input for control purposes 2 PHASTLink™-compatible communications ports 2 RS-232 communications ports 3 programmable DC triggers 1 main zone infrared input jack Of course, an expandable, modular design does little good without some room for expansion. So, on top of all this standard capability, we have left several “slots” open in each processor for future appli- cations, which may
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Getting Started Mark Levinson Sound profiles capture the many characteristics you can define for a particular activity, and make them available at the push of a button. In fact, you can even set up the Nº40 so that you need not even push the button. Instead, you can associate a profile with either a particular type of audio signal (for example, 96 kHz PCM, Dolby Digital, etc.) or with a particular input (for example, CD, VCR, DVD, etc.). With a little creativity, you can readily have the s
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Nº40 Media Console Getting Started Significantly, this remarkably effective jitter-rejection circuitry is used for all digital signals, on all paths. Remote and record zones also benefit from the sonic improvements of the Intelligent FIFO. Digital processing Digital processing of the signal in the main zone is performed by four powerful SHARC DSP chips. These DSPs perform 32-bit fixed point processing as well as 32-bit and 40-bit floating point process- ing. This compares rather favorably wi
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Getting Started Mark Levinson Digital to analog conversion Digital to analog conversion is also done at an extraordinarily high level, as you would expect. The main zone uses a special Levinson- developed implementation of the Analog Devices AD1853, a new multibit Sigma/Delta converter. In fact, each of the eight main output channels uses two fully balanced channels of these DACs, in a dual differential configuration. The output of these DACs is then converted from current back to a voltage
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Nº40 Media Console Getting Started Movie sound tracks are mixed in special movie theaters called dubbing stages, and are designed to be played back in movie theatres with similar equipment and conditions. This same sound track is then transferred directly onto Laserdisc, VHS tape, DVD, etc., and is not changed for playback in a small home theater environment. THX engineers developed patented technologies to accurately translate the sound from the movie theater environment into the home, c
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Getting Started Mark Levinson In a movie theater, film sound tracks that have been encoded with Dolby Digital Surround EX technology are able to reproduce an extra channel which has been added during the mixing of the program. This channel, called Surround Back, places sounds behind the listener in addition to the currently available front left, front center, front right, surround right, surround left and subwoofer channels. This additional channel provides the opportunity for more detail
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Nº40 Media Console Getting Started BGC (Boundary Gain Compensation) If your chosen listening position results in most of the listeners being close to the rear wall, the resulting bass level can be suffi- ciently reinforced by the boundary that the overall sound quality “booms” too much. THX Ultra2 provides the Boundary Gain Compensation (BGC) feature to provide an improved bass balance. THX Ultra2™ Before any home theater component can be THX Ultra2 certified, it must incorporate all the fe
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Getting Started Mark Levinson The analog backplane, as discussed, rivals the finest matrix switch- ers used in the professional video world. In addition, the Nº40 has a standard definition digital video back- plane, and a dedicated high definition digital video backplane. The standard definition digital video backplane is used for routing transcoded video signals within the Nº40 (more in a moment), and for our digital graphic user interface. In all, there are over 2000 “nets” (connections)
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Nº40 Media Console Getting Started Installation Considerations The Nº40 Media Console requires special care during installation to ensure optimal performance. Pay particular attention to instruc- tions included in this section and to precautions included throughout this owner’s manual. The Nº40 Media Console is a two-component system, each dedi- Unpacking cated to state of the art switching and processing of video and audio, respectively. These two components are shipped in separate boxes to
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