Black Cube SE II High End MM/MC phono stage manual
Valued customer, Congratulations for buying the Lehmannaudio Black Cube SE II phono RIAA preamplifier. The Black Cube SE II is manufactured in Germany using very high quality components and carefully constructed to give you many years of musical pleasure. This unit is made only for being inserted between a turntable‘s passive cartridge output and any audio amplifier‘s high level input.
- Do not place a container of water or any small metal object on top of the Black Cube SE II or the external power supply. If water is spilled or if the metal object gets inside, fire or electrical shock may result. This applies to vases, pottet plants, glasses, cosmetic bottles, medicine, etc. Do not change the setting of the dipswitches with any tools that consist of metal. - Do not damage, process, bend, twist, stretch or heat the power cord. If the cord is damaged,fire or electrical shock may result.
Technical details The passive filter network of the Black Cube SE II is located between two linear active amplifier stages. Phase errors that occur due to active filter designs are thereby eliminated. Low-loss, high precision WIMA MKP capacitors in the filter network and cor output coupling are responsible for very good localization and soundstage reproduction. There is a hard wire Slot for switch free addition of extra custom impedance.
Rear side (Connectors) 1. Ground connector If your turntable has a separate ground connection you can connect it here. - wire, open cable ends - cable shoes - 4mm banana plug 2. Input for the external PWX power supply. The external PWX power supply is connected through a 2m shielded cable with an original Neutrik 4-pin XLR connector on one end.
Switches/configuration DIP-Switches 1/2 (MM/MC-selection and input load) 1 2 3 4 On MC 1k *** 100R Off MM - - - Switch nr. 1 is for gain selection (36dB = MM; 56dB = MC) switches 2 to 4 are for input load selection. Switch nr. 3 activates the special impedance slot. Please note that you can select gain and impedance load independently.
Top view audio section inside 1. Sockets for hardwire impedance loads If you place resistors or capacitors at R102/R202 these parts are directly effective without any activation by a switch. These parts are always connected in parallel to the 47k input resistor, the 100pF input capacitor and any otherimpedance load activated by a switch. 2. Sockets for custom load If you place resistors or capacitors at R104/R204 these parts become effective by activating switch number 3 of sw101/sw201.
In case you activate the DC jumpers, the second filter stage (DIP-switches 5/6) cannot be used because the filter uses the output capacitor to determine the corner frequency. WARNING: When the output capacitors are bridged there can be DC offset voltage present at the SE II‘s output connectors. Please make sure that the following input stage is AC-coupled before activating the DC jumpers.
Adaption of input impedance You can change input impedance (resistive loading) and gain by using the onboard DIP-switches for each channel separately. These switches are accessible from the bottom of the unit. Input capacitance is always 100pF. You may change the setting of the switches withthe Black Cube SE II connected to mains voltage and even to your stereo system however in that case please first turn your volume knob to the minimum position because loud pops could occur during switching.
Technical Specs: MM MC Gain 1kHz: 36dB 56dB With activated high gain switch 46dB 66dB Max. input level 1kHz 1: 120mV 12mV Signal to noise ratio 2: 78dB 69dB Soft-Bass-Rolloff: 16 filter curves between 7Hz and 90Hz (-3dB point) Channel balance: Max. deviation of the stereo channels typ. 0,5dB Crosstalk: fx = 1 kHz <-86dB fx = 10 kHz <-80dB Input impedance: 47kOhms/1kOhms/100 Ohms switchable on board the audio PCB. One place for custom impedance on board the audio PCB.