Harman-Kardon AVR 260 - Manual (Page 22)

22
SYSTEM CONFIgURATION
manual Setup
The AVR 260 is flexibly designed to be used with almost any loudspeakers
available. The flexibility arises from the AVR 260’s capability to be configured
to match the characteristics of your particular speakers, and to compensate
for the acoustic characteristics of your room.
EzSet/EQ automatically detects the capabilities of each speaker, and
optimizes the AVR 260’s performance in your system. However, if forsome
reason you are unable to run EzSet/EQ, e.g., you have misplaced the
microphone, or if you wish to make further adjustments to the settings made
by EzSet/EQ, you may use the Manual Setup on-screen menus as described in
this section.
Before beginning manual setup place your loudspeakers in their correct
locations within the room (see Speaker Placement section), and connect
them to the AVR. You will need the specifications for each of your speakers,
which may usually be found in the owner’s guide for the speakers or on the
manufacturer’s Web site. If necessary, contact the manufacturer to obtain the
frequency range specification. Although the output-level setting portion of
manual setup may be performed “by ear,” we recommend that you purchase
an SPL (sound-pressure level) meter at a local electronics store.
We suggest that you record your configuration settings in the appropriate
places in Tables A3 through A7 in the appendix in case you need to reenter
them after a system reset, or if the AVR’s Master Power Switch is turned off or
the unit is unplugged for more than four weeks.
Step one – Determine Speaker crossover
Without using EzSet/EQ, the AVR 260 can’t detect how many speakers you’ve
connected to it; nor can it determine their capabilities. For this part of the
system setup consult the speaker’s technical specifications.
Locate the frequency response, which is usually given as a range, e.g.,100Hz
– 20kHz (±3dB). This specification tells you whether the speaker is able to
play sounds that are very high- or low-pitched, represented by the high and
low frequencies. We are concerned with the lowest frequency that each of
your main speakers is capable of playing, which is 100Hz in this example. Use
the Table A5 worksheet in the appendix to note this number as the crossover
for that speaker (not the same as the crossover frequency listed in the
speaker’s specifications).
The subwoofer’s frequency response will include only the very lowest
frequencies, since the subwoofer is designed to play only bass materials.
A typical frequency response for a subwoofer is 25Hz – 150Hz. In this case,
the higher number should be noted in the worksheet.
This information is required to program the receiver’s bass management,
which determines which speakers the receiver will use to playback the low-
frequency (bass) portion of the source program.
If you send the lowest notes to small satellite speakers, you won’t hear these
notes very well, and you may even damage the speaker by exceeding its
capabilities. If you send the highest notes to the special purpose subwoofer,
you may not hear them at all.
With proper bass management, the AVR 260 divides the source signal at a
crossover point. All information above the crossover point is played through
the satellite speaker (front left/right, center, surround left/right, or surround
back left/right), and all information below the crossover point is played
through the subwoofer. This enables each loudspeaker in your system to
perform at its best, delivering an enjoyable sound experience.
Step two – measure Speaker Distances
Ideally, all of your speakers were placed in a circle, each at the same distance
from the listening position. However, your room may not be ideal, and you
may have had to place some speakers a little further away than others. This
could affect the overall sound of the receiver, as sounds that are supposed
to arrive simultaneously from different speakers blur due to different arrival
times.
The AVR 260 has a delay adjustment that enables the receiver to compensate
for real-world speaker placements.
Before you begin making adjustments, measure the distance from each
speaker to the listening position, and note it in the Table A3 worksheet in the
appendix. Even if all of your speakers are the same distance from the listening
position, you should enter your speaker distances as described in Step Three.
Step three – manual Setup menu
Now you are ready to program these adjustments into the receiver. It’s best to
sit in the usual listening position and make the room as quiet as possible.
With the receiver and video display turned on, press the AVR Button on the
remote to display the menu system. Use the
L Button to move the cursor to
the Speaker Setup line, and press the OK Button to display the Speaker Setup
menu. See Figure 4.
If you have run EzSet/EQ, those results were saved. To tweak the EzSet/EQ
results, or to configure the AVR from scratch, select Manual Setup. The screen
shown in Figure 9 will appear.
Figure 9 – Manual Speaker Setup Menu
NOTE: All of the speaker setup submenus include the Exit and Back options
as shown at the bottom of Figure 9. To return to a previous menu without
making any changes, press Exit. To save the current settings, select the Back
option.