Harman Kardon CITATION I Owners Manual - Page 8

OPERATION Descripton of the Controls: Each control in a well designed and honestly considered high fidelity instrument has a specific useful func- tion. A brief explanatory note on the relationship of the various front panel controls will doubtless prove useful . in organizing and clarifying them for you. The Citation I Stereo Control Center front panel is clearly divided into four areas, each containing a group of functionally related controls. The square gold colored area at the right contains the LOUDNESS, FUNCTION, MODE and BALANCE controls. The upper rectangular gold area at the left contains the TURNOVER, ROLLOFF, BLEND and LOWCUT (filter) controls. The lower rectangular gold area contains a separate pair of BASS and TREBLE controls for each channel. The center vertical brown area contains the illuminated POWER switch and the less frequently used TAPE MON., CONTOUR, PHASING and STEREO REV. switches. Power Switch: The heavy duty rotary POWER switch controls the Citation I Preamplifier and all associated equipment, with the exception of the record player, which should be controlled by its own switch. The translucent POWER switch knob lights up when power is turned on. Loudness Control: The LOUDNESS control adjusts the volume level of any program material fed into your stereo system. It is a dual control, simultaneously adjusting both channels. 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 Fletcher-Munson effect, thus eliminating high listening levels as a requisite for full enjoyment of reproduced music. For low-level listening throw the CONTOUR switch either IN or OUT depending on your listening preference. You will note how the low frequencies become more apparent while the volume level remains unchanged when the CONTOUR switch is IN. 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, the tape heads, etc., the Citation I 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. This control may be set anywhere within its range to attain system balance. It does not necessarily have to be set in the exact vertical position. When 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 left, the sound will move to the left. Mode Switch: The MODE switch selects between stereo operation, where a stereo program source is available, and mono- phonic operation utilizing the full power of both channels and both speakers when the program source is monophonic only. This switch has'five positions. STEREO is the normal position for all stereo use of the system. BLEND is a second stereo position, which permits inclusion of the BLEND control in two-channel systems to eliminate "hole in the middle" effect. 6