How to set up a system?

To: b_limo,

I appreciate your advice and have already begun the search for a local expert,

To Jond: Thank you very much for your reply. I have since acquired an AR SP15 pre-amp & power supply,

Have someone knowledgable help you while explaining to you what he’s doing and why...

If you can find someone off this site close to you, they’d probably do it for next to nothing.  I ask for beer, pizza and $100, lol!

The beginning of your flow chart just says cd/phono what components are these? You have an excellent Dac you can run a cd transport into it if you have a digital cable. There is no mention of a preamp you will need one to control volume unless the 30.5 dac has a volume control. That still won't help you with phono you would need a preamp/phono stage to play records.

Thank you very much for your reply. I am unsure about where the ancillary components like power supply, processor and the crossovers come into play along the pathway of phono/amp/speaker and did not even anticipate the multitudes of connectors. I figured if I had a schematic I could screw this up in a more organized manner while waiting for things to start melting. Also have a Boothroyd Stuart Millenium CD player that is on the blink. Thinking about putting a sign on my car, "Audiopliles Forever", and see what happens.

Congrats! I suggest you begin a Virtual System here and post pics of your gear.

If the gear has Owner's Manuals, then they should guide you. If not, then perhaps some folks with vintage Levinson gear can help. I'm having trouble pulling up images on the Net of the backside of some of the components, so my comments must be taken as tentative, given that I do not have images or Owner's Manual.

A search on this site pulled up a thread that might be helpful:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/north-creek-b-w-801-crossovers-tried-them


Looks like the amps may have multiple output posts, which can be confusing. The easiest way to start is by using the Negative (typically black) lead connected to the Neg (-) post and the Positive (typically red) connected to one of the Positive (+) posts. It's usually recommended that you start with the positive lead on the output rating that matches your speaker's Ohm rating. i.e. if the speaker is 8 Ohms, then use the 8 Ohm red/positive post. This is done for each channel/amplifier, Left and Right. There are some diagrams online that show flowcharts of such connections.

So, it seems that the previous owner did an upgrade to the crossover, which normally resides inside the speakers. Looks like they bypassed the internal crossover and were using an external, higher quality one that hooks up to the speaker's inputs. So, the speaker cables that would normally attach to the speakers would go into the external, North Creek, crossover instead. That will necessitate two pair of speaker cables; one from the AR amps to the crossovers, and one from the North Creek crossovers to the speakers.

Also, when hooking up CD player you can use the Analogue outputs L/R to go into the processor/preamp. The player may have RCA (Single Ended) or XLR (Balanced) outputs, or both. Either will work if the Levinson processor accepts them. I couldn't find an image of the Levinson processor, so I'm working blind here, speaking in general terms of typical setups.

NOTE: The turntable will use the "PHONO" input. Do not put the outputs of the turntable L/R into anything but a Phono input. The Phono input on the Levinson processor may have a selectable MM/MC phono input. This pertains to the type of cartridge used with the turntable (Moving Magnet or Moving Coil). You will need to see what the cartridge make and model are, and select the proper setting on the processor.

You may wish to call a dealer nearby if you are scared to make the connections. Or, perhaps a local audiophile can help. It's well worth spending a couple bucks to have a dealer make a visit versus making a big mistake and a repair. :)