Harman Kardon AVR 1565 Owners Manual - Page 17

AVR 1565/AVR 1566 Configure the AVR for Your Speakers Your AVR is flexible and may be configured to work with most speakers and to compensate for the acoustic characteristics of your room. Before beginning, place your loudspeakers as explained in the Place Your Speakers section, on page 10, and connect them to the AVR. Consult the owner's guide for the speakers or the manufacturer's Web site for their frequency-range specification. Although you may set the AVR's individual channel levels "by ear," an SPL (sound-pressure level) meter purchased at a local electronics store will provide greater accuracy. Record your configuration settings in Tables A4 and A6 in the Appendix for easy re-entry after a system reset or after the AVR's Master Power switch has been turned off or the unit has been unplugged for more than four weeks. Step One - Determine Your Speakers' Crossover Frequencies Consult the technical specifications for all of your speakers and locate the frequency response, usually given as a range, e.g., 100Hz - 20kHz (±3dB). Write down the lowest frequency that each of your speakers is capable of playing (100Hz in the above example) as the crossover in Table A6 in the Appendix. NOTE: This frequency is not the same as the crossover frequency listed in the speaker's specifications. For the subwoofer, write down the transducer size. The AVR's bass management determines which speakers will be used to play back the low-frequency (bass) portion of the source program. Sending the lowest notes to small satellite speakers will result in bad sound and may even damage the speakers. The highest notes may not be heard at all through the subwoofer. With proper bass management, the AVR divides the source signal at a crossover point. All information above that crossover point is played through your system's speakers, and all information below the crossover point is played through the subwoofer. This way, each loudspeaker in your system will perform at its best, delivering a more powerful and enjoyable sound experience. Step Two - Measure the Speaker Distances Ideally, all of your speakers would be placed in a circle, with the listening position at the center. However, you may have had to place some speakers a little farther away from the listening position than others. Sounds that are supposed to arrive simultaneously from different speakers may blur, due to different arrival times. Your AVR provides a Distance adjustment that compensates for these real-world speaker-placement differences. Measure the distance from each speaker to the listening position, and write it down in Table A4 in the Appendix. Even if all of your speakers are the same distance from the listening position, enter your speaker distances as described in Set the Speaker Distances, on this page. Step Three - Speaker Setup Menu Now you are ready to program the AVR. Sit in your usual listening position, and make the room as quiet as possible. With the AVR and video display turned on, press the OSD button to display the menu system and select Speaker Setup. The Speaker Setup menu will appear: * MANUAL SETUP * NUMBER OF SPEAKERS SUB MODE : SUB CROSSOVER DISTANCE LEVEL ADJUST BACK TO MASTER MENU Set Up the AVR, continued Select ON when the speakers are present in the system; select OFF for positions where no speakers are installed. The Front Left & Right setting is always ON and may not be disabled. * NUMBER OF SPEAKERS * LEFT/RIGHT CENTER SURROUND SUBWOOFER : : : : ON ON ON ON BACK TO MANUAL SETUP When you have finished, select Back to Speaker Setup. Crossover (Size) After you return to the Speaker Setup menu, navigate to the Crossover line and press the OK button to display the Crossover menu. * CROSSOVER * LEFT/RIGHT CENTER SURROUND SUBWOOFER : : : : 100Hz 100Hz 100Hz 10inch BACK TO MANUAL SETUP Refer to Table A6 for each speaker's crossover frequency. NOTE: The AVR will let you adjust settings only for those speaker groups you set to On in the Number of Speakers menu. For each speaker group, select one of these eight crossover frequencies: LARGE, 40Hz, 60Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz, 150Hz or 200Hz. If the speaker's crossover frequency is below 40Hz, select the first option, LARGE. This setting doesn't refer to the speaker's physical size but to its frequency response, which is also called "full range." Specify the size of the subwoofer's transducer as 8, 10, 12 or 15 inches. The AVR always sets the subwoofer crossover to 100Hz but uses the transducer size for equalization. Write down the settings in Table A6 in the Appendix. When you have finished entering the settings, select Back To Speaker Setup. Sub Mode After you return to the Manual Setup menu, navigate to the Sub Mode line and press the OK button to display the Sub Mode menu. This setting depends upon the Crossover setting you selected for the front left and right speakers. • If you set the front speakers to a numeric crossover frequency, the subwoofer setting will always be SUB. All low-frequency information will always be sent to the subwoofer. If you don't have a subwoofer, either upgrade to full-range front left and right speakers or add a subwoofer at the earliest opportunity. • If you set the front speakers to LARGE, select one of the three following settings for the subwoofer: L/R+LFE: This setting sends all low-frequency information to the subwoofer, including a) information that would normally be played through the front left and right speakers and b) the special low-frequency effects (LFE) channel information. OFF: Select this setting when no subwoofer is in use. All low-frequency information will be sent to the front left and right speakers. LFE: This setting plays low-frequency information contained in the left and right program channels through the front left and right speakers, and directs only the LFEchannel information to the subwoofer. When you have finished entering the settings, select Back To Speaker Setup. Set the Speaker Distances As described above in Step Two, when you measured the distances from each of your speakers to the listening position, your AVR provides an adjustment that compensates for the different distances so that the sound from each speaker will reach the listening position at the proper time. This process will improve the clarity and detail of the sound. NOTE: All of the speaker setup submenus include a "Back to..." option. To save the current settings, select the Back to...option. For best results, adjust the submenus in this order: Number of Speakers, Crossover, Sub Mode, Distance and Level Adjust. Number of Speakers This selection lets you program the correct setting for each speaker group. The settings in this menu affect the remainder of the speaker-setup process and the availability of various surround modes at any time. 17