Yamaha MX600 Power Amp Questions

TN_Polk_Lover

I bought a Yamaha MX600 2 channel power amp off of ebay and just received it yesterday. I also bought an Adcom GTP 500 II tuner / pre-amp to use with it. (Pre-amp came last week) I've ordered some Audioquest Sidewinder interconnects from needledoctor but I won't have them until another day or two.

I've connected the Power amp to my RTi70's. Here are my questions:

1) How should I set the 2 left and right level control knobs on the amp? The manual says that they can be used to balance the system or to protect speakers that can't handle the full output of the amp. The amp is rated at 135 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 190 watts into 4 ohms.

2) This amp (as well as my Yamaha R9 Receiver) have binding posts which won't really accept spade lugs because of the plastic shield that is around the knob. They will only accept a bare wire through a slot that is cut into the plastic shield. Has anyone tried taking a fine tooth saw or sharp knife to cut away the shield so that a spade lug will work?

unc2701

1)Generally speaking, you can crank them. Unless you find yourself only using a very narrow range of the volume knob on the pre-amp there's no reason not to have those wide open. If you notice distortion, bring them back some.

2)Before you take a knife to them, try unscrewing them all the way (take the knobs off entirely) and see if the spades will go in coming straight down from the top. That failing, a dremel works great (yeah, I've done that). As for other options, I'd say a coping saw is your next best bet... I imagine razor knife will work, but you'll have to do a lot of whittling and it won't look very pro. Alternatively, just get some new binding posts from partsexpress.com