maxing the balance means having the loudest parts at 127 and balancing the rest down from there as appropriate, not having every slider at 127 since that is no longer a 'balance'. Technics chose their settings to avoid clipping which is horrible in digital transfer since the dynamic range of the voices is large. The downside is some normalisation is needed, but the idea that you can produce a recording as good as a cd without any of the many technical tweaks that go into the making of a cd is rather naive.