Cary cad 120s bias meters ?

Thank Polk432 for the email that really settled things. The speakers I'm useing are the totem forest which the cary drives really well and which are perfectly paired for the cad 120s. I had a Sli- 80 which drove the forest more than loud enough. Though I did not want to by a sperate phonopreamp and wanted a bit more power for vinyl. Which the SLP-98 dose not lack with any cartridge. Also in the future the only thing I would ever upgrade again is the speakers to the totem metals or earths. which are the same specks as your Wilson's but have no crossover in the woofer. It's good to hear a person who has a SLP-98 for a long time and happy with it. Also who has had a honest opion and who knows to setup the preamp personally through your your experience "Polk432", and live with it for a long time. Then othere people thanks again"
Like the owner of totem acoustic Vince once said. "The quality of the watt is more important then how many watts. Sometimes less is more."

This is how Cary told me how to set your volume control sensitivity. Turm the left and right level controls counter clockwise to the null position. Set the master control knob to the 12:00 position. Play some music and slowly turn both the right and left level controls until the sound reaches your average in-room listening level. Using this method will give you a usable master volume control range which will give you the ability to make micro volume adjustments.

Jake. open your mail.

Congrats on the new Pre. Run the pre left and right volume controls full throtle. The louder you play the CAD 120S the more current it will draw. Playing loud especially in the ultra linear mode will PEG the meters at 200 ma. This is normal (not that I do it) and there is a protection circuit built into the metering circuit to prevent damage to the analog meters. This is according to the manual. It also states that PEGGING the meters is fun. The amp plays in class A up to 25 or 35 watts. 10 o'clock is pretty loud. Listen to some Wilson speakers on your set up if you can some day. Best o luck. You have made a wise purchase.

I tried that and turned the both input levesl all the way to half
Did not make much of a difference the meters start paging at 10 o'clock position. Though this is a single ended triode circuit design so don't they have a lot of incress in gain by the 10 o'clock position right."

Use the left and right line levels to give your master control volume knob a usable range. The way you have it set up now you run the risk of over driving your amp which could cause speaker damage.