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Boulder 1012 DAC Preamplifier Owners Manual 10/27/03 Boulder Amplifiers, Inc. 3235 Prairie Ave. Boulder, CO 80301 www.boulderamp.com BOULDER REMOTE GETTING APPENDIX RECORDING LINK PROGRAMMING CONTROL OPERATION STARTED
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B o u l d e r 1 0 1 2 D A C P r e a m p l i f i e r R e a r P a n e l
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TABLE OF CONTENTS GETTING STARTED Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Placement of the 1012 DAC Preamplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Connecting to the Mains Outlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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REMOTE CONTROL Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 Source Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Volume, Balance and Mute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Polarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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RECORDING Connecting a Recording Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1 APPENDIX Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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GETTING STARTED INTRODUCTION Congratulations on your selection of the Boulder 1012 DAC Preamplifier. We at Boulder Amplifiers are certain it will provide years of listening pleasure. QUICK START To get started listening, you only need to connect the 1012 as you would any other preamplifier, but you should take note of the following. WARNING: The polished volume control is attractive and because it is optical and has no stops, it is really tempting to just spin it around. DO THIS ONLY WITH
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PLACEMENT OF THE 1012 DAC PREAMPLIFIER Your Boulder 1012 DAC Preamplifier is designed to reduce the effects that external magnetic and radio fields (RF) have on its internal circuitry. While placement is not critical, known magnetic fields should be avoided. Line of sight from the listening position is necessary for the remote control to function properly. Because the preamplifier is heavy, a solid, stable surface should be used. As it will generate some heat, there should be good air circu
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CONNECTING TO THE MAINS OUTLET Your 1012 DAC Preamplifier is supplied with a mains cord suitable to the location where it was purchased. A label showing the exact voltage and frequency range is located on the rear panel. Make certain that the mains voltage used is with in the specifications shown. Also listed are the fuse ratings. There are two fuse holders on the rear of the 1012 which are for each of the digital and analog power transformers. Use only specified fuses. Check with qualified
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CONNECTING A DIGITAL SOURCE There are four digital inputs to the DSP and D/A Converter section of the 1012. Three inputs are the AES/EBU style. Because of the balanced nature of these connections, it is the preferred method of connection and should be used whenever available. With the 1012, one DABL digital adapter is supplied and may be plugged into any one of these inputs thus converting it to RCA phono style SPDIF. Additional adapters are available if more than one input needs conversio
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POLARITY Please note that the 1012 DAC Preamplifier conforms to the standard of pin 2 as the high or hot pin for all analog balanced inputs and outputs. Because input and output polarities are handled through programming setups and the remote control, no concern for polarity is needed while connecting sources. Digital connectors have no polarity. CONNECTING A BALANCED ANALOG SOURCE To fully realize the sonic potential of your 1012 DAC Preamplifier, use balanced connections whenever possible
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CONNECTING AN UNBALANCED ANALOG SOURCE Although the inputs are all of the 3 pin type, an unbalanced source is easily accommodated by using a special cable. This cable has an RCA phono type connector on the source end and a 3 pin connector for going to an input on the 1012 DAC Preamplifier. The minus input (pin 3) should be wired to ground only at the RCA phono connector. This brings the minus input reference of the 1012 to the unbalanced source ground, thus reducing ground loops. Another op
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CONNECTING A TURNTABLE Balanced inputs are provided for connecting a turntable to the 1012. To avoid hum pickup in the cabling, it is important to follow these instructions. Do not connect pin 1 (chassis/ground) to either pin 2 or 3 at any point in the cable, turntable chassis, or tonearm. Pins 2 and 3 must only connect directly to the cartridge pins. This can be accomplished by several wiring schemes shown on the next page. Do not use the Boulder ABL input adapter or other RCA Phono to XL
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PHONO CABLES CARTRIDGE 1012 PHONO INPUT 2-POS INPUT 3-POS INPUT 1-POS INPUT TURNTABLE CHASSIS CHASSIS CARTRIDGE 1012 PHONO INPUT 2-POS INPUT 3-POS INPUT N.C. 1-POS INPUT TURNTABLE CHASSIS CHASSIS CARTRIDGE 1012 PHONO INPUT 2-POS INPUT 3-POS INPUT 1-POS INPUT TURNTABLE CHASSIS CHASSIS 1-8 GETTING STARTED
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CONNECTING TO A BALANCED INPUT AMPLIFIER With your 1012 DAC Preamplifier’s balanced output driving a balanced input power amplifier, you can take sonic advantage of short speaker cables and correspondingly longer input cables. With the 1012’s low output impedance, distances of more than 50 meters between preamplifier and power amplifier are practical. Connect each amplifier input to the main outputs labeled “MAIN OUT.” If it is desired to use 2 or more amplifiers such as in bi-amping, spli
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CONNECTING TO AN UNBALANCED INPUT AMPLIFIER A special cable is required to make this connection. This cable connects pin 1 to the shield and pin 2 to the center pin. It leaves the output pin 3 unconnected. Connecting the unused output pin (usually pin 3) to ground will cause excessive ground currents and degrade performance. Use an ohmmeter or continuity checker to determine how a cable is wired. UNBALANCED OUTPUT CABLE LINE 2-POS OUTPUT PREAMP 3-NEG OUTPUT INPUT 1-GROUND 1-10 GETTING STARTE
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SETTING THE BOULDERLINK SWITCH Set the Boulderlink MASTER / SLAVE switch to MASTER. For more information on Boulderlink, see the Boulderlink section as indicated by the finger tabs below. 1-11 GETTING STARTED
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OPERATION POWERING UP With all your connections made, you are ready to listen to your Boulder 1012 DAC Preamplifier. The power LED will cycle through a variety of colors indicating a standby mode. Power is applied only to the microprocessor during this mode. Press the POWER button to turn on the 1012. The indicator will change to amber and power will be applied to the analog audio section. If a digital input was previously selected, power will also be applied to the DSP, D/A Converter, and
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INPUT SELECTIONS To select an analog input, press one of the ANALOG pushbuttons labeled ONE, TWO, THREE or PHONO. The respective input will be shown in the display and that signal will be routed to both the main and record outputs. For example, if input ONE is chosen, “A1. ANALOG INPUT 1” will show in the display. NOTE: There will be a 1 second delay when switching from one source to another. This is necessary to allow the circuitry to adjust to the new input source. 2-2 OPERATION
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To select a digital input, press one of the DIGITAL pushbuttons labeled ONE through FOUR. For a few seconds, the input sample rate of the source and the Upandoversampling™ rate out of the DSP will be shown. For example, a regular CD will show “INPUT RATE 44.1kHz, OUTPUT RATE 705.6kHz.” The “INPUT RATE” is the rate at which the 1012 receives data from the source. The “OUTPUT RATE” is the rate at which the 1012’s Digital Signal Processor (DSP) sends data to the converters. The ratio of these
