Harman Kardon AX20 Owners Manual - Page 8
TECHNICAL, EXPLANATIONS, CONTROLS, Treble, Loudness, Control, Contour, Switch, Balance
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TECHNICAL EXPLANATIONS OF THE CONTROLS Since a stereo preamplifier is actually two preamplifiers in one, the number of operating controls would normally be doubled. This would make operation unnecessarily cumbersome. For convenience the duplicate controls are mechanically tied together, or ganged, to. be operated by one knob, Bass and Treble: The BASS and TREBLE controls on the Model AX20 provide the full range of tonal adjustment necessary for high fidelity listening. These controls can either boost or cut the bass and treble tones of the stereo system. The controls should be set in accordance with your hearing preference, speaker characteristics and room acoustics. Loudness Control: This control adjusts the volume level of any program material fed into your stereo system. Its effect can be modified by the CONTOUR switch. Contour Switch: One of the limitations of human hearing is its tendency to lose sensitivity to the very low pitched sounds, as the program sound level is reduced. It is this characteristic (known as the Fletcher-Munson effect) which causes one to play music programs at high listening level in order to experience the full rich tone • available from fine modern recordings. The Harman-Kardon CONTOUR switch compensates for the FIetcher-Munson effect thus eliminating high listening levels as a requisite for full enjoyment of reproduced music. For low level listening throw the CONTOUR switch located on the front panel to the "ON" position. You will note how the low frequencies become more apparent while the volume level remains unchanged. Balance Control: The nature of stereo reproduction is such that it requires two identical channels to attain the highest degree of faithfulness and spatial distribution. Any variation in the efficiency of one channel as compared to the other will disturb this relationship. Since there may be slight differences between the two speakers, tape heads, etc., the AX20 includes a control to balance one channel against the other. Sufficient range is covered by this control to permit rebalancing of the overall system even in cases where major unbalance exists. It is entirely to be expected that this control will be set anywhere within its range to attain system balance. Whe❑ the BALANCE control is properly set, the: apparent sound source will lie in a broad area between the two speakers. When the BALANCE control is rotated to the right the sound will move to the right and when the control is rotated to the Ieft, the sound will move to the left. Mode Switch: The MODE switch selects between stereo operation, where a stereo program source is available, and monaural operation utilizing the full power of both channels and both speakers when the program source is monaural only.